Find Out What Is Keeping Your Website From Ranking High On Google
15 Determining Factors For Why You Are Not Ranking Continued…
9. Obtaining Low-Quality Links
Even if you do everything else right, your site may not rank well if you don’t have the right types of incoming links. Having a bunch of low-quality links pointing at your site can actually do more harm than good. On the other hand, highly-relevant links from trusted resources can give your site a much-needed boost.
Keep in mind, however, that the quality of the links that you get really depends on the content of your site. For instance, if you run a location-specific business, links coming in from other businesses in your area would generally be seen as high-quality links since they are relevant to your business and the area that it serves.
10. Building Links Too Quickly
Adding too many links to your site too quickly can raise a red flag for the search engines – especially if you are just launching a new website. In fact, you may notice a decrease in your current ranking if you suddenly add a bunch of links. The good news is, if Google evaluates those links and finds that they are coming from high-quality properties, your site will eventually regain its position.
During the time when your website position drops, Google is evaluating the quality of the links coming into your site while at the same time looking for any unnatural linking patterns. As long as the links are relevant and don’t raise any red flags, your site should regain its original spot in the search results.
That doesn’t mean that you should go too slowly when building links, either. You need to find a balance where you are adding enough links to boost your site’s ranking without adding so many that you make your site look suspicious to Google.
11. Using Anchor Text Incorrectly
If you go overboard when optimizing the anchor text for your incoming links, it can actually wind up harming your rankings. This is one area where it pays to be conservative with your optimization efforts.
Try to avoid using exact-match keywords when creating anchor text, no matter how competitive the keywords are. When you use very specific keywords to link to your site, it acts as a warning to Google, showing them that you are out actively recruiting links rather than allowing them to occur naturally. As a result, they are far more likely to view your incoming links with skepticism, which can keep them from giving your site a boost in the search results.
Ultimately, your goal should be to keep your incoming link profile as natural looking as possible. Avoid using the same anchor text to link to your site over and over.
12. Your Website Is Too New
For years, people have been debating whether or not news sites get stuck in the Google “sandbox”. In essence, what people are referring to when they talk about the sandbox is that the site doesn’t show up in searches for the first 3 to 6 months that it is active. If you add too many links to your site during this period, you could wind up seeing a drop in your rankings.
Right after you launch a site, it is best to focus your efforts on building the site up and making your content as relevant as possible. These actions can help get your site out of the sandbox more quickly. They also carry less risk than adding incoming links.
13. Inconsistent Contact Information
For local businesses, it is extremely important to make sure that your name, address, and phone number are consistent everywhere that they are published online. Any discrepancies could call the legitimacy of your business into question. Double check to make sure that your information is completely accurate everywhere that it appears to avoid having it negatively impact your website’s ranking.
14. A Lack Of Reviews
Although the jury is still out on whether or not reviews can impact your website’s ranking, there are signs that businesses that don’t have a lot of reviews or that have bad reviews generally rank lower than those that have a lot of positive reviews. Ultimately, what that means is that you should do your best to avoid acting in a way that results in negative reviews. At the same time, you should also try to get as many positive reviews as possible.
15. Not Enough People Are Clicking On Your Listing In The Search Results
If the click-through rate on your listing in the search results doesn’t get a lot of clicks, it could negatively affect your website’s ranking. Once your site starts ranking for specific keywords, the search engines will monitor how well it performs compared to other websites that are listed near it in the search results.
If your site is underperforming in terms of its click-through rate, it could cause it to drop in the search results – especially if people don’t click on your site after searching specifically for your brand.
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