Why Is My Website Not Showing Up In Search Results?
For an eCommerce company, there is nothing better than seeing your website showing up on the first search engine results page (SERP). It proves that you have better leads than your competitor and more opportunities for conversions.
Unfortunately, not all business websites can do that.
Have you ever searched your site using a non-branded search query and wondered why it isn’t showing up? Here are some top reasons why your website fails to appear in the top list of the SERPs.
#1. Your Web Delivers A Poor User Experience
Attracting your target market to your website is difficult, but keeping them hanging on your site longer is even more challenging. Visitors will quickly leave the site when they cannot get the information they need or find it inconvenient to navigate through the site. This indicates your site has a poor user experience.
This problem is partly related to the website’s bad design and structure.
Just as visitors find it hard to navigate your site, search engines also find it difficult to crawl content on those sites. A good user experience is important to make the search engines understand your website and your content better, allowing them to rank your search queries. In other words, search engines will exclude your site if it fails to bring value to visitors.
To improve the user experience of your site, you need to research the preferences of your audience. Specifically, some prefer a website with a minimalist design, while others want a vibrant, eye-catching appearance. Your site structure should be simple so that customers can navigate between sites, acquire information, and make their orders easily.
These solutions can help reduce bounce rate – the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing one page. A good user experience also conveys your brand identity, which means the target market will be more willing to trust you and what you offer.
#2. Your Web Is Not Indexed Properly (Or Not Indexed At All)
Indexing websites is essential for search engines like Google to crawl the websites. Websites that are not being crawled do not appear on SERPs.
If your site is new, Google will take some time to test and verify it. For older pages, the problems such as the “no-index” tag or “robot.txt” file prevent search engines from indexing your site.
To solve these problems, you can use some free online tools to check your website index status. You can manually submit your sitemap.xml file to Google Search Console (GSC) so that it can crawl and index your site.
#3. Your Site Is Penalized And Removed From Search
Search engines have some must-to-follow guidelines. Failure to adhere to those principles might cause you some punishment. For example, Google may remove a website for the following reasons:
a. Deindexed (Index removed): Some violations might cause permanent removal of your domain from search results.
b. Penalized (Fined): Your web still exists, but you cannot directly search it. This might happen due to a new algorithm update, or the Google Quality Engineer applied that manually.
c. Sandboxed (Sandbox phenomenon): Your website suddenly drops traffic. In this situation, you need to redesign your website and follow the instructions strictly. You can check GSC for the penalties applied to your site and find the appropriate solutions for the problems.
#4. Your Website Is Not Optimized For SEO
Your website must be optimized to appear in search results. Search engine optimization (SEO) plays an important role in the visibility and ranking of a website.
Here are some ways to increase your website’s SEO:
- Improve on-page SEO by optimizing metadata, content, and URLs with targeted keywordsCreate backlinks related to your website as an off-page SEO strategy
- Simplify the website structure for better user experience
It is not easy to manage an SEO campaign. Hence, many companies decide to cooperate with Digital Marketing agencies to get professional support in these areas. These firms will try to improve your website performance on search engines by a campaign targeting your business needs.
#5. Poor Web Content
Besides providing your target market with a useful and interesting website, don’t forget to deliver high-quality content. Although optimizing your content with targeted keywords is very important, you should also ensure your content gives completed answers to search queries and questions. Search engines such as Google will check whether or not your website content relates to what users are searching for.
When creating website content, make sure it is fresh, updated, and descriptive. You can exploit the latest trends in the market or understand what your customers are searching for and provide them with the information they need. In terms of writing style, it would be best to have clear and concise content that your target customers (and search engines) can easily understand.
#6. Your Keyword Is Too Broad Or Highly Competitive
Only using short keywords on your website will not help your SEO. You should also consider more descriptive long keywords for narrowing search intent. For example, instead of using “comfortable clothes,” you can have “comfortable summer clothes for women”.
As short keywords are too competitive, only relying on them is not a good idea. Other companies may already have a rank for these keywords, and it isn’t easy to compete for a higher rank in the search space. Using long keywords, especially for a new site, can increase the conversions from customers searching for the exact product they need (i.e., women’s summer clothing; hotel rooms with water heaters and free breakfast, etc.).
You can have many keyword research tools, including Google’s Keyword Planner or Keyword Tool, for narrowing down the relevant phrases to include to your site.
Verdict
One of the goals of a digital marketing campaign is to get the target market to notice and visit your website. This will be impossible if your site is not showing up in search results.
This is a common issue of both old and new sites. When facing this problem, you should always check your site status and other related settings. Do not hesitate to seek professional help if you cannot find a solution on your own.