When we do something, we generally believe that we do it the best way possible. Apart from a small bunch of perfectionists out there that are always discontented with themselves, the majority of people, for example, having written an article for their blog or website would be completely satisfied with the results of their work and would start eagerly anticipate the moment when it is also apparent to others. In the virtual realm the first thing people usually wait for is a recognition from a search engine Google that must immediately see the geniality of the written text, put the website at the Top and redirect unending current of ravaging visitors that immediately buy the products, order the services or click on the banners.
That’s why our disappointment is even greater when in a week or even a month our masterpiece of an article does not come at the Top no matter how much we look for it. And we can obsessively check Google Analytics as much as we like, the one thing will always stay the same is the reality – there is no new incoming traffic.
What is the reason? In fact there can be at least 5 reasons why is your site didn’t get top of Google:
1. Your text is not optimized from the SEO point of view
As banal as it might sound, it is better to start with the basics. Search engine is just a machine that can not read between the lines and can not appreciate your subtle humor. It works according to its own strictly defined algorithms which a website text has to conform to, namely:
- Even before you start writing an article you have to know on the basis of what keyword you will optimize it. Besides, it is better to take not one, but 3-4 connected to each other keywords. You can find them with the help of a special tool Google KeywordPlanner, wordtracker.com or any other.
- Make sure that the chosen keyword is used in meta tags Title and Description, a header H1, and subheaders H2-H6. It should be also used in the first 20% of the article, and evenly distributed later in the article as it is or as synonyms and Google prompts.
- The article should not look like just one long uninterrupted text. Instead it should be divided into several paragraphs and subsections of finished thoughts structured with the help of subparagraphs, lists, bold and cursive formatting. The key should appear at least once in the highlighted or underlined areas.
- There should be pictures/illustrations in the text. By the way, the longer the text the more pictures should be used. Each one should have Alt tag using the keyword.
- There is a general belief that a text should be long in order to get to Google Top (no less than 500 words, or even better close to 1000), because in 2-3 paragraphs it is pretty difficult to cover/give a comprehensive analysis of the subject.
2. You picked a query with a very high level of competition
If you decided to write an article on the topic “how to make money online” for your recently launched blog, no matter how genial or well-optimized the written text is, unfortunately getting at Google Top is not something you can expect in the near future. You should choose keywords for your articles with average or even low frequency and competition level in order to give yourself a chance to gradually earn some authority in the eyes of search engines. Check out the websites that are sitting at the Top for the chosen key – if there are mostly powerful platforms with the audience and reputation established a long time ago, they are out of your league or weight category to start a fight against. It is useless. However, if there are small new websites just like yours on which there can not be seen much user activity, you have pretty good chances of bulging your way to the Top.
3. Your article isn’t relevant to the query
A user types into a search box a query “how to buy an elephant” and stumbles upon your article in which you say right in the first paragraph: ”An elephant is too big an animal and does not fit into a house, that’s why you’d better buy our comfortable sofa!” A disappointed user can go away not only from your website, but also from a search engine altogether, for example, switch from Google to Bing, which Google puts all the efforts to prevent. Having noticed that users fleet from your website without finishing reading all of the 1000 words of your article about sofas that are better than elephants, it will put your website as far from the Top as possible not only for the given query, but also for many others.
The same can be said about the general usability and design of a website. If users are utterly confused about how to find anything on your website or irritated by pop-up windows and low-quality pictures, they will quickly leave your website sending a negative signal to Google.
4. Your website does not have a mobile version
Nowadays only a lazy marketer does not talk about it. A search engine Google assesses websites by criteria how easy and comfortable one can view them on mobile devices. All the websites that do not satisfy the requirement are ranked abysmally low. Besides, nowadays a mobile version differs from a desktop one for a lot of queries, and, of course, a website that does not have a mobile version can not get into these search results.
5. You do not have back links from other sources
Links is yet another crucial issue of search optimization. On one hand, by buying links on link farms, forums and other questionable places, you can involuntarily get your website into Google’s filter. And your already thorny path to the Top will be blocked forever. On the other hand, if no other website links back or cites your source and there is no mention in social networks, Google will decide that nobody cares about it and will not rank it high.
What can be done? There is a lot of hard work for you to do. You have to find quality sources, preferably in the same niche or subject as your website, negotiate the link placement with them. It needs to be said that it is a costly endeavor that will hit your wallet hard, but a necessary one.
Moreover, a website needs incoming traffic and links from social media. For this purpose you have to distribute your article through your own accounts trying to receive as many reposts from other accounts as possible.
Another important stage is so called crowd-marketing, i.e. promotion efforts devoted to increasing the frequency of mentioning and citing of your website on different forums, review websites, comments, etc. Besides the citing should not be necessarily active. It is already enough if only a name of your brand or product is mentioned on forums (no hyperlinks) – this alone can increase your authority from the standpoint of search engines. But citing should be relevant e.g. it should help people in making decisions in forum discussions or comment sections.
In conclusion, you have to eliminate all of the above mentioned drawbacks so that the nasty Google stops ignoring your website and you can finally see the results worthy of your hard work. It is quite difficult to do it on your own. For this reason we are always ready to give you a helping hand. Using the form on the right you can ask us a question, why your website is still not in the Google Top, and together we can try finding the quickest and the most effective solution.
