Why Isn’t My Website Ranking in Google?
By: Hayden Jarman
You just built a brand new website, and you’re so excited to see it pop up on Google. Only when you search for it, your business doesn’t show up. This leaves you wondering, “Why isn’t my website showing up on Google?”
Well, the answer isn’t as simple as you might think. Whether you’re developing a new website or doing a full revamp of your existing site, it takes time for search engines like Google to find your new website and start showing it in search results. Google uses a complex set of algorithms and machine learning processes to help determine rankings for websites.
In this post, we’ll answer the question “Why doesn’t my website show up on Google?” by exploring some of the most common reasons.
Your Website Is Too New
Google’s algorithms are advanced, yes. But it still takes time for Google to process all the new data that comes through. It can take weeks for Google to find your site and start ranking it properly. If you’re eager to make sure Google knows your website exists, run a quick Google search for site:yourwebsite.com (For example, site:bluetonemedia.com). As long as there is one result that matches your search, Google knows about your website. Next, you just have to give the algorithm time to crawl your website, checking out all your new content, keywords, header tags, and metadata.
Google Isn’t Indexing Your Site
What if Google doesn’t show any results when you run the Google search mentioned above? Well, Google may not be storing your website data in their database. This could happen for several reasons, but more often than not, it’s probably because your site does not have a sitemap. What is a sitemap? A sitemap is a list of your website's pages that can be crawled to extract more data from your website. It is also possible that your pages are marked no index in your robots.txt file or at the page level, so your website will not be indexed on any search engines.
No Authoritative Backlinks
You’ve probably heard the term backlinks thrown around a lot while building your website, but what is a backlink, exactly? Backlinks help build credibility for your website by connecting it to other highly ranked (or authoritative) websites that appear in Google’s search engine. Backlinks point visitors to other websites to your site and help build your online authority. However, it’s possible to backlink to websites that will negatively affect your rankings. If most your backlinks are connected to low-quality pages, Google will associate your website with those lower-ranking ones.
It Looks Nice, But…
You just created this gorgeous new website, but it isn’t showing up. What gives? Unfortunately, beauty is in the beholder's eye, and Google’s algorithm has a very particular set of eyes. If your site looks pretty on the outside but is lacking search engine optimization on the backend (the portion of the site you cannot see), Google is going to rank it much lower than your stunning new site deserves. Some examples of things that can cause your SEO rankings to drop include duplicate content, insufficient content, stale content, slow load times, incomplete SEO data, lack of blogs or other interesting content, and more.
You’ve Been Penalized
We know what you’re thinking, “Why would my site be penalized after I just built it?” It’s a question we hear time and time again. First, let’s discuss the two types of penalties Google gives out. A Manual Penalty is one that is manually determined by a Google employee. These can be given for several reasons. In short, if you don’t comply with the Webmaster Guidelines, you’ll be penalized. An Algorithmic Penalty occurs when Google’s algorithm suppresses your site because of quality issues. With a manual penalty, you typically get a heads up and know why. However, algorithmic penalties are tougher to track down.
Google Released a New Algorithm Update… Again
Google has no rhyme or reason for when or how they release new algorithm updates. Most of the time, they just do it. These new algorithm updates should keep the rankings fresh and ensure that only the highest quality websites are showing up on the first page. These algorithm updates normally come with no other description besides that it has been updated, so it's hard to target when a new algorithm is affecting your rankings… and even more so when you aren’t properly maintaining your website.
BlueTone Media – SEO Ranking Experts
Need help assessing your website’s SEO situation? Search engine optimization is a big part of what we do for our clients here at BlueTone Media. Our team is eager to help, whether you just launched your website, your site’s been penalized, you name it!
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