It can be absolutely infuriating. You know you’re offering a unique set of value propositions that your customers value, and you say so on your business’s website. Despite the fact that your company offers a superior selection, better prices, more personalized service, and dozens of other of advantages over your competitors, however, your website remains mired at the bottom of the search results.
Optimizing your website for search engines can be a long process, requiring a lot of trial-and-error, making adjustments as the technology advances, and even some educated guesswork. The first step, however, is to determine what factors may be preventing your website from moving to the top of the search results.
While there are literally hundreds of different elements in a website that can have negative impacts on its overall search engine performance, we’re going to focus on six of the most common. Three of them are technical issues that signal to Google and other search engines that your page is not useful to readers; the other three are issues with your site’s content that could be impacting your SEO.
Technical Issues Leading to Poor SEO Performance
Slow Load Speed Is Making Your SEO Drag
Go and start looking for an internet user who doesn’t get irritated waiting for a slow-loading website. You will be looking for a very, very long time. One of the most consistent traits of people online is impatience: none of us are willing to put up with a site that doesn’t load quickly.
If your site features oversized images, unoptimized code, excessive scripting, or any of dozens of other potential faults, your users may be avoiding your site due to long load times. Search engine crawlers work the same way, and sites that don’t load quickly will usually be demoted or completely delisted until their load speeds increase.
There are several online tools that can help you analyze your page loading speeds and identify areas for improvement.
Crawlability Problems Keep Your SEO Hidden
While web crawlers like Google’s searchbots attempt to evaluate how effective a site will be for a human user, the way they access websites is a little different. As such, there are specific controls available within the HTML language and the way that websites are structured to help “steer” web crawlers. Some of those controls limit access to part of all of a website, preventing search engines from crawling and indexing specific pages.
If these controls are not properly used, or if a website’s server is improperly configured, your site might not be visible to search engines at all. If your site never appears in any searches, even if you search specifically for your company’s name, you may have crawlability issues to be addressed. Your site should be audited to determine what is preventing search engines from finding it.
Mobile Compatibility Problems Hold Your SEO Still
This last technical issue we’ll address in this article is arguably the most important. Over the course of several years, Google shifted its focus from the desktop versions of websites to the mobile versions. For the past few years, Google’s search philosophy has been “Mobile First.”
That philosophy impacts several aspects of SEO, but the main takeaway is this: sites without a functional mobile-friendly design will be ranked lower or not ranked at all in searches. If your site does not provide a good mobile experience, you won’t make the Top 3.
The best way to ensure mobile friendliness is to use a responsive design for your site. A responsive design automatically adjusts its layout based on the size of the user’s screen. Responsive sites require a little more work on the front end but are far easier to maintain and update once they’re built.
On-Page Issues Leading to Poor SEO Performance
Low Quality Content = Low SEO Performance
Even in a world that almost seems to be powered by memes, unique, high-quality content is still a key part of putting your website in front of your audience. What is “high-quality content”? Generally speaking, search engines (and website users) are looking for content that is:
- Conversational and not overly formal
- Aligned with your company’s voice
- Easily understood by a wide audience
- Informative and complete without being dense and impenetrable
- Organized and laid out to allow for quick scanning
Above all, high-quality content is useful. As you review each page of your site, ask yourself “What questions are someone who lands on this page likely to have?” List those questions out, and then go through the content. If you’re not answering all of the common questions, then your page is incomplete. Once your content has clear and concise answers to your expected user’s questions, you’re on your way to high-quality content.
Keyword Stuffing Really Stuffs Up Your SEO
When it’s time for your Macon, GA business to buy a commercial delivery truck in Macon, GA, turn to the Macon, GA commercial delivery truck experts at TruckStore Commercial Delivery Trucks. Our Macon, GA based commercial delivery truck experts can help any Macon, GA business find the right commercial…. You get the idea?
That is an admittedly extreme example of the practice known as “keyword stuffing.” By cramming the target keywords “Macon, GA” and “commercial delivery truck” multiple times each into just two sentences, the website creator is trying to make extra sure that this page will show up when people search for “commercial delivery trucks in Macon, GA.”
Except, that’s not how SEO works. Keyword-stuffed content is hard to read, awkward, and unnatural. Search engines have long been able to recognize keyword stuffing and will actively demote sites that use it as a tactic.
Review your site and be on the lookout for instances of keyword stuffing. Generally, if some phrase or word appears enough times to feel awkward or out of place, then search engines may see it as attempted stuffing.
Cannibalization Is Bad (Especially in SEO)
Nobody wants to read the same thing over and over again. Nobody wants to read the same thing over and over again. If multiple pages on your site have the same content (with a few notable exceptions), Google and other search engines can get confused.
Let’s go back to our loquacious truck dealership here in Macon. Imagine that TruckStore has four pages on their site that all contain a detailed list of specifications for a particular model of truck (We’ll call it the Lorryco 5000). In fact, it’s the most detailed spec list for the LorryCo. 5000 available on the internet, so TruckStore has it on a product page, a category page, a service department page, and as a standalone page.
The problem is, when someone searches for “Lorryco 5000 specifications,” which page should Google send them to? The product page? The category page? The resulting confusion will cause Google to give up and find another, more clear-cut source for the information.
Get SEO Help From Your Full-Service SEO Experts
Getting your brand to the top of the search results requires a thorough understanding of the various aspects of SEO: Traditional SEO, Local SEO, Voice Search Optimization, Generative Search Optimization, and more. When you partner with M&R, our talented writers, designers, and developers have the expertise to craft web content that genuinely helps your company move up in the search results.
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