If your website is not showing on Google, one of the following reasons applies to you. Firstly, your website is unoptimised and Google is unable to crawl it or unsure where to index it. Secondly, black hat techniques were used on your site and Google has penalised it. Either reason, this post sheds some light on what you need to do to get your website showing on Google.
8 Answers for “Why is my website not showing on Google?”
Your website has very few quality backlinks
In most cases, the main answer to “Why is my website not showing on Google?” is very few quality backlinks. These are links from other websites in the form of text and images to your website, which act as a “vote of confidence”. Backlinks (also known as off-page SEO) account for approximately 28% of Google’s decision to index (show) your website. Without backlinks, your website has a 0% chance of showing on Google.
If, however, you’ve gained backlinks, but the quality of them is low, then Google has either:
- disregarded them or
- only a tiny portion of Domain Authority (DA) is passed to your website.
In the former case, you’ll need to gain backlinks from relevant websites with a high DA, at least 500+ Referring Domains (RD), and a low Spam Score (SS). You can try contacting bloggers directly, gain these 7 Local SEO backlinks or use a link building service instead.
In the latter case, I advise the above options. However, if you continue to gain low-quality backlinks, you’ll need many more of them, and not all of them will have a positive impact.
Web pages are structured incorrectly with poor quality content
Your web pages should have one primary keyword and several secondary keywords that you’d like Google to show your website when a searcher types it in the search bar. The largest mistake that many small businesses make is not using their location. For example, they use “Family Photography” instead of “Family Photography London”. The keyword without the location is a national term, and let’s face it, business owners don’t have the budget for it or simply don’t work with customers from across the UK.
As the keyword isn’t right from the outset, the content is typically unoptimised for the keywords in terms of relevance and volume. Ideally, web pages have a minimum of 500 words, which accurately describe your services in your area. However, it can be difficult to explain some services in more detail than a few sentences, so adding Local SEO content can complete the page.
A web page is like a textbook (although, it shouldn’t be boring). Textbooks contain page titles, main headings, and subheadings, and so should your web pages. It’s easy to navigate with your eyes to the right section. Your page title, main headings and subheadings should concisely describe the subsequent paragraph, and contain at least one keyword. It’s important to get it right because 80% of readers only glance at headlines and these on-page SEO factors account for approximately 26% of Google’s decision to index your website.
Limited or poor interaction levels with searchers
If your website has a low Click-Through Rate and a high Bounce Rate, then it may be downranked or disappear from the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This only applies to businesses that were showing on Google and accounts for 11% of Google’s decision. In this case, you should rethink your meta title and description to encourage more clicks, and edit the keywords or content to be more relevant for the searcher.
If you have a new business, this doesn’t apply as your website isn’t showing on Google yet. However, the next answer for the question “Why is my website not showing on Google?” should be an area you focus on for now.
You don’t have a Google Business Profile or it’s unoptimised
A new business naturally struggles with interaction because they’re not ranking in the Map Pack. This is the feature that shows three businesses on a map when Google a searcher has local intent. For example, “Driving Instructor London”. Interaction refers to calls, directions and website clicks from your Google Business Profile and links to the above reason. However, it’s a separate ranking entirely. And, carries a factor weighting of 9%, so you should start optimising it if you’re not ranking in Google Maps to help Google show your website.
Limited information about your business across the web
Google uses information about your business from across the web. If you don’t have any information shared anywhere, Google won’t show your business because it can’t trust it’s genuine for its searchers. One of the easiest ways to share your business’s Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) is by creating local citations. These are listings on directories like Yell and Yelp. The average business in the top position has 85 local citations, but I’ve shared a few of the best local business directories. It’s worth taking the time to do this accurately because it accounts for approximately 8.5%.
Your website is not helping Google personalise the SERPs
Google wants to show searchers the most relevant results. An aspect of their algorithm focuses on personalisation, which includes the country of the searcher, specific locality, the searchers’ web history and device.
Some of the easiest ways to help Google personalise is by creating citations, which were mentioned above, but also include your address on the site. In addition, creating local content, as mentioned before, using English (UK) terminology rather than English (US) terminology acts as a good indication of your location compared to the searcher.
Limited or poor reputation
Your reputation online accounts for approximately six and a half per cent. New businesses with no reviews should focus on gaining reviews on their Google Business Profile as well as many of the other local directories like Yell, Yelp, and Checkatrade and Trustatrader if you operate in the trades industry.
Inactivity on social media
Social media has the lowest impact on your website. However, some websites with low DA, but highly relevant local content and great engagement on social media can rank higher than those that don’t. Sharing before and after pictures is a super-easy way to engage your followers.
Summary
To help Google show your website, gain quality backlinks, create locally relevant content, claim and optimise your Google Business Profile, list your business on directories, and gain reviews from as many customers as possible on review platforms.