12 Reasons Google Hates Your Website

You have great content on your website or blog.  So why isn’t it being found by people searching on Google?  Why is your web traffic continually low?

Creating high quality, unique and relevant content is essential if you want to get your website noticed by search engines but there are other factors that also come into play.

Maybe you are making some of the following mistakes:

1. You are targeting the wrong keywords

The very essence and starting point of search engine optimisation is understanding what people are searching for online and then tailoring your website content to answer those searches. If you aren’t using the same wording as your potential customers then they won’t be able to find you in their online search.  It may be a simple case of changing one word but you need to know where you are going wrong.

2. You don’t know how to find the right keywords

Google Keyword Tool is a great starting point.  It is free and it will tell you how many people are searching for your selected keyword/phrase. It will also make recommendations for similar keywords.  Keyword research must be undertaken initially when doing your on-site SEO and then must be done on a regular basis, especially when adding new content to your website.  Take the time to do a little keyword research before adding a new page or blog post to your website.

3. You aren’t using your keywords in your content

There is no point in targeting a particular keyword for a webpage and then not using it in the content.  Your keyword must feature in your page title and page description (meta tags), along with being used in your image tags.  A H1 heading is also very beneficial when it contains your keyword.  Then write your content using your keyword occasionally along with slight variations of that keyword.  You have to strike the right balance between using the keyword enough but not using it too much so that you are keyword stuffing or considered to be spamming.  The content must read naturally to the visitor to your website.

4. You are trying to rank for too many keywords

Are you optimising a page or blog post for many keywords?  This is the wrong approach.  Choose the most relevant keyword and target the one keyword per page or blog post.  If you want to target more than one keyword then publish a new page or blog post for each keyword.  This way you will have specific content for each keyword plus you are increasing the amount of your content on your website which is always a good thing – as long as it is quality content!!

5.  Your content isn’t original

Perhaps you have an online retail website and instead of creating your product descriptions yourself you just copy it from another website.  Or perhaps you are a blogger and find interesting content elsewhere and to save time you just copy and paste the content and publish it on your own site?  Google rewards original content and will penalise a website if it contains duplicated content.  Draw inspiration from others but ensure the wording and content is your own work.

6. You aren’t interlinking between your pages

Linking between your pages and blog posts helps Google navigate your site. Plus it helps keep visitors on your site longer. Use hyper-linking of certain keywords (anchor text) to navigate the user to another page or post on your website that is relevant.

7. You don’t update your website often enough

Google loves fresh and new content.  You want to encourage Google to come and crawl your website often.  So ensure you always have current information on your website.  Whether this means changing your content around slightly or the best way to be continually adding to your website is to have a blog as part of your website.  This will count as new and updated, regular content.

8.  Your website contains broken links

Broken links are links to another page or website that doesn’t exist.  Perhaps it did exist initially but has since been removed or the URL was changed.  Google doesn’t like links that lead no where so ensure that these are kept up to date at all times and check them on a regular basis.

9. Your URL’s aren’t search engine friendly

Include your keyword in the URL of your web page.  Some website structure will generate a URL that contains a string of numbers or something else that isn’t meaningful.  Make sure you change it to include your keyword and something that is memorable to the user.

10.  Your website loads too slowly

Your website has some fabulous images that look great but unfortunately they take a while to load.  This will harm your search engine standing.  Ensure your images are optimised for web use and aren’t too large.

11. Your website doesn’t have a sitemap

A sitemap is a page that has all the links and pages of your site listed. Sitemaps make it easy for Google to index every page of your website, which in turn helps Google find every page of your website to add to their index and therefore appear in search results.  You then need to submit your sitemap to Google via Google Webmaster Tools.  If you use WordPress, there is a simple plugin you can use that will create this file for you.

12. You don’t have a social media presence

Social proof is becoming more and more relevant in search engine rankings.  If you have a strong following on social media platforms then Google will take this as a good sign that your content is relevant and valuable to your target market.  A strong following doesn’t necessarily mean numbers either – it means engagement and sharing of your content.  Also ensure your website content is being shared amongst the social media platforms both by yourself and by your followers.  Help your followers share your content by also including share buttons on your website.