5 Website Issues That Can Hurt Your Google Ranking
Updated: Mar 24, 2023
Google Ranking is the position of a website or webpage on Google's Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) when a user searches for something.
The higher a website or webpage appears on the SERPs, the more likely it is to attract visitors.
Google ranks websites and webpages based on various factors such as the quality and relevance of the content, website's overall authority and user experience.
The goal of Google's ranking system is to provide the most useful and accurate results to the user.
Higher the ranking = more traffic
Fixing common website issues can greatly increase your chances of appearing higher in the Google ranking.
So in this article, we are going to look at the top 5 issues hurting your google ranking which are related to the SEO of your website.
The top 5 issues that may be hurting your Google Ranking
We'll go through each issue in detail to help you better understand how to address them and get them fixed right away.
1) SITE SPEED
Everyone loves fast websites
you,
me,
and even Google!
Let's figure out how to improve site speed.
FIND OUT HOW FAST YOUR SITE IS LOADING
Before you can work on site speed you first need to know what you are working with.
There are free tools to check the speed of your site.
You can find those tools in the how to speed up your website article where I break it down for you how to improve site speed.
SPEED UP YOUR SITE BY OPTIMIZING YOUR IMAGES
Images can significantly affect your website's loading speed.
If your website has a lot of images or graphics, it may take longer to load, which can make the user experience bad.
Large image files can take longer to download, which makes loading times longer. The wrong image format can also slow down loading.
Before uploading images to your website, you need to optimize them to reduce their size and make sure they load faster.
My personal favorite option is converting an image to Webp.
WebP images are made to give you high-quality pictures that are much smaller than JPEG or PNG images.
This makes files smaller, which helps pages load faster and gives users a better experience.
You can check out this free image converter website to try it out for yourself.
2) Broken Links
Imagine that you told a friend about where to find the best sushi in town, you haven't been there in awhile but you remember how good it was so you give them directions to the restaurant and long and behold it is no longer there.
They are sitting in the parking lot, wanting that best-in-town sushi, but instead looking at a pizza joint.
Frustrating huh,
When there are broken links on your site, this is what happens to people who go to your site or Google.
Broken links make it hard for visitors and search engines to find the content they want.
Which is bad for the health of your website.
Google needs to crawl your pages. Follow links to find new content to put on its search engine results page.
But if there are broken links, it can't find that content, which means you missed a chance.
Also, too many broken links tell Google that your website isn't a good place to visit, which can hurt your rankings.
Check out dead link checker for free.
3) Not Customizing Titles & Meta Descriptions
A title and meta description are important pieces of information that tell people and search engines what your page is about.
TITLE
The title is the main heading at the top of your page.
A good title is short, says what the page is about, and has relevant keywords that help search engines figure out what the page is about.
META DESCRIPTION
A meta description is a short summary that shows up in search engine results under the title.
A good meta description should be short, tell people what your link is about, and make them want to click on it.
Together, the title and meta description are two of the most important parts of a website that help bring people to it and move it up in the Google search rankings.
4) Low Word Count On Website Pages
Pages like your contact page may have a low word count, but for most pages, a higher word count can give Google more context and information about what your content is about.
This is why you often see "Ultimate Guides" and other long pieces of content.
The writers want to show Google that they are covering a topic in depth and giving useful information that goes beyond just the basics.
Writing more in-depth content can help you rank for more relevant keywords and show that you are an authority in your field.
Google is always looking for pages that best match a user's search intent. If you have a piece of content that is more detailed and informative, it can help you rank for related keywords.
But it's important to keep in mind that just having a lot of words isn't enough. The content still needs to be useful, well-written, and give the reader something of value.
In the end, making content that is both informative and complete can help your website rank higher in search engines and bring in more visitors.
1200 words is a good goal to aim for a blog post if you can go higher even better!
5) More Than one H1 Heading
I know, I know, what the heck is a H1 heading?
A H1 heading is a big, bold title at the top of a webpage that tells visitors and search engines what the page is about.
It's often the first thing that people see when they land on a page,
Think of it as the headline of a newspaper article - it's meant to grab your attention and give you an idea of what the article is about.
Using a H1 heading helps search engines understand the main topic of your page, which can improve your rankings for related search queries.
So, if you want your webpage to be easily understood and well-ranked, it's important to have a clear and relevant H1 heading that accurately reflects the content of your page.
When you have more than one H1 heading on a page, it can be confusing.
The H1 heading is typically used to signal the most important heading on the page.
Make it harder for search engines to figure out what the page is about and why it is relevant to certain search queries.
Therefore, it's generally recommended to use only one H1 heading per page, and use other heading tags (like H2, H3, etc.) to structure the content and hierarchy of information.
This can help ensure that the page's main topic is clear and well-understood by both users and search engines, which can ultimately improve your rankings and user experience.
Why It's Important to Keep Your Website in Good Health?
Keeping your website in good health is important for many reasons.
If your website is not optimized properly, it will end up buried on the tenth page of Google search results, where it will remain undiscovered by everyone except for your mom and your best friend.
A poorly optimized website can be as unappetizing as an overcooked brussels sprout. Your visitors will leave immediately, leading to lower conversion rates.
You want to make it as easy as possible for Google to crawl, index, and rank your website.
Benefits of a Website Health Check
It helps identify and fix any technical issues that might be hindering your website's ranking on search engines.
Imagine your website is a car, and the health of your website is the fuel that powers it. If your car is running low on fuel, it won't go very far, and the same goes for your website.
An website health check can help improve the user experience of your website. This will encourage visitors to stick around, and perhaps even come back for more, like a bee to honey.
Lastly, a thorough website check can uncover opportunities for growth, such as keywords or phrases that your competitors are using, but you're not.
So, don't let your website be the equivalent of a house with no foundation.
Invest in a website health check, and watch how your site starts ranking on Google.
If you want to learn about SEO, then check out this article where I make it simple for you to understand.
Quick Overview
How to Improve your sites ranking in Google
Speed up your site Make sure your images are all properly optimized
Fix any broken links Find your broken links
Customize your titles & meta descriptions Do your own keyword research and then use your keywords in both your titles and meta descriptions
Boost your word count Add more information to your pages and posts to improve your ranking
Only use 1 H1 heading per page & post Too many H1s confuses Google as they don’t know what’s most important about your post
What Next
If you need help implementing your marketing plan then let us know!
You can get this FREE Google My Business Listing Checklist to get started on getting your business showing up in search.
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