From my experience over the last 10 years building, maintaining and optimising websites I have seen lots of different websites, so here is 10 reasons why Google doesn’t like your website and hot to fix them

10 Reasons why Google doesn’t like your Website

1. Google doesn’t know about your business and business website.
2. Your website is too slow
3. Your website has lots of missing pages (404’s)
4. Your pages do not target a single topic
5. No one else on the web knows about your business
6. There are errors on your website code
7. Your website is blocking Google from checking your website
8. Google cannot understand how your website flows
9. Google cannot confirm your business details
10. Your website is not secure

1. Google doesn’t know about your business and business website.

If Google doesn’t know about your website then it cannot provide it as a solution when some one searches for a problem your business resolves.

How to Fix

Setup Google search console filling out the profile, I would also recommend setting up Google analytics and linking them both together too.

2. Your website is too slow

I am sure you have heard or seen it, with mobile browsing and people getting busier people are not willing to wait longer than 5 seconds to load. How log does your website take to load?

How To Fix

Use Google page speed to test each page on your website. This will provide a score for mobile and desktop along with solutions on how to fix them.
There are other service such as GT metrix and pingdom tools which will score your speed. I often find large images have been uploaded and the website has to load the 4mb file then scale it down to a 0.2mb version to display. Why not upload the 0.2mb version and use that.

3.Your website has lots of missing pages (404’s)

A 404 refers to a missing page. I am sure you have all seen this come up when searching on the web you click on a link and a 404 page comes up saying the page was not found. If you have lots of these on your site then google will question if your website actually contains the information to satisfy this search query, also the knock on affect is it would then question all the other links to your website. You whole website could suffer if you have too many 404’s

Fix 404’s

To fix your 404’s you will need to know what people are searching for on your website.

Method 1- Google Search Console. This free service provided by Google is fantastic for this. log in to your Google Search console > Click on ‘Diagnostics’ > Click on ‘Crawl Errors’ > Click on ‘Not Found’ and you will see a list of all the pages where a 404 page was displayed. Now check them and update the link on your website.

Method 2-Use a Plugin. I would not recommend installing a plugin specifically for this , but actually using the functionality built in to an already fantastic plugin – Rank math. As part of this SEO plugin there is a 404 Monitor. It will monitor your website for when your 404 page is displays and record the referring link. They have a great article with videos on how to use their plugin to record, find and fix.

Also to keep a customer engages on your site have an amusing 404 page. Here are some examples: Spotify , Adobe , Headspace and more

4. Your pages do not target a single topic

Each page or post on your website should address 1 specific need or service, but sometimes some sites try and address multiple issue on 1 page so when google reads this and places it in the search results it gets confused as to what problem it solves. If Google gets confused then the chances are they potential customers will too and end up moving back to the search results page and on to the next site… your competitor.

Stop that bounce, each page to its own

When creating your fantastic content keep it simple, to the point and on topic. An example is If you maintain Tennis courts and you describe what you do, you may have lots of services such are Moss removal, fencing, Net replacement and Macadam repair like these guys do – Court solutions South East. If you check their site they have a specific page for each service they offer.

5. No one else on the web knows about your business

If no one on the web knows about your business and neither does Google, Bing or your search engine of choice, how are they meant to show it in the results? I know that with a new website this is exactly where you start from and it is hard, but this is what SEO specialists fix.

Shout Loud and Proud

first off as in the UK 85% of searches are made using Google tell them about your business and website. they have 2 tools for this: Google My Business and previously mentioned Google search Console. Bing has Webmaster tools and so do other search engines. Once they know contact directories like Yellow pages, Yell.com. check your listings here

6. There are errors on your website

If you have errors on your website this does not look good for human eyes and for the Google Bots that check your website. these errors could be broken image, the web page not displaying correctly, website code showing.

Fix up look sharp

Exactly that fix your error and issues to get your website looking sharp. Check your website even if it is new to give you peace of mind or so your web designer can fix them. To get this report enter your details in the form below.

7. Your website is blocking Google from checking your website

If your website is blocking Google from checking your website to discover all the pages, pictures and awesome content you have created how are you going to get to that important top spot on the results page?

Check your settings

There are 2 main things to check for WordPress users. Other users only have the 1.

Part 1 check your Robots.txt file. This is a file that the search bots on the internet sent out by Google read before checking your website. If this files tells them ‘No entry’ they do not go any further. For advice on setting up your Robots.txt file Google has a great guide

Part 2 WordPress users. Within the WordPress dashboard there is a tick box which is to ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’. This is mainly ticked when developing the site and should be unticked when made live, but can be missed. This box is located under Settings > Reading page.

8. Google cannot understand your website layout

The search engines will check your website and will use the links on each page to hop to the next page and so on. If there are pages that it cannot find then they will be missed. If these are your critical pages or part of your ‘Funnel’ then they might not have links from other pages, so how can this be fixed? On many websites if you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a link to a ‘Sitemap’ page. This page will be like a directory or Phonebook of all the pages on your website.

Importance of Sitemaps

To get all of your pages discovers by the search engines, why not give them a list and location of all of your website pages and pictures. This is called a sitemap and is normally in xml format. Mine can be found here https://wdexplored.co.uk/sitemap.xml . If using WordPress then many of the SEO plugins will create this page and in the webmaster tools or Google search console you can submit this page so the bots will go here first so they know what they have to check. Once submitted check back to make sure the search engine did not have any issues reading it.

9. Google cannot confirm your business details

If Google is not sure about your website details, when a customer searches for your phone number which one is correct? I am sure your website contains your telephone number, but what if another website with a different company name has the same telephone number? which business name is correct? Or if a website shows your company name with a different phone number? Can you see the confusion. This is why why core business details need to be the same across the web. This is often referred to a N.A.P and stands for Name, Address, Phone number.

Check your business details

this might sound complicated or have you thinking how can you check the whole of the internet. Good news you don’t have to. there are some FREE tools that will make your life easier. These are: SEM rush Listing Management , MOZ Local search and Whitespark. If there are any inconsistencies you can not address them.

10. Your website is not secure

In this day and age with cyber security being in the headlines regularly and reports of companies being hacked as a business owner we need to do our bit and make sure that we do not make it easy for these hackers to get our customers information. It is so vital that Google uses this as a ranking factor and if your website is not secure it will damage where you come in the rankings. Google chrome will not show the padlock either.

Safe and Secure

The first pint to make your site secure is to get an SSL certificate ( Secure Sockets Layer). This is a protocol to make sure any information entered in to your website is secure. Information such as customer name, email address, telephone number and message from your contact page. Most web hosts include an SSL certificate as part of your plan. Contact your host if you are not sure about getting this set up. also using a service such as Why no Padlock https://www.whynopadlock.com/ to make sure everything on your webpage is secure. It will mean entering in each page but is worth the time investment.

In conclusion

So these are just 10 possible points why you are not on page 1 of Google and the list is not exhaustive. If you are unsure contact your web designer or SEO specialist ( Pick me!) to discuss. why not go armed with a report checking many of the mentioned options so you both know where to start. Enter your details in below