It wasn’t till about year 3 of my online journey that I discovered the secret to SEO, how to get your blogs to rank in Google, and more importantly, why blogs don’t rank at all.
In today’s blog, I will be sharing with you my experiences with blogging, explaining the reasons why blogs don’t rank in Google, and how you can turn this around to having multiple page-one ranking blogs.
7 Reasons Why Blogs Don't Rank On Google Search
Through the Google search console tool, we can find and see relevant information on blogs we have written and published on our website.
Information regarding whether a blog is indexed in Google or not, and some of the possible reasons why.
This is a great tool for identifying positives and negatives in blog and website content.
Reasons Blogs Don’t Rank On Google Search Console
- Excluded by “no index” tag.
- The page has been redirected.
- Alternative page with the proper canonical tag.
- Blocked due to unauthorized request.
- Crawled, currently not indexed.
- Discovered currently not indexed
- 404 error ( Page not found )
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Excluded by “no index” tag:
When a web page contains a “no-index” meta tag in its HTML code, it instructs search engine crawlers not to index that particular page. This could be intentional, such as for private or duplicate content, or it could be unintentional due to misconfiguration. -
The page has been redirected: This indicates that the requested page has been redirected to a different URL. This could happen for various reasons, such as content consolidation, website restructuring, or fixing broken links. The user is automatically forwarded to the new location of the content.
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Alternative page with proper canonical tag: A canonical tag is an HTML element used to specify the preferred version of a web page when multiple versions of similar content exist. This situation suggests that although the requested page isn’t indexed, there is another page available with similar content, and it has been properly tagged as the canonical version.
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Blocked due to unauthorized request: This indicates that access to the requested page has been intentionally restricted due to unauthorized or prohibited actions. It could be due to security measures, access permissions, or legal restrictions placed on the content.
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Crawled, currently not indexed: This means that the search engine crawler has visited the page and analyzed its content, but for some reason, the page has not been added to the search engine’s index. This could be due to various factors, such as low quality, low relevance, or technical issues. This is normally the main issue when your blogs don’t rank.
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Discovered currently not indexed: Similar to the previous point, this indicates that the page has been discovered by the search engine crawler but has not yet been added to the search index. The reasons for exclusion could include quality issues, relevancy concerns, or temporary indexing delays.
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404 error (Page not found): A 404 error occurs when the requested page cannot be found on the server. This could happen due to a broken link, a mistyped URL, or the removal of the page. It indicates that the content the user is trying to access is currently unavailable.
Why Blogs Need To Offer Helpful Content
If people are looking for answers to any query, Google wants to supply them with the best information it can, and fast.
It does this by indexing blogs and ranking them in order of relevancy.
Factors that can determine ranking ability include:
- Domain authority score.
- Backlinks count.
- Size of website.
- Layout of your blogs (SEO)
- How many affiliate links do you have
- If you have the correct legal pages or affiliate disclosures.
- Niche competition
- Website speed and load times.
If a blog is helpful, easy to read, and of good length, there is no reason your blog will not get indexed, as long as there are no other website faults.
If it gets indexed but is not ranking, then you need to work on your blog structure, quality of information, and blog length.
Hint: Type into Google search the keyword you are targeting in your blog. This will bring up your competition. View a few websites and blogs to compare how long the blogs are, the headings they are using, and what information they are including in the article or webpage.
For best practice, I have 11 must-do’s to get my blogs ranked on Google. Be sure to read if you need help with blog rankings.
Understanding Why Your Blogs Don't Rank
If we understand why blogs don’t rank as well as why, we know exactly what to do, and what not to do.
This is crucial in getting our blogs to rank in search engines. Many think Google marks blogs with negative points if they don’t rank, but this is not true at all.
If your blog does not rank, it does not receive bad points, or x’s next to its address in the Google index, it just means it didn’t score high enough to be considered helpful content, or the better helpful content.
I also know on the odd occasion, if a blog is ranking #1, Page 1, and has been for a long time, people are still clicking and finding this top content, Google has no reason to swap this for another later up-to-date blog post.
100% of your blogs don’t rank on page 1, this is just how it is!
What To Do If Your Blogs Don't Rank
If your blogs don’t rank within the first 4 weeks, I would go back into these blogs and try to make them better.
I know first hand, going over and reading blogs back a few weeks later can make you realize exactly what you have missed out, what you didn’t need to have in there, and how you can make it better.
You may want to remove affiliated links if you have many on each post, as well as add internal links in support of other website information.
If your blogs don’t rank on Google, they are not working for you.
You need to get your blog’s ranking!
How To Get Your Blogs Ranking
Follow this guide to help increase your blog’s chances of ranking in Google.
- Start with keyword research so you know which keyword you are targeting.
- Make sure the keyword you are targeting is not over-competitive. I use Jaaxy for this.
- Be sure to complete or check all 11 points mentioned in this blog.
- Blogs need to be around 1000 words
- Do not over-saturate with external affiliate links.
- Make sure the content is relevant and HELPFUL!
