Everyone that creates content online wants that content to rank highly on search engines so that it’s easy to find. That’s why mastering SEO is essential if you’re going to put content out there.
We understand that it can be frustrating to see the same ranking after putting in hours of work researching keywords and trends before creating your content. You may have gone the extra mile to optimise high traffic pages to really maximise your chances of being spotted but to no avail.
What do you do when you’ve tried every trick in the book (that you know about) without getting results?
This is obviously a very frustrating experience and one that no entrepreneur wants to go through. But, getting a favourable ranking in search engines isn’t as easy as it once was.
The good news is you can still salvage the situation and the content you created.
In this article, we’re going to discuss some of the main reasons why your content might not be ranking.
Unappealing Article Topics
Some of the main factors that search engine algorithms look at when ranking a page are page speed and your link profile range.
However, these factors pale in comparison to the actual content of your writing.
That’s why it’s important to ask yourself a few critical questions about each piece of content you put out there, such as:
- Does your content answer relevant questions that you came across in your research? Google Analytics and the SEMRush tool are great places to find relevant topics.
- Is your content useful and relevant to your audience?
All of these questions are central to how relevant your content is. Ideally, the stuff you put out there should offer the full gamut of features that search engines are looking for. It should be original, relevant and authoritative.
Search engine algorithms are quite smart and they’re not looking for anything that’s irrelevant or worse – plagiarised! That’s why it’s not a good idea to think too much about Google SERPs.
Instead, do your research and come up with unique ideas. Even if what you’re writing about isn’t new, infusing your own style into it can completely revolutionise the way someone else reads it. Make sure the content you write is something that you yourself would read.
The great thing about writing content nowadays is that it can be as long as you like. So long as it’s also reliable, original and smart. Taken together, these features will go a long way in helping you reach the top of the search engine pages.
Bad Keyword Research
The thing with keywords is that it can often lead to an overabundance of subtopics.
So, then the question becomes; how can you insert keywords into your content without making it look obvious?
The first thing to do is to make sure you’re doing the right type of keyword research. Look out for high search volume “buying” keywords in particular as a start because it can lead your to the sub-niche.
It’s recommended to use long-tail keywords because they’re more specific, which makes them ideal for targeting specific consumers or readers. For instance, “men’s canvas leather jacket” will perform better than “leather jackets.”
The first one is a long-tail keyword that’ll get you more conversions because it’s specific and it addresses a customer that’s already at the latter stages of the buying process.
If someone’s using that term then they already know what they’re looking for and they’re ready to make the purchase.
You can easily find long-tail keywords for your business by looking through the predictive text supplied by search engines when you search for terms that are relevant to your business.
Doing regular keyword research can go a long way in helping you keep your content fresh and well optimised.
Old Content
When it comes to content, you want to keep things as fresh as possible. This means using relevant keywords and content topics all the time.
Keep in mind that trends are always changing and topics that people are looking for today may not be the same as the ones they search for tomorrow.
The best way to build authority as a reliable and relevant source is to keep publishing fresh content. Search engines prioritise relevant, optimised and recent content especially if your niche deals with recency such as trending products.
That’s why it’s always a good idea to edit and tweak your content every few months to make sure that it stays relevant.
You may need to update the keywords used and if that’s the case, then SEMRush’s topic research tool is a great place to start.
Weak Link Profile
Inbound links are incredibly important to any website. In fact, without them, it’s quite hard for a website to rank highly on search engines, especially in a highly competitive niche. This makes sense when you look at the situation from the perspective of a major search engine like Google.
Google can’t just rank your website highly because you post new content regularly and include fresh keywords. If this isn’t complemented by inbound links then all of that is essentially useless.
From Google’s perspective, you’re basically doing something that’s keeping other websites from linking to you, thus leading to low rankings.
Now, as for general users, it’s much easier for someone to trust a website that they come across from another blog or site, than one with no link juice at all.
Conclusion
In addition to the factors featured in this article, you must also consider a few technical aspects of SEO marketing and how they affect your website rankings.
Additional factors that might be chasing people away from your site include a faulty XML sitemap, slow page-load time and slow mobile speed. Of course, these points aren’t the only factors required to achieve high SEO rankings.
As you saw in this article, it takes a combination of factors to keep your website at the top of the search engine rankings. This includes maintaining up to date content and backlinks, webpages, and keywords. You can check out our previous article as well about the top 5 content optimisation methods.
