Why Your Website Still Isn’t Showing Up Even If You’ve Done SEO

Have you been trying to get more traffic to your website for a while now? Are you frustrated because it doesn’t seem to be working? Maybe you’ve written blog posts that you hoped your ideal customer would like. Maybe you’ve researched keywords you thought your ideal customer would use. You’ve done everything you’ve heard is important for SEO, but you’re not seeing results, and you’re left wondering why your website still isn’t showing up on Google (or getting traffic) when you’re doing SEO.

You’re not alone. Many people who try to learn SEO on their own end up in this same spot. They read blog posts, listen to podcasts, maybe even attend a webinar or two, and try to piece it all together. They spend time and energy trying to learn how to do SEO on their websites so they can start getting more traffic, but nothing seems to work, and they end up wondering if SEO just doesn’t work for them or their niche.  

There are different reasons that websites don’t show up on Google, even when you’ve done SEO. Now, we’re not talking about a site that’s not indexed at all, meaning it’s not in Google’s index at all. We’re talking about websites that seem to have SEO done on them that don’t rank high in the search results. These websites may not show up until page 2, 5, or 10. They’re not getting traffic to all of the blog posts because no one is finding them on Google or in AI search.

I want to cover the three most common mistakes to help you. If you are making one (or more) of these mistakes, then you’ll be able to adjust your strategy, and you should start to get more results for your efforts. And that’s definitely the key. You want to be rewarded for the time and effort you put into doing SEO on your website.

Mistake #1: You’re Targeting the Wrong Keywords

This is one of the most common SEO mistakes I see people make when trying to do SEO on their own. They’re either choosing keywords that are too competitive for their website to rank for or choosing keywords no one searches for. Either way, you’re doing work but not getting traffic because either you’re ranking on page 10 for a keyword that’s super competitive, or you’re ranking at the top of the page for a keyword no one is searching for. Either way, you’re doing work, but you’re not getting traffic to your website, and that’s frustrating.

Another mistake I see with keywords is not considering customer intent when choosing a keyword. You choose one and use it, and you might even get traffic, but the people who come to your site don’t stay long because what they’re looking for or expecting to find isn’t what your website has.  

A Real-Life Student Example:

This happened to one of my students before she joined me in Simple SEO Content. She’d been working on SEO on her own and trying to do it on her site. She’d had some success and was getting traffic to her site, but what confused her was that while her traffic was up, her leads weren’t. When we looked at the data, we saw that her issue was that she was ranking for keywords that weren’t super relevant to her business. Yes, they were helpful for her ideal customer, but they didn’t tie to her business. Once we figured out what was going on and adjusted her keyword strategy, she started ranking for more relevant keywords and now has several thousand visits a month to her website that are from people who are interested in her products and services.

Mistake #2: You’re Creating Content but It’s Not “Good Enough”

If you’re creating content, there’s a good chance it is showing up on Google. However, it’s probably not on page 1. It might be on 5 or 10, and because of that, it’s not getting any traffic.

If you’re blogging regularly but you aren’t getting more traffic to your website, then you need to look very honestly at the quality of the content you’re creating. If you’re using AI tools to write your blog posts for you (without you being closely involved in the process and editing to make sure it’s in your voice), you likely aren’t ranking on page 1 in Google’s search results.

You have to show up on page 1 to get traffic. Over 90% of clicks go to the websites on page 1 in Google. Almost no one goes to page 2 or beyond. Showing up on page 2 doesn’t count.

If your blog posts are generic or short, you’re probably not getting a lot of traction from them, and until you improve them, things won’t change.

How do you set Your Content Apart From the Rest?

Google grades all website content in four areas: E-E-A-T, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. Google uses these factors to grade your content and determine which pieces are the best and should rank highest in the search results. Google wants to be sure the best content is in the search results so that people continue to use Google for website browsing.

How to show E-E-A-T on your website:

• Experience: Share stories and results from your own journey or your clients.
• Expertise: Be specific. Give examples, explain the why behind your advice, or add step-by-step instructions.
• Authority: Building an online digital reputation will help with this; guesting on podcasts, being quoted in articles, etc., helps to build your authority
• Trust: Use testimonials, accurate info, and keep your site up to date.

Mistake #3: Your Site Isn’t Easy for Google or AI to Understand

If you want your website to rank high on Google or in AI search, you have to make the information on it easy to find, crawl (read), and index (remember). When you do SEO on a website and use the right keyword in the right spots, you do this.

How to Help Your Website Rank Higher on Google

Choose a keyword you have a good chance of ranking for and use it in all the places Google will look for information on your page. Each time you use the same keyword, Google sends another signal that your page is about that keyword. If you’re not sure where to use your keywords, request a copy of the Beginner’s Guide to SEO, which will walk you through what you need to do.

Add internal links to your content. This simply means that if you have another blog post or more information on your website that would be helpful to the reader, you include a link to it.

What to Do to Help Your Website Rank Higher

Go to Google and search for the keywords you’ve used in your SEO work and see who’s ranking on page 1. Get a feel for the sites, how similar are they to yours? Are they big brands, or are they small like you? As small business owners, our websites are not going to rank in super competitive keyword searches, so you want to be careful which keywords you’re using. Be sure you’re choosing ones you have a good chance of ranking for, not ones that are super competitive.

Next, take a look at the content on the pages that are ranking higher than yours. How does your content compare to theirs? Don’t just determine that your website is better than theirs because it’s yours, but look at it very objectively.

Finally, make sure you’re following SEO best practices on each blog post or website page that you create. Get a copy of my free Beginner’s Guide to SEO or take the free class to learn more. If you’re ready to get started on this for your website, join me in Simple SEO Content, and I’ll walk you through the process and help you figure out what’s not working and how to make things work better for you.