Why isn’t my website ranking on Google?

There are a few reasons why your website could not be ranking on Google. If you suspect your site is not indexed, your first instinct should be to do a quick site:search for your website on Google. For example, “site:storyagency.co.” If your site’s web pages are listed, it means that Google has indexed your website.

Some of the reasons why Google may not have ranked your website include:

• The site is still new and lacks the adequate authority that can rank it for competitive search queries. Do not expect to launch your site and rank for the searched keywords overnight. In most cases, Google often needs to be convinced that your site deserves to rank.
• Don’t expect your site to rank if your content lacks comprehensive analysis and doesn’t match the searcher’s expectations. Moreover, if your content lacks quality compared to the pages and sites that rank for the same searched keyword, chances are you won’t rank. Strive to ensure you put up quality and comprehensive content that comes close to rivaling your ranked competitors.

Moreover, if any of your website pages are not listed on Google, chances are Google hasn’t indexed them. Some of the reasons leading to this include:

• The site could be blocking search engines from crawling it—typically located in the robots.txt file). Alternatively, your site could be instructing the same search engines not to index it—mostly with non-index tags. Once you resolve these blocks, your website will be indexed.
• The site could also not be indexed if you have not submitted it to Google or linked to it anywhere. To override this, set up Google Search Console and request indexing.
• There is also a high probability that your site has been penalized for violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines—a rare occurrence. You are most likely to receive a sitewide manual penalty if you are found using black-hat SEO tactics.