One year ago, I discovered that one of my sites was being indexed on Google but not ranking. By that time, I had published almost 290 posts, none of which were ranking on Google. However, on Bing, I found that nearly 47 of those posts were in the top 20.
You can use the SEMrush Domain Overview tool to check the keyword positions of your site's pages. It's free to use.
In my case, the keyword position graph was empty.
So I looked everywhere for what was going on with my website, but I couldn't find any accurate reasons as to why. Due to this, I stopped posting for the domain and I stopped renewing it also.
Now, I understand why my site was indexed but not ranked. In this post, I will share with you 11 reasons why your site might be denied ranking.
Ranking denied by Spam policy
This was the reason why my site's content where denied Ranking on Google.
Google encourages site owners to create valuable, original content and to have a good user experience, as well as to be ethical in their SEO practice, to avoid violating their spam policies.
If Google finds that your site's content is spammy, not valuable, or misleading, it may ban your site from appearing in search results, effectively preventing it from reaching users. This is what happened in my case as well.
Search central documentation By Google
If your site is temporarily banned by Google from reaching users, You will need to wait for 1 year or more. Also, you need sure to remove or update spammy content to regular looking.
Manipulative Link Practices
Links are one of the most important ranking factors for Google.
If your site is involved in manipulative link-building practices, it can negatively affect your ranking. These manipulative practices include buying links, engaging in link exchange schemes, or using link farms.
Google’s algorithms are designed to detect unnatural link patterns, and if your site is caught engaging in such tactics, it could lead to penalties.
When Google finds your site trying to game the system, it will prevent it from ranking as it is viewed as an attempt to manipulate rankings. This is one of the primary reasons why your site is not ranking.
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is a common mistake made by website owners in an attempt to rank higher. This refers to overloading your content with targeted keywords unnaturally.
It involves repeating keywords excessively in titles, meta descriptions, headers, and throughout the body content. While keywords are crucial for SEO, overusing them can negatively impact readability and make Google view your content as spam.
This could result in a low ranking. If you’ve been asking yourself, “Why is my site not ranking?” keyword stuffing might be the culprit.
Hidden Text and Links
Hidden text and links involve techniques that attempt to hide content from users but make it visible to search engines. This can include using the same colour for text and background, hiding text behind images, or using CSS to make the content invisible.
Similarly, placing links in locations that are invisible to the user but accessible to search engines is another tactic that falls under this category. Google is sophisticated enough to detect hidden text or links, and if your site is caught using these tactics, it could lead to penalties and a drop in rankings.
So, if you’re wondering why your site isn’t ranking, hidden content could be a major reason.
Cloaking
Cloaking is when a website presents different content to search engines than what users see.
For example, a search engine might crawl a page optimized with keywords, while users see irrelevant or low-quality content.
This is done to deceive Google into ranking a page higher than it deserves.
However, cloaking is strictly against Google's guidelines, as it violates the principle of providing a transparent, trustworthy user experience.
If your site engages in cloaking, it will result in a penalty and could even be removed from search results entirely.
Thin Content
Thin content refers to pages that provide little value to users, often consisting of short, shallow, or irrelevant information.
These pages typically fail to answer users' queries adequately and lack in-depth, helpful information. Google prioritizes high-quality, informative content that answers users' needs.
If your site is filled with thin content, it will likely rank poorly because Google deems it irrelevant or unhelpful. If you’re asking why your site is not ranking, thin content is one possible reason.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content occurs when the same or very similar content appears on different pages within your site or across other websites.
Google aims to provide unique, original content to its users. If your site features duplicate content, Google may not know which page to rank, which could lead to lower rankings or no ranking at all.
In some cases, Google might refuse to index duplicate pages. If you've been wondering, "site is not ranking," duplicate content could be one of the key issues to resolve.
Manipulative Redirects
Redirects are used to send visitors from one URL to another, but manipulative redirects occur when a site uses this tactic deceptively.
For instance, some sites set up redirects that lead users to irrelevant pages while showing search engines a different page. This practice is done to deceive search engines and manipulate rankings. Google considers this a form of deception and penalizes sites for using manipulative redirects.
If you are struggling with your site not ranking, manipulative redirects might be to blame.
Bad User Experience
Google places a high emphasis on user experience (UX) when determining rankings. If your site is difficult to navigate, slow to load, or overwhelmed by intrusive pop-ups and ads, it will drive users away. A poor user experience signals to Google that your site isn’t providing value to visitors.
Google favours websites that are user-friendly, fast, and easy to navigate. If your site isn’t providing an excellent user experience, it could rank poorly. A bad user experience could be the reason your site is not ranking.
Automated or Spammy Content
Using automated tools to generate content or engaging in spammy content practices such as using content spinners can result in poor-quality, irrelevant, or nonsensical content.
This type of content often targets specific keywords but lacks real value to users. Google’s algorithms are highly capable of identifying low-quality or spammy content and will penalize sites that use these practices. If you’re wondering, "Why is my site not ranking," automated or spammy content might be the reason.
Content Farms
Content farms are websites that produce large volumes of low-quality content aimed at ranking for specific keywords rather than offering valuable, original information. These sites typically churn out keyword-heavy articles without providing unique insights or original thought.
If your site is considered a content farm, it will likely rank poorly or be removed from search results. This could explain why your site is not ranking.
