Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Wordpress

The top ten reasons your website is not working for you

grasshopper

I am always asked “Why is my site not bringing me business?”  The first thing I do is load their site in a browser and run a few test. The following top ten reasons is what I usually find after an initial examination. We all know about supply and demand when it comes to business.  So, I will not go in to the later here.

The top ten reasons your website is not working for you:
  1. Bad code – search engines spiders go elsewhere when the get to a line of bad code. So this is the number one reason a sites doesn’t rank well in the search engines.
  2. Duplicate content – Duplicate content will get a site penalized in the search results and thrown in to the 1000 plus search results. Hence,  the website will  never show up on the first 3 pages of results.
  3. Not cross device compatible – Viewers will go elsewhere if they can’t see “Adobe Flash” content of sites and if the site doesn’t work on their device that they are using; be it a browser, phone or tablet.  Responsive web design is now the norm.  The later means the website will automatically change to better fit and operate on the device it is being viewed on:  pc,  mac,  phone or tablet.
  4. To slow to load because of images, JavaScript, videos, music etc… – Viewers will go elsewhere if nothing happens in 30 seconds.
  5. Not enough keyword/keyphrases in copy  – Nothing for the search engines to grab for relevant search results of viewer.
  6. Not enough copy – a page or post should have at least 300 to 1000 words of text. Otherwise the search engines deem the page spam.
  7. Negative seo tactics: keyword stuffing and hidden text – unethical site building techniques  get a site penalized and possibly removed from the search engine altogether. this now includes writing blog post all over the web including a link back to your site.
  8. Links outbound to sites with negative seo – linking to a site with a search engine penalty hurts your site.
  9. Broken links – can be viewed as bad code.
  10. Use of link farms – Search engines penalty for unethical methods of link building. Links need to be built in a “natural progression” over a course of time.