WHY IS MY SITE NOT APPEARING ON GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS?
Ah, the question everyone’s asking: Why is my site not appearing on Google search results?
If you’re one of those people wondering why your site is nowhere to be seen when you search your keywords, you’re not alone.
Many people build their sites and don’t see the results they expected. First of all, Google is very tricky and there are a number of possible reasons why your site is not appearing on top results.
So let’s go over some of them to help you figure this out.
YOUR SITE IS LIKELY STILL TOO NEW
If you recently created your site, you’ll need to give it a bit more time. Chances are that search engines haven’t had the chance to index your site yet.
Sites do not appear in search results unless they’ve been indexed by Google and other search engines. Squarespace does not control this at all.
If you have no clue what I’m talking about, please read this post on how to index your site: GETTING STARTED WITH SEO – WHAT TO DO FIRST
Follow the steps in the above article to get your site indexed much faster.
YOU HAVE JUST MOVED OVER FROM ANOTHER PLATFORM
Even though Squarespace is generally amazing for search-optimized content, sometimes switching web platforms can cause a temporary dip in search engine ranking. This is true of any platform.
There are a few things you can do to minimize this negative impact of site migration.
Keep the same domain name (at least for a while)
Create a custom 404 page (click here for instructions)
Create 301 URL redirects
YOU’RE NOT UPDATING IT WITH NEW CONTENT
Let it be known that Google does not like stale sites. It will prioritize and reward those sites that publish regular, fresh content.
So if you’re not in the good habit of adding new content to your website (hint: blogging), it will take you MUCH LONGER to appear in search results.
It’s not known for certain how long it takes before your site starts appearing in top results, but I’ve heard it’s something around 6 months if you blog regularly.
Want more inspiration? Read this post: BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS - SHOULD YOU EVEN BOTHER?
In conclusion, there are various reasons why your site is not appearing on Google search results. If you follow the above steps, you’ll have a better chance of success. But also, don’t forget to be patient.