It’s a very familiar story in the marketing world: you’ve published more than your fair share of blog posts to target a specific keyword, yet every time you take Google for a spin you find that you’re buried somewhere on page 5 or not showing up at all in the search engine results page (SERP).
So what’s the deal? Do you need to have a friend at Google to make sure that your blog ranks well for a specific keyword? While it never hurts to have friends in high places, be assured that this isn’t about politics and we’re all a little too busy to be taking trips to Palo Alto and feigning interest in Dungeons and Dragons to make a friend. Typically, if a blog isn’t ranking for your keyword, it means you’re doing one, some, or possibly all of the following:
5 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Ranking For A Specific Keyword
1. You’re aiming for very common keywords.
Some keywords are so coveted, that no amount of blog posts will help you show up on page one. There’s just too much competition – plus other companies have a massive head start that’s only getting bigger since they’re likely spending thousands of dollars each month to keep their top ranking safe and secure.
The remedy? Easy. Start targeting less common searches by focusing on the “long tail keyword” variety. These are less popular (i.e. there are fewer people searching for them), but they can actually lead to better results since searchers are usually qualified leads looking for something specific vs. just generic traffic.
And while you should always integrate SEO and keywords into your blog posts, remember that quality content still trumps anything else. So don’t avoid blogging about something that is relevant and interesting to your targeted buyer personas, simply because it’s a popular topic or keyword.
2. Your blog isn’t indexed.
This is a bit of a tough one for some businesses to swallow, because it’s kind of like spending all day looking for your glasses only to realize that they’re on your face. Yes, you’re happy to find them, but you’re kind of hoping nobody knows that you spent all day searching…
Here’s the thing: It might be possible that your website is telling Google and the other search engines not to index your blog content. For example, if your website is built with WordPress, the search engine visibility setting may be toggled off.
Why would anyone want to do this? Well, it can make sense in some situations not to index content. For example, some businesses have multiple websites that use the same content, and they don’t want Google (et al) to penalize them for having duplicate content. So before you call a marketing consultant who may end up charging you $ 300 an hour to click a button, take a peek and see if this is your problem. If so, then don’t worry: your secret is safe with us!
3. Your posts aren’t optimized.
Keyword optimization isn’t simply about adding a keyword here and there. There is a methodology to implement and SEO best practices to follow – and these change over time.
It’s possible that your blog posts aren’t really optimized for certain keywords, because (for example) the keywords aren’t appearing in titles or they’re not appearing enough (or maybe too much) in the post themselves. In addition, you may not be strategically linking to other blog posts and pages on your website or linking to your posts on multiple social media platforms – all of which helps with SEO.
4. You’re not blogging frequently enough.
While the quantity of blogs is important, frequency is a key metric that Google looks for when ranking blog posts (and your blog overall).
The best practice is to blog five times a week for different, strategically aligned keywords that are part of the same logical group or theme. If blogging each day isn’t feasible because of resource or budget limitations, then try for three times a week – but try not to go below this or you may not capture Google’s attention as easily.
5. Your blogs aren’t high quality.
Google has become remarkably good at separating high quality content from low quality content. Word count is part of this equation, which is why your blog posts need to be at least 400 words long. But there are other factors as well, including the quality of the writing, relevance of material and whether the content is truly meant for visitors (or designed to “game” the search engine robots).
Despite best efforts, it may be the case that your blog posts just aren’t registering as high quality. This will negatively impact your chances of ranking for a specific keyword – especially if your competitors are doing a better job.
The Bottom Line
Get the team together and analyze your content to see if you’re getting the ROI that you want from your blog. Then review your blogging strategy and editorial calendar to make sure you’re avoiding the above 5 reasons you might not be getting any SERP love. Also, if needed, consider outsourcing your content strategy with a focused agency that can help you identify low-cost, high impact changes that will measurably improve your rankings and results.
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