Why Is My Website Not Being Displayed in Search Engine Results?

On April 5th, 2020 / By Hamzah Khadim

One of the biggest concerns for businesses with an online presence is being able to rank organically in search engine results and achieve top rankings on the first page of the results, especially in the top three slots. From time to time, some people have a hard time achieving these results. In some cases, they may even scroll through page after page of the search engine results and never even find their business.

There can be several underlying causes as to why your website is not being displayed, let alone ranking in the search results. Let’s look at some of the more common reasons why your site is not being displayed in search results.

The Type of Web Design

Some people like using flashy splash screens using Flash Player or other animations for their web pages. While this fancy animation is great, if there is no other details on the page, it can make it difficult for the search engine to index the content and rank the site. Another common issue associated with using animated-only pages are the HTML page title tags are not changed and contain a generic entry, like “Flash Homepage,” Flash Product Page 1,” and so on.

A major issue with animated pages, is when there is very little or no text on the entire page. If all you have is a button that says “Click Here to Enter,” then that is all the search engine will “see” when it indexes the content on the page.

Pages Contain Mostly Pictures

Just like using an excessive amount of animations without any actual text-based content, the use of too many pictures can also create problems for search engines and ranking. Again, the search engine cannot “see” the picture when it is indexing the website. One way to address this problem is to enable picture tags and use appropriate text to describe the picture in such a manner, so the search engine can index the information.

The Website Is Not Search Engine Friendly

For some websites, the reason they are not ranking is simply because they are not search engine friendly. An effective method to use to find out just how search engine friendly your site is, is to change your web browser settings as follows:

• Disable All Plugins (i.e. Flash)
• Disable the Display Graphics Option (i.e. Pictures)
• Disable the Running of Scripts Option (i.e. JavaScript)

Once you have done this, now visit your website and each page. If you only see blank pages or pages with very little relevant content, then this is what the search engine crawler is “seeing” when it indexes your pages, and means your site is not search engine friendly.

For help with website design and development solutions to ensure your site is search engine friendly and effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, call Logik Digital at 1-866-307-0086 and ask for your FREE SEO analysis now!