
Still Struggling to Rank Your Web Page on Google Search?This guide will delve into 14 possible reasons why your web page isn’t ranking and how to systematically address these issues.
Identifying the Reasons
First, it is crucial to determine whether the page is not ranking at all or ranking poorly. If a page ranks poorly, it may require further optimization. If the page is not ranking at all, it could mean that Google cannot see it or index it.
Using Google Search Console

Use the Performance report in Google Search Console and filter the results by the relevant page. Check if the page is getting impressions or clicks. If it is, note the keywords. If not, it indicates that the page might not be ranking at all.
Next, extend the report timeframe to the maximum. Look at the impressions and clicks graph over this period to see if the page has ever received traffic.
Is it a Site-wide or Page-specific Issue?
Understanding whether your entire site is struggling to rank or if it’s specific pages or a group of pages can help narrow down the causes and potential solutions.
Technical Issues
It is best to check for any technical reasons that might prevent your page from ranking. This could be recent changes or long-standing issues such as rendering problems.
1. Crawling Issues
Google must be able to access and read the page to include its information in its database and potentially display it in search results. If a page isn’t ranking, it might be inaccessible.
SEOs often use various methods to prevent search engine bots from accessing pages they don’t want crawled, such as using robots.txt or password protection.
2. Indexing Issues
If the page isn’t ranking, it might not be indexable, or Google may deem it unworthy of indexing. Quick ways to check if a page is in Google’s index include running the page through Google Search Console. Use the “Inspect URL” tool to see if Google has indexed the page and if there are any crawl issues.
3. Internal Linking
Another technical reason that might prevent a page from ranking is whether it has internal links from other parts of the website. Internal links signal to Google that you consider the page relevant to users. If a page isn’t accessible internally, it indicates the page isn’t important.
The anchor text used for links also provides relevance signals to the linked page. Lack of internal links or improper use of anchor text can hinder a page’s ranking.
4. Speed
In recent years, Google has relied on user experience signals, including page load speed, to influence page rankings. Specific components of page load speed, known as Core Web Vitals—Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)—are considered lightweight signals but can be tiebreakers in closely competing ranking signals.
5. Rendering
We’ve discussed Google’s ability to crawl and index a page as a potential cause for poor ranking; another cause could be rendering. Rendering involves the process of turning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into an interactive page. If something prevents Googlebot from rendering the page, it might not see the page’s content. Use Google Search Console to test how Google renders your page.
Content Reasons
When considering ranking issues, think about the page’s quality. Is the content useful and informative? Is it closely related to the user’s search and easy to read?
6. Keyword Cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on a site compete for the same set of keywords with similar content. This can happen due to content overlap or technical reasons, such as tag systems on blogs or product variations differing only by color or size. When this occurs, Google may choose one version as the “canonical” version, and other pages won’t rank.
To check if a page is considered canonical, use Google Search Console. The URL Inspection tool will show which URL Google considers canonical. If the canonical field’s URL isn’t the one you are checking, it means Google considers them duplicates, and the checked URL won’t rank.
7. Content Format
Even if your content is useful, informative, and unique, Google may prefer different content types for certain queries. For example, if your small department store site tries to rank for terms related to embroidery techniques and the SERPs show many videos, a text article is less likely to rank higher than those videos.
8. Search Intent/Relevance
Matching search intent is crucial for content. For example, if your page targets the keyword “what is embroidery,” but only discusses the best types of materials for embroidery, Google will find the page irrelevant to that query. Similarly, if users are searching for “cheap embroidery,” Google won’t rank a page about the history of embroidery techniques. The keyword “cheap embroidery” indicates commercial intent.
9. Competition
Sometimes, your page may not rank well because it’s not as comprehensive as competitors’ pages. Google may see it as less helpful to searchers. You might need to review top-ranking pages and determine why they are better than your page.
10. Language
If you aim to rank a page in a specific region or country, it’s crucial to write the content in the language used by searchers in that area. If the content isn’t in the local language, it won’t rank because users won’t understand it, no matter how useful or valuable it is.
11. Penalties
Google can penalize sites for severe policy violations, which can cause pages or entire sites to disappear from search results. Violations cover issues like spam, low-quality content, and cloaking. If your webpage contains elements violating Google’s spam policies, it might be penalized.
Credibility
Google evaluates a page’s usefulness and ranks it based on its credibility using various methods.
12. External Links
External links to your site are strong signals to Google that the page is valuable and relevant. If your page isn’t ranking well, it might lack a sufficient number of high-quality external links from third-party sites.
13. EEAT Signals
EEAT stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness,” a concept from Google’s search quality evaluator guidelines. It’s essentially a template for how Google assesses content quality.
14. Algorithm Updates
When pages that previously ranked well start to drop in the SERPs, it’s easy to attribute it to an “algorithm update.” If your page’s ranking was affected by a system update (as Google now calls its algorithm), you need to investigate how to better optimize your page to regain its ranking.
Before concluding that a ranking drop is due to a system update, rule out all the issues mentioned above.
Conclusion
There could be a single major technical issue causing poor rankings, or multiple issues combined. Identifying potential problems is crucial before making optimization changes.