5 Things Google Doesn’t Like (And How To Avoid Them)
October 2nd, 2021 | by Erik Emanuelli || 5 Comments |
The constant evolution of Google’s algorithms requires continuous optimization of web pages, a job that shouldn’t stop at choosing the right keywords.
The latest advances in the world’s most famous search engine algorithm require a different SEO approach to gain optimal ranking. For these reasons, knowing, as far as possible, the algorithm that regulates its positioning is of primary importance.
But what are the elements of a web page that Google doesn’t like? And above all, how to avoid them?
1. Poor Quality Content
Content is the King. How many have you heard this sentence pronounced?
You will continue to hear it, as the quality content of a web page can still make a difference in the correct indexing and ranking of a website.
The poor quality contents of a web page represent a decisive aspect in the penalization of it. If initially, keywords were the most important tool for correctly ranking websites, many things have changed since then.
Now, the content must be original, researched, and organized optimally. A low-quality content, even accompanied by a careful choice of keywords, cannot and will not be a valid tool to scale the search results. There’s much more today.
Google requires quality content in the strictest sense of the word. How can you produce interesting articles for users and, at the same time, for the most famous search engine in the world? There is a method. It is essentially based on three main aspects:
First: the depth of the argument
Google rewards longer texts and complete posts. The algorithm is now able to highlight sections of the published content, to answer specific user questions. For these reasons, more in-depth articles can offer the possibility of satisfying countless questions on the subject.
Second: semantic richness
As mentioned, Google doesn’t just search for single keywords. Also, consider synonyms, specific terms, related topics with direct semantic relationships with the main keyword.
Developing content in a circular manner around the reference keywords could represent a decisive aspect for optimizing search results.
Third: the interactive elements
Many interactive elements improve user navigation by increasing their involvement. Posting videos and other elements may be particularly popular with Google, which will reward them with a higher ranking.
2. The Absence of HTML Tags
Despite the evolution of Google’s algorithm in understanding human language, its spiders obviously remain “robots that read” the language in code. For these reasons, HTML tags remain essential for optimal communication with the largest search engine in the world.
Although this is not new today, many web pages are still poorly optimized from this point of view. In fact, many do not include the main keyword in the page title, do not feature effective Meta Description customization, and, more often than not, they do not feature advanced HTML.
How can this problem be solved?
You can use elements such as the Canonical Rel, which indicates to Google spiders not to pay too much attention to some pages of the reference portal by directing them to others, or elements such as Noindex and Nofollow, which invite not to index the less important pages of the site.
The use of these tags allows you to direct Google’s attention to the most important pages, greatly increasing the potential of the content published.
Helping Google’s crawlers is an indispensable aspect of scaling search results. The clarity in the structure of a website is of absolute importance to allow a clear and quick reading (and consequently an evaluation) of the portal.
3. Page Experience Below Average
The Google update imposes new quality standards in the use of pages, such as a correct display of mobile devices or not excessively long loading times.
These two aspects are essential to facilitate the climb to the top, and Google, which in recent months has made them indispensable elements in the evaluation of websites, provides a free tool to be able to evaluate both the loading speed and the correct display in real-time of the website (both desktop and mobile): PageSpeed Insight.
You should take a look. It could reveal some fascinating data.
4. Low Authority Domain
As already mentioned, Google evaluates countless website elements, and one of these is certainly the authority of the domain.
The authority indicates how reliable a site is, and this value is determined by the number and quality of the backlinks. That is, by the incoming links of your website.
Backlinks tell Google how reliable your website is, but beware, not all backlinks have the same value. Give preference to a backlink strategy created on highly authoritative domains, trying to publish quality links on your website, leaving out the quantity.
A good way to host the valuable link, to build that network of links that could really make a difference in scaling the search results, is represented by Guest Posts. Learn about it. It could be for you.
5. Internal Cannibalization
Everything that has been said so far may not be enough to scale the search results if you do not pay due attention to the competition of keywords within each web page.
This process is more commonly called “keyword cannibalization.” And sadly, when it occurs, the Google crawler fails to perceive and identify the most important pages for your website, with all the ensuing drawbacks.
How is the problem of internal cannibalization solved? It is possible to solve it only by using long-tail keywords with the use of keyword phrases directly linked to the main and most important ones for your website.
Don’t always use the same keywords. Create a basic strategy by using long-tail keywords, introducing them, and carefully publishing them in the higher quality content of your portal.
A further procedure to avoid the cannibalization of keywords within web pages is to eliminate content with insufficient performance or consider it obsolete concretely. In this way, the top content will have the Google attention it needs to aim high.
Now, It’s Over to You
What do you think of these things that Google does not like?
Is your website performing well on search engines?
Please share your views in the comments below. Thanks!
5 comments
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Hi Erik, I’m finding the DA hard to keep on top of as it changes all the time but guest posting has made a difference over the past few months for me. Not only that, it gives you more credibility which is great for your business.
People will come back to read more if they find your blog more credible.
Hi Erik,
Google’s primary goal is to improve user experience on all platforms. And one of the core factors of focus is content quality. Not only should the content be of top-quality, but also must be relevant to users’ query. So, I like the idea of “depth of argument and semantic richness. Moreover, many are underestimate the consequence of keyword cannibalism. Targeting the same search terms on various pages is not a good SEO technique because Google will struggle to shows online users the most relevant content. Besides, it hurts your traffic and page rank since the traffic that should go to a particular page is spread on multiple pages.
Thanks for sharing!
In the modern SEO strategy ,the whole game is based on content. It must be well researched ,authentic ,deep, relevant and high quality. That’s all you need and google will automatically rank you up because Google wants to give its users best information with each search query to enhance user experience.
And Great post Erik, You did a great job providing all the necessary resources at one place. Thanks for that.
Hi Erik,
Amazing resource! In the quest of ranking our blogs on top, we often forget about the things Google hates. Thanks a lot for highlighting them. I really loved that poor-quality content topped your list. I have seen many people compromise with the quality of content and think it will still rank. Your list will really help a lot of bloggers out there, and I will be playing my part and sharing it with people in my network. Looking forward to reading more of your amazing work.
Hey Erik,
In the modern age, putting up content that solves users’ problems should be the priority. That’s what I focus on rather than believing in a myth that longer content is good or that having longer articles than your competitor will rank you better. Apart from content, Social media plays a big role in getting the word out about your brand, it certainly helps you gain readers as well as natural backlinks that Google loves. So, if we follow these simple steps, there are chances that Google will love our sites in the long term.
~ Brenda