11 Reasons Why Your Search Rankings Aren’t Improving & Solutions【A Must-Read for SEO Professionals】

“I’m creating high-quality content, but it’s not ranking well.”

“I don’t understand why my rankings aren’t improving. I’ve implemented all the important SEO practices…”

Are these your concerns?

It can be unsettling when you’re aiming for the top search spot, yet your site doesn’t even appear on the first page.

You might start to wonder, “Are my current efforts actually working? Is Google even functioning properly?”

However, the factors holding back your rankings likely lie within unnoticed areas of your site.

In this article, we’ll explain 11 common reasons why search rankings may not improve and how to resolve them.

In SEO, it’s crucial to address each potential obstacle preventing ranking improvements.

There could be unexpected factors causing lower rankings, so check out the 11 points discussed in this article.

11 Common Reasons Why Your Search Rankings Aren’t Improving and How to Fix Them

Let’s dive into the 11 common reasons why search rankings may not improve and their solutions.

Let’s go through them one by one.

1. The Targeted Keyword is Too Competitive

If your content isn’t ranking well despite being high quality, it’s worth reconsidering your targeted keyword.

Are you targeting keywords that are too competitive?

Whether you rank well largely depends on the keywords you’re aiming for.

This is because search rankings are “relative.”

No matter how great your SEO and content are, if there are too many competitors with superior content, it will be nearly impossible to rank highly.

If you’re only targeting high-difficulty keywords, reconsider your keyword strategy.

• Broad Keywords

Keywords like “salon” or “advertising” with over 10,000 monthly searches.

• Highly Profitable Keywords

Keywords like “SEO company” with lots of ads in the search results.
Keywords like “vacuum cleaner comparison” that attract users with high purchase intent.

• Keywords with Strong Competitors

Keywords where top results are dominated by major e-commerce sites (like Amazon or Rakuten), industry-leading companies, or large portal sites with strong domains.

Especially in the early stages of SEO, targeting such competitive keywords will likely result in failure to rank well.

However, if you target low-competition keywords that have no search demand, ranking high won’t lead to results either, so be cautious.

2. The Search Intent Isn’t Satisfied

If you’re confident in the quality of your content, consider whether it is truly “high-quality” from the perspective of search users.

If users need to visit other sites or search again after visiting your page, it means the search intent hasn’t been fully satisfied.

Even if you think you’re providing valuable information, there are common cases where:

• The content doesn’t fully address the user’s query.

The answer to the user’s question is missing or insufficient.

• The search intent is not fully satisfied

New questions that arise while browsing the content are left unanswered, or there’s no information to satisfy latent desires.

Your goal should be to create content that allows users to complete their search journey on your site.

The key is to imagine the real-life scenario of your search users and provide answers that solve their problems.

Dig deeper into the following aspects:

• Who is searching for the keyword, and in what situation?
• What specific problem do they have?
• What is their ideal outcome, and what do they want to avoid?

By doing this, you’ll likely uncover not only the explicit search intent but also the latent search intent of your users.

3. Duplicate Content

One of the often-overlooked factors that can prevent a rise in search rankings is “duplicate content.”

Duplicate content refers to identical or very similar content existing within the same site or across different sites.

It is difficult to clearly define how similar content must be to qualify as duplicate content.

However, if content is too similar or differs only slightly, Google may view it as “thin content” or “low-value content” (though duplicate content itself is not penalized).

While duplicate content doesn’t always negatively affect rankings, it can often be a contributing factor in cases like the following, so it’s worth checking.

• If over 50% of the page consists of identical sections (such as boilerplate text)

After fixing the duplicated sections, monitor to see if your rankings improve.

4. Keyword Cannibalization

If your search rankings are unstable or not improving, keyword cannibalization might be occurring.

Cannibalization happens when multiple pages of your site are ranked for the same search keyword, and the search engine is unable to determine which page to prioritize.

For example, if both Page A and Page B are ranked for the keyword “technical SEO,” keyword cannibalization is taking place.

The main issues with cannibalization are:

• Google can’t decide which page to rank for the keyword
• The value that should be concentrated on one page is spread across multiple pages

This often goes unnoticed as your site grows larger, but addressing it could improve your rankings. First, check if cannibalization is happening on your site.

5. Lack of Originality

Does your content provide unique value?

Is it too similar to competitor sites?

Even if it’s not a copy, if the content is almost the same, it won’t be seen as high-value content.

Google has emphasized in various documents that it highly values originality.

Content and quality questions

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
• If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?

Source: Google Search Central – What Site Owners Should Know About Core Updates

Imagine your own experience searching: seeing multiple identical pages in the results is frustrating.

To make your content stand out, you need a deep understanding of search intent.

Without this, your content will end up merely imitating competitors on the surface.

First, thoroughly investigate and analyze the search intent.

Once you’ve done that, consider how you can add originality using methods like these:

6. Short Domain History

If you’ve only been operating a new domain (site) for 1–2 months, it’s no surprise that your rankings aren’t rising as expected.

New sites generally have lower overall evaluation compared to competitors.

No matter how good your content is, rankings won’t improve immediately.

There’s also a period before Google discovers and indexes your site.

After a new page is published, it can take time for Google to crawl and index it. The time to complete indexing varies depending on various factors, usually taking from 1 day to several weeks.

Source: If Your Page is Not Appearing on Google Search

It’s best to wait at least 3 to 6 months.

※ However, if your site is still not indexed after several months, there may be an issue with your site. Make sure to check on Google Search Console whether it has been indexed.

7. The Title is Not Optimized

The title is a factor that can easily influence search rankings.

Just as search users infer the content from the title, search engines also use the title to determine the content of the page.

If you want to rank high for a specific keyword, it is important to clearly tell the search engine, “This page is highly relevant to this keyword.”

If your title looks like the following, it could be a reason why your ranking is not improving.

• The targeted keyword is not included
• It does not accurately represent the content of the page

Moreover, the title also affects the click-through rate (CTR).

It is unclear whether a high or low CTR directly influences rankings, but increasing CTR is crucial for driving more traffic to your site.

In theory, Google could adjust rankings by determining that pages with higher clicks are of more interest to users.

Try adjusting the title and monitoring the results for 1-2 weeks.

8. Internal Links Are Not Properly Set

Internal links are links that connect pages within your website.

If the structure of these internal links is overly complex, it can hinder your rankings.

When unrelated pages are internally linked, it can lower the quality assessment of both pages.

The SEO benefits of properly setting internal links include the following three points:

• Increase Relevance

By linking related articles together, the comprehensiveness of the information improves, making it easier for users to find the information they need.
As a result, Google may better evaluate the quality of both pages.

• Indicate Important Pages to Search Engines

Google considers pages with many internal links as more important.
This helps raise the ranking of intended pages.

• Make It Easier for Google to Find Pages

One way Google finds pages is through internal links.
Thus, by setting internal links properly, you increase the chance of search engines finding your page quickly.

Given these benefits, setting internal links correctly may lead to a rise in rankings.

9. Internal Optimization Is Insufficient

No matter how good your content is, if it’s not properly communicated to search engines, your ranking won’t improve.

Take another look at whether your site is properly optimized internally.

Internal optimization helps search engines understand your site quickly and correctly, while also improving the user experience.

Internal optimization includes various strategies such as crawl optimization, indexing, and UX improvement, which can require technical knowledge, making it a challenging task for some.

However, in a 2017 U.S. survey, “technical internal optimization” was the strategy that delivered the highest effectiveness over the past 12 months, highlighting its importance.
Source: The 2017 State of Enterprise SEO Report

If your rankings aren’t improving, you need to address each internal factor that might be hindering your progress.

10. Not Enough Backlinks

Although content quality is crucial in modern SEO, backlinks (links from other sites to your site) remain highly effective as of 2021.

Google views backlinks as a form of endorsement and uses them as one measure of content and site quality.

The idea is that “a page others want to share or cite must be a great page.”

Backlinks from authoritative or relevant sites can significantly boost your page’s ranking.

If you haven’t acquired enough backlinks, it’s important to actively work on backlink-building strategies.

For example, you can create interview articles or engage in link outreach.

Simply waiting for backlinks to come naturally may not be enough.

However, avoid using services that generate a large number of backlinks, as this could result in a penalty from Google.

11. You Are Under a Penalty

One reason your search rankings may not be improving is that you are under a penalty from Google.

A penalty is a punishment imposed on sites that violate Google’s guidelines.

There are generally two types of penalties:

• Manual Penalty

A penalty implemented by a Google representative after a visual inspection. Severe penalties can result in removal from rankings or deletion from the index. If you receive a manual penalty, you will be notified in Search Console.

• Automated Penalty

A penalty detected and automatically applied by Google’s algorithms. Although your rankings will drop, these penalties are generally less severe than manual ones. You will not receive a notification, so you must improve the situation on your own.

The main causes of penalties include:

• Participation in Link Schemes

Buying and selling links, excessive reciprocal linking, and creating sites for the sole purpose of linking.

• Low-Quality Content

Automatically generated content or pages that are copied without permission, providing little unique value.

Additionally, any attempt to artificially boost your rankings could lead to a penalty, ultimately lowering your rankings.

Specific actions that could result in a penalty are summarized on the page below, so please check it out.
Google Search Central – Webmaster Guidelines (Quality Guidelines)

Note: Improve the Overall Quality of Your Site

Google evaluates the overall quality of your site using various metrics.

Simply improving individual tactics like “writing good articles,” “including keywords in titles,” or “gathering backlinks” will not guarantee higher rankings.

Your goal should be to create a site that is “useful and beneficial for search users” as a whole.

To achieve this, it is essential to comprehensively work on the following three countermeasures:

• Internal Measures
• External Measures
• Content Measures

Moreover, regarding content quality, the presence of even a small amount of low-quality content on your site can negatively impact the overall evaluation of your site.

Instead of indiscriminately increasing low-quality content because your rankings aren’t improving, focus on providing “high-quality content” across your entire site.

If Rankings Are Not Improving, Consider Consulting a Professional

If you have addressed the issues mentioned above but still aren’t seeing improvements in search rankings, it may be worth consulting an “SEO professional.”

An SEO professional is a company specializing in SEO consulting or SEO outsourcing.

Much of the SEO information available online can be outdated or unreliable, making it difficult for beginners to discern what is accurate.

If you want to achieve results in SEO efficiently, seeking advice from an expert can be the fastest route.

By partnering with a company that has accumulated a wealth of knowledge on the ground, you can clarify which measures should be prioritized for your site, potentially speeding up your journey to higher rankings.

However, it’s also true that some unscrupulous operators exist.

Start by requesting performance materials from multiple companies and taking advantage of free consultations.

[Summary] Take Steady Steps to Improve the Overall Quality of Your Site!

Have you been able to identify the reasons why your site’s search rankings aren’t improving?

SEO is not a strategy that yields immediate results in a short time.

Be patient and steadily accumulate what you can do.

Lastly, here’s a summary of the 11 factors:

If none of the above factors apply to you and you’re unsure what to do, feel free to consult us at Xscore.