Introduction

There are certain elements on your website that could be hindering your Google rankings and traffic. No matter how much effort you put into creating content, optimizing your technical SEO, and building backlinks, these factors can hold you back. In this blog, I’m going to outline eight key things that you need to remove from your website immediately if you want to rank better on Google.

1. Outdated Content

Google prefers fresh and updated content. With over 1.7 billion websites in the world and millions of blog posts being published every day, it’s essential to keep your content up to date. To identify which pages need updating, use Google Search Console and compare the current traffic with the same time a year ago. Focus on the pages that were once performing well but are now underperforming. By refreshing and improving these pages, you’ll increase your chances of ranking better.

2. Pages with Thin Content

Today, pages with thin content are less likely to rank on Google. While a 200 or 100-word page can be sufficient to answer someone’s question, most topics require more in-depth coverage. Evaluate your pages to identify those that offer little or no value. If you find such pages, either update them to provide more comprehensive content or redirect them to other pages that offer a better user experience.

3. Excessive or Irrelevant Ads

Having too many ads on your website can negatively impact your load time and user experience. It’s important to strike a balance between displaying ads and maintaining a positive user experience. Ensure that your ads blend in naturally with your website design and avoid overwhelming users. Take inspiration from Google’s ads, which seamlessly integrate with their webpages.

4. Automatically Generated Content

To deliver an exceptional user experience, avoid using automated tools to create content. Even if you customize the content to some extent, it won’t match the quality of manually created content. Instead, focus on creating unique and valuable content that surpasses what your competitors are offering. Utilize tools like Ubersuggest to evaluate the top-ranking pages and gather insights on what users and Google prefer.

5. Intrusive Popups or Interstitials

While popups can be effective for lead generation, they can also disrupt the user experience. Google recommends avoiding intrusive interstitials that hinder users’ access to content. Instead, consider using exit popups or promoting lead magnets within your content using inline opt-in boxes, ribbons, hello bars, or in-text call-to-actions. These alternatives allow you to collect leads without being intrusive.

6. Irrelevant Internal Links

Internal linking is essential for SEO, but excessive or irrelevant internal links can harm your rankings. Ensure that your internal links add value to the content and guide users to relevant pages. Avoid using excessive rich anchor text or random anchor text. Focus on what best serves the user experience.

7. Duplicate Content

While Google doesn’t penalize duplicate content, it won’t prioritize ranking duplicate content over original content. To improve your rankings, focus on publishing fresh and unique content. Cite sources and provide credit when using external information, but ensure that your content offers a new and valuable perspective. Avoid creating content that covers the same topic in the same way as existing articles.

8. Backlinks to Spammy Websites and Domain Names

Linking out to spammy websites can harm your rankings in the long run. Focus on linking to pages that provide value to users and enhance their experience. Avoid participating in reciprocal linking schemes and prioritize the user’s best interest. If you do engage in paid links, make it clear to the user that the link is sponsored or nofollow the link to prevent any negative SEO impact.

Conclusion

By removing these eight elements from your website, you can significantly improve your Google rankings. Ensure your content is fresh and updated, provide valuable and comprehensive information, strike a balance with ads, create content manually, use non-intrusive lead generation techniques, focus on relevant internal linking, publish unique content, and prioritize quality backlinks. By implementing these changes, you’ll be on your way to better rankings and increased organic traffic.