Site is indexed but not ranking

Hi,
My 2 sites are instantly indexed (google news is registered). But both of them do not appear in the ranking in any way. For example article title;
"Common features of the cutest cats"
Site: zzzbbbccc.com

I'm searching for "Common characteristics of the cutest cats" and it's not in the top 100.
"Common characteristics of the cutest cats zzzbbbccc
", that is, I add the domain name to the end of the search. again not in the top 100.

When I search for "https://zzzbbbccc.com/common-characteristics-of-the-cutest-cats", I get results.
When I look at the GSC screen, there is no security breach or manual spam.

What do you think the problem is caused by? Could it be related to the December update? I would be very grateful if people who have experienced such a situation can offer their solution suggestions.

Hello!
How long has the site been in search? I don't think it has anything to do with the update.

indexing and ranking are too differently things, mate. You, people, need to learn the differences....

Actually, you need to learn the differences between all of these SEO terms:

crawled.... it means that the googlebot has visited your page and that's all that it did, no indexing and no rankings guaranteed
discovered... it means that - AFTER crawling your page - the googlebot has discovered the eventual link(s) that might exist on that page
indexed... it means that the googlebot has first, crawled the page, and secondly, added it into google's index so that when you search for that page in google you can see it. But notice that I said "when you search for the page", not for the keywords that the page targets as these are 2 different things.

Typing a page (URL) like www.whateverdomain.com/whatever-page into google and being able to see this page means that the page is indexed, but it doesn't mean that it ranks.
Typing the keyword "whatever topic that www.whateverdomain.com/whatever-page targets" into google and seeing the www.whateverdomain.com/whatever-page URL coming up (preferably in top 10) it means that the page ranks and this is exactly what you want to happen to all of your pages / sites, but in order for this to happen you first need to have googlebot crawl your page, then have googlebot index your page, and after these 2 operations have taken place you need to work towards ranking the page by doing SEO (building links, optimizing the content, running site promotions, increasing your brand's awareness, buying PPC, stuff like this...)

So, crawled, discovered, indexed, ranked.... 4 totally different things, and of all these 4 things only the ranked part can make you money, but you can't get ranked without being crawled firstly, and indexed secondly, so you need to go through all these steps in this order...

ownl said:

I'm searching for "Common characteristics of the cutest cats" and it's not in the top 100.

Click to expand...

that's because you don't rank. In order to rank you need to do SEO (analyze your competition to figure out how to outrank them, optimize your content for the target keyword, building links to your page, fixing your site's technical issues if there are any, etc...)

ownl said:

"Common characteristics of the cutest cats zzzbbbccc
", that is, I add the domain name to the end of the search. again not in the top 100.

Click to expand...

it looks like this particular page of yours (Common characteristics of the cutest cats) is not indexed.

ownl said:

When I search for "https://zzzbbbccc.com/common-characteristics-of-the-cutest-cats", I get results

Click to expand...

you get results how ?!? You either see this URL in #1 spot, or you don't! There's no middle ground (ie "seeing results") when it comes to checking google's index for indexed URLs

ownl said:

What do you think the problem is caused by? Could it be related to the December update? I would be very grateful if people who have experienced such a situation can offer their solution suggestions.

Click to expand...

as @SMMCRAZY said: for how long has the site been in the SERPs?? Because if it's new site (less than 1 month old) it could have been google dancing (many new sites go through a period of few weeks initially when google tests them for various keywords and demographics, but after this initial test - which usually lasts for a few weeks - those sites either rank in whatever spot google puts them into, or vanish out of the SERPs until you SEO them)

EDIT: I made a mistake... you could see multiple results if you look up the exact URL in google, yes. My bad. But you should still see the exact URL in the top spot if it's indexed, just wanted to clear this up

SMMCRAZY said:

Hello!
How long has the site been in search? I don't think it has anything to do with the update.

Click to expand...

a site for a week. The other one is almost a month and a half.

tazarbm said:

indexing and ranking are too differently things, mate. You, people, need to learn the differences....

Actually, you need to learn the differences between all of these SEO terms:

crawled.... it means that the googlebot has visited your page and that's all that it did, no indexing and no rankings guaranteed
discovered... it means that - AFTER crawling your page - the googlebot has discovered the eventual link(s) that might exist on that page
indexed... it means that the googlebot has first, crawled the page, and secondly, added it into google's index so that when you search for that page in google you can see it. But notice that I said "when you search for the page", not for the keywords that the page targets as these are 2 different things.

Typing a page (URL) like www.whateverdomain.com/whatever-page into google and being able to see this page means that the page is indexed, but it doesn't mean that it ranks.
Typing the keyword "whatever topic that www.whateverdomain.com/whatever-page targets" into google and seeing the www.whateverdomain.com/whatever-page URL coming up (preferably in top 10) it means that the page ranks and this is exactly what you want to happen to all of your pages / sites, but in order for this to happen you first need to have googlebot crawl your page, then have googlebot index your page, and after these 2 operations have taken place you need to work towards ranking the page by doing SEO (building links, optimizing the content, running site promotions, increasing your brand's awareness, buying PPC, stuff like this...)

So, crawled, discovered, indexed, ranked.... 4 totally different things, and of all these 4 things only the ranked part can make you money, but you can't get ranked without being crawled firstly, and indexed secondly, so you need to go through all these steps in this order...


that's because you don't rank. In order to rank you need to do SEO (analyze your competition to figure out how to outrank them, optimize your content for the target keyword, building links to your page, fixing your site's technical issues if there are any, etc...)


it looks like this particular page of yours (Common characteristics of the cutest cats) is not indexed.


you get results how ?!? You either see this URL in #1 spot, or you don't! There's no middle ground (ie "seeing results") when it comes to checking google's index for indexed URLs


as @SMMCRAZY said: for how long has the site been in the SERPs?? Because if it's new site (less than 1 month old) it could have been google dancing (many new sites go through a period of few weeks initially when google tests them for various keywords and demographics, but after this initial test - which usually lasts for a few weeks - those sites either rank in whatever spot google puts them into, or vanish out of the SERPs until you SEO them)

EDIT: I made a mistake... you could see multiple results if you look up the exact URL in google, yes. My bad. But you should still see the exact URL in the top spot if it's indexed, just wanted to clear this up

Click to expand...

Thank you for your explanatory and detailed answer. One of the sites I mentioned has been like this for 1 week, while the other has been like this for 1.5 months (since it was opened). Ranking or seeing the site in the top 10 results is of course related to link building, optimizing content or promoting the site. But what I mean here is very low volume words. I query a word with a monthly search volume of 20 under the title "allintitle" and prepare a content suitable for this title. Even in this way, the site does not appear in the first 100 of the search results.
I enter the same article on another site that does not have a problem with equivalent features and bingo! I am in the top 3.

By the way, the domain name of my site with the problem I am referring to is 5 years old and I bought it from someone else. However, when I check the domain in web archive records, I see that the site has not been activated in the past. When I do backlink analysis, there is no spam link.

I think I have 2 options in this regard. Either I will redirect my site to another domain with 301 or I will choose to patiently enter content and wait for google to see me.

What do you think I should do? Do you have an alternative suggestion?

ownl said:

Thank you for your explanatory and detailed answer. One of the sites I mentioned has been like this for 1 week, while the other has been like this for 1.5 months (since it was opened). Ranking or seeing the site in the top 10 results is of course related to link building, optimizing content or promoting the site. But what I mean here is very low volume words. I query a word with a monthly search volume of 20 under the title "allintitle" and prepare a content suitable for this title. Even in this way, the site does not appear in the first 100 of the search results.
I enter the same article on another site that does not have a problem with equivalent features and bingo! I am in the top 3.

By the way, the domain name of my site with the problem I am referring to is 5 years old and I bought it from someone else. However, when I check the domain in web archive records, I see that the site has not been activated in the past. When I do backlink analysis, there is no spam link.

I think I have 2 options in this regard. Either I will redirect my site to another domain with 301 or I will choose to patiently enter content and wait for google to see me.

What do you think I should do? Do you have an alternative suggestion?

Click to expand...

so, if I'm understanding this correctly you have 2 sites:

- one site on a 5-year old domain that you've purchased from someone, and which doesn't rank
- one site on a 1.5 month old domain that ranks

Is this correct?

If this is correct, it looks to me like your new site (the 1.5 month old one) is already out of the sandbox and has won google's trust, so it's in good standings with google and it's going to rank. So, this site is not the problem from what I'm understanding...

The problem is with your other site (the one that sits on a 5-year old domain name), and the problem is that it's not ranking despite of the fact that it's older and has a clean backlink profile. Am I understanding this correctly?

If that's correct, then you should also check (in WBM) whether the content (well, the niche) had changed over the existence of this 5-year old domain, because - if it has - then this could be part of the reason for which you're not ranking. I can't give more info because I'm not very good with expired domains and don't always understand how google treats expired domains, so I apologize for my lack of knowledge in this regard.

But I know (from reading around the forum) that changing the niche is not seen with good eyes by google, generally speaking, and especially if the new niche is totally different to the previous niche. This thing alone could affect the rankings of this old domain in the new niche, and this is when the domain has been inactive for so long that there simply isn't any trace of its content in google's cache anymore, in which case google treats this domain like a regular (new) one now (sandboxing it, stripping it of its authority, etc)

ownl said:

However, when I check the domain in web archive records, I see that the site has not been activated in the past.

Click to expand...

what does "been activated" mean? You mean re-registered?

ownl said:

I think I have 2 options in this regard. Either I will redirect my site to another domain with 301 or I will choose to patiently enter content and wait for google to see me.

Click to expand...

Wait, man, you're confusing me...

Which site do you want to 301 to which domain?? You want to 301-redirect the 5-year old domain to a new domain (that you'll purchase for this purpose alone), or redirect it to the 1.5 month old site?

if the sites are indexed its good then start the Off-page SEO process, Social Shares

As the above member said if your site is indexed means it doesn't get you the rankings, the more external links you get will improve your Keyword positions and you have you leverage your site Articles too

Only index are not Enough for ranking. You need to proper seo. There have 3 parts on page seo,off page seo and technical seo. You must do it properly than think about google ranking.

ownl said:

Hi,
My 2 sites are instantly indexed (google news is registered). But both of them do not appear in the ranking in any way. For example article title;
"Common features of the cutest cats"
Site: zzzbbbccc.com

I'm searching for "Common characteristics of the cutest cats" and it's not in the top 100.
"Common characteristics of the cutest cats zzzbbbccc
", that is, I add the domain name to the end of the search. again not in the top 100.

When I search for "https://zzzbbbccc.com/common-characteristics-of-the-cutest-cats", I get results.
When I look at the GSC screen, there is no security breach or manual spam.

What do you think the problem is caused by? Could it be related to the December update? I would be very grateful if people who have experienced such a situation can offer their solution suggestions.

Click to expand...

you can start off page SEO [link building]

tazarbm said:

so, if I'm understanding this correctly you have 2 sites:

- one site on a 5-year old domain that you've purchased from someone, and which doesn't rank
- one site on a 1.5 month old domain that ranks

Is this correct?

If this is correct, it looks to me like your new site (the 1.5 month old one) is already out of the sandbox and has won google's trust, so it's in good standings with google and it's going to rank. So, this site is not the problem from what I'm understanding...

The problem is with your other site (the one that sits on a 5-year old domain name), and the problem is that it's not ranking despite of the fact that it's older and has a clean backlink profile. Am I understanding this correctly?

If that's correct, then you should also check (in WBM) whether the content (well, the niche) had changed over the existence of this 5-year old domain, because - if it has - then this could be part of the reason for which you're not ranking. I can't give more info because I'm not very good with expired domains and don't always understand how google treats expired domains, so I apologize for my lack of knowledge in this regard.

But I know (from reading around the forum) that changing the niche is not seen with good eyes by google, generally speaking, and especially if the new niche is totally different to the previous niche. This thing alone could affect the rankings of this old domain in the new niche, and this is when the domain has been inactive for so long that there simply isn't any trace of its content in google's cache anymore, in which case google treats this domain like a regular (new) one now (sandboxing it, stripping it of its authority, etc)


what does "been activated" mean? You mean re-registered?


Wait, man, you're confusing me...

Which site do you want to 301 to which domain?? You want to 301-redirect the 5-year old domain to a new domain (that you'll purchase for this purpose alone), or redirect it to the 1.5 month old site?

Click to expand...

Let me put it this way. I have 2 websites.
First site: 1.5 months old and has a ranking problem for 1 week.
Second site: 1.5 months old, but the domain name is 5 years old, and it has a ranking problem for 1.5 months (since it was opened).

I asked if it would be better to 301 redirect the second site to a completely new domain. Or should I wait.

If the articles are indexed in Google, it doesn't mean that you are ranking and it's normal thing. Give some time for the rankings. You can add more high quality articles relevant to the topic and build some high quality links.

ownl said:

Let me put it this way. I have 2 websites.
First site: 1.5 months old and has a ranking problem for 1 week.
Second site: 1.5 months old, but the domain name is 5 years old, and it has a ranking problem for 1.5 months (since it was opened).

I asked if it would be better to 301 redirect the second site to a completely new domain. Or should I wait.

Click to expand...

oh, I get it now. Sorry for misunderstanding

The 1st site looks fine but it may have entered the sandbox. At this point there's nothing you can do but continue publishing content and building links until you start ranking (which could be anywhere between now and 2 years from now, but from my experience it should be within 3-4 months at the earliest and 1 year at the latest. But it also depends on the niche, extremely competitive niches that are heavily EAT-based such as finances and health / medical could take 2 years to start ranking, so be prepared for this)

For the 2nd site I'm not sure what to say other than to wait. And the reason for which I'm not sure what to say is because of what you said previously, namely "domain hasn't been activated in the past". If by this you mean that it's not been re-registered in the past that doesn't really make it an expired domain anymore because after long periods of inactivity some domains lose their cached content and SEO value with google, so it could be the case with this domain, in which case 301-ing it to new domain brings you no value (I mean, unless it still has pages with good links pointing to them, in this case there is value and you should add the domain to your GSC and let it sit for 6 months to see if google re-indexes the backlinks and content, and based on that you'll know what to do with it)

First you have to understand indexing doesn't mean you got ranked in google top 100 mate. You need to focus on Off page SEO.
Do keyword research and build good authority links. Your site will appear in SERP slowly then.

This will help:
You need to send traffic from the backlinks to your site(s).
That will signal that real visitors are going to your website from the backlinks so the links are valuable.

This will also help:
Make some of the backlinks Google Entities (eg, links from YouTube , Google Docs, Google Sheets, public Google Calendar...)

Let me know how it goes

If the site is indexed, then do a diversity of backlinks to rank your website and focus on High related quality articles.

ownl said:

Let me put it this way. I have 2 websites.
First site: 1.5 months old and has a ranking problem for 1 week.
Second site: 1.5 months old, but the domain name is 5 years old, and it has a ranking problem for 1.5 months (since it was opened).

I asked if it would be better to 301 redirect the second site to a completely new domain. Or should I wait.

Click to expand...

It has been a while since the last response, but I want to know if you managed to overcome the problem. Since I face the same issue right now, I would really appreciate your input

Ps: tnx to everyone else for providing some helpful tips!

Hi ownl
Check 1st your site onpageseo and after start offpageseo high quality site SEO backlinks and low spam score. Thanks you

Getting up in top 100 needs much more stuff like adding content sharing them using social media platform and building better OFF-page strategies, it has to be unique and relevant articles to the keywords. Once you see the relevant keywords in top 100 keep repeating the process till reach your expected position.

There may be several reasons for this, such as poor content, bad backlinks, or technical problems on your site. I recommend that you do a thorough SEO audit to identify all the problems and then address them one by one.

Let me get you off blackhatworld hoohaa SEO.

Copy your site content, one exact match line - maybe 10 words.
Paste it in Google and search.

Is your site showing up to the result? Have the meta description changed, to match your search - with the content?
If no, there are possible reasons

If its a wordpress, its most likely some plugins that are blocking resources which mean googlebot is not able to find content.
In google search console, test your site and look at the screenshot provided by googlebot and look if the site is rendering properly. If its not, check what is not loading in extra information - and take action from that.

If its loading properly, and still you cant find your result with exact match - your page may be too slow for Google to render it as a whole - so it just renders the top and leaves to not break your site for your visitors.

If the page is indexed, all content should be showing up - if not, Googlebot is having trouble reading it.