This Is How Being Different Can Help Websites Get Higher Rankings In Google

In an office hours hangout, Google’s John Mueller responded to a query where he discussed why a website had lost its ranking. His answer was concentrated on the power to be unique and how quality can guide a website to achieve higher rankings in Google. What should both site owners and affordable SEO UK experts know more about this?

A publisher asked a question regarding a website that lost ranking, wherein there might be SEO pages that were ignored by Google for the purpose of ranking. Here’s the question:

“I have a website. I lost traffic.

This is a ringtone download site containing 60,000 ringtones.

On December 17, we lost our ranking and if I search my site with a colon search query, I only see seven pages available.

I did not receive any manual actions.

Is this an algorithmic penalty in which Google deletes web pages?

What can I do to get my traffic back?”

Mueller then started his response by explaining that the search query for the site’s colon isn’t trustworthy for analysing anything on a website.

Assessing a website is meaningless and will just provide a rough estimate on the indexed pages’ number.

Here’s the response from Mueller:

“So, in general, a site query is not representative of all the pages we have indexed.

It’s a good way to get an overview of what we have indexed. But this is not the complete list. It’s not supposed to be like that.

For more information on how or what we indexed, I would use the search console and the index coverage report there.

This gives you a better overview of the pages actually indexed.”

While the search for the site’s colon offers an inaccurate or rough idea of the pages indexed, there’s still something significant with the search on the website. Study shows that at least 60,000 ringtone pages can’t be seen from the website search and the search engine giant just displays seven pages. This kind of result is far more than an “appropriate view” of the number of indexed pages by Google.

In this specific instance, Mueller can generally be right. However, it can be perceived that such search results on a specific website signify that there’s something really wrong.

Mueller further mentioned that posting on the webmaster’s help forum is a good idea to get specific answers. There are individuals in the forum who provide good search engine optimisation advice in case somebody needs opinions on a particular site from strangers.

Mueller further explained:

“Regarding the loss of traffic, I realize that it is sometimes difficult.

In general, I think with a ringtone-focused website it will be a little tricky, as our algorithms really try to find unique, compelling, high-quality content.

And if your entire website is essentially based on providing the same ringtones as anywhere else, I don’t know if our algorithms would say that this is a very important website on which we need to focus and highlight more in the research.

So with that in mind, if you focus on this kind of small amount of content that is the same as everyone else, I would try to find ways to significantly differentiate yourself to really make it clear that what you have on your website is significantly different from all those other millions of ringtone websites that have sort of the same content.

• There may be a way to do this with regard to the content you provide.
• There may be a way to do this with the functionality you provide.

But you really have to make sure that what you have on your site is different enough for our algorithms to say that this is what we need to index instead of all those others who only have a list of ringtones on the site.

So it probably won’t be that easy to make that kind of change, but that’s usually the direction I would take.

And this is the same recommendation I would have for any type of website that offers essentially the same thing as many other websites.

You really have to make sure that what you provide is unique and compelling and of high quality so that our systems and our users in general say, I want to go to this particular website because they offer me something unique about the web and I don’t just want to go to another random website.”

Achieve higher rankings by being different

Being different from your competitors is crucial for the algorithm, according to Google. This means that a website must be better in a way from the competition and makes it enticing for a particular product.

Things that a high-ranking site must be according to Mueller:

1. Unique
2. Irresistible
3. High quality

Why drives consumer desire?

• Why do teenagers make fun of Facebook?
• Why do middle-aged individuals enjoy Facebook?
• A boot is a boot, but why are the boots of Doc Martens liked by young and old consumers?

What Powers Success

Teenagers might spurn Facebook since it is the community of their parents, and it doesn’t provide instant entertainment and communication compared to other social media platforms.

Middle-aged individuals like that community, wherein they even guide each other through adulthood issues and catch with their old acquaintances.

Doc Martens boots are not just durable. They also give a feeling of individualism and authenticity, wherein it might be because they complement the aspirations of the people who wear them.

Mirrors and symbols

Websites and products are not merely websites and products.

The best ones actually symbolise the likes or interests of the consumers and mirror who they want to be.

• Symbols of goals and aspirations
• Utility
• Mirrors personal and vital values like faith, community, authenticity, etc.

Websites and products can symbolise and reflect the consumer’s aspirations, purpose, and values. These are the things which distinguish a website from the others. Plus, it can assist with generating popularity signal that is beneficial in helping a website gain higher rankings in Google.

Is Google Throttling Crawling Of Websites Amidst Of The COVID-19 Pandemic?

John Mueller of Google answered a question regarding if Google is completely holding back on or throttling crawling websites during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mueller then stated that Google isn’t doing that, but instead if one’s service can’t manage the Google load, then they’ll slow down the crawling. But then again, this isn’t a new behaviour from the search engine giant.

Here’s Mueller response, which was a joke:

It’s actually a bit funny that computers were unaffected by the virus.

But then Mueller explained, "I honestly don't expect much change overall. For some sites, we'll crawl less frequently because they're a bit more overloaded, others we might crawl more frequently. This kind of shift happens from time to time (holiday shopping, summer breaks, elections, etc.)."

One wouldn’t expect that Google will be crawling less due to the outbreak.

Details in this SEO UK blog came from https://exbulletin.com/tech/68787?online-services  and https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-trips-to-the-shops-fall-by-85-since-outbreak-according-to-google-data-11968171.html. Go to these links for more information

If you are worried about the rankings of your website, make sure to seek the help of trustworthy SEO agencies for professional guidance. Head out to Position1SEO homepage to know more.