My wordpress isn't showing on goggle but I've made it public, and it's been a few months. Can anyone help?

[MyBlog]

I've asked other users who say their Wordpress shows up fine but for some reason mine doesn't. I update at least once a week if not twice, and have done since April.

I checked all privacy settings are set to public and I don't know what else to do. Can anyone help?

[darkriver19886]

Hi OP,
Frustratingly it can take a while for things to be picked up. From using the plugin Yeolt I have discovered you need links to your blog in almost every one of your post.

For example, my blog post that goes live on Monday has an outgoing link (to a charity that I am intending to sign up to)

And a link to a previous post.

It also looks for keywords such as July 2019 and tells you if you have used it enough.

You can install plugins quite easy. I would advise turning the readability section of the app though as it can really annoy you.

[MyBlog]

@darkriver19886, So you mean when I have written an entry, at the end of that piece I need to type:
MyBlog.wordpress.com
at the bottom of the page, every single time?And that will fix it?

[MyBlog]

I would advise turning the readability section of the app though as it can really annoy you.

What turning it off do you mean? Does that make my blog unreadable though? And why can it be annoying (really am a novice!).

[SaskiaRembrandt]

It looks like you are using the free, hosted version of WP - you won't be able to use plugins, they are for self-hosted versions.

When you say not showing up - do you mean if you Google the blog url, or the name or a keyword?

[darkriver19886]

Usually, at the bottom of my post I usually put I hope you enjoyed today's post. Why don't you let me know what you think in the comments or on my Facebook page.

I then link my Facebook page. (That's an outbound link)

Yesterday's post was my monthly goals so I linked last months goals.

Readability section is where it tells you if you have written sentences to long, passive voice and used enough headings. I was advised by a few users of it to turn it off.

[EmpressLesbianInChair]

Have you tried typing site:yourwebaddress keyword into the search bar to make absolutely sure you’re not in Google?

Things that help are:

Links from other relevant sites. These make it easier for Google to see your site & they also give it credibility. Whatever you do though, don’t buy links because Google can spot that a mile off.

E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness). I don’t know what your blog is about but if you’re giving any kind of advice, include a brief bio explaining what qualifies you to do that.

Know what keywords you want to rank for. While it can be very hard to rank for single keywords, you might have a better chance with phrases so Google them & see what suggestions show up in the search bar & also the People Also Ask box. Also have a look at answerthepublic.com for ideas.

Google’s advice, and what I tell my clients, is to write content that matches what people are searching for. And especially that answers searchers’ questions.

Final tip - a friend advertised her small business on Gumtree & almost instantly had a call from someone offering to build her a website & get her to the top of Google in three days. This is TOTAL BOLLOCKS. If anyone makes a similar offer to you, they’re a con artist!

[Norrisskipjack]

What are you searching for when you’re expecting to see your blog?

[MyBlog]

Have you tried typing site:yourwebaddress keyword into the search bar to make absolutely sure you’re not in Google?

Yes I have, in fact, it's the only thing I've tried, other than the sub heading and my user name. But mostly the whole web address:

MyBlog.wordpress.com

And after about 3 pages it says end of search, but nothing shown for my page at all.

[MyBlog]

I don’t know what your blog is about but if you’re giving any kind of advice, include a brief bio explaining what qualifies you to do that.

It's actually all about my psychotherapy, which is why I can't link it to any social media, yet I also wanted it to be public because I had found other people's' journeys helpful to read and if it would be of any use I would like it to be out there.

But it's nothing more than that.

[EmpressLesbianInChair]

It's actually all about my psychotherapy, which is why I can't link it to any social media, yet I also wanted it to be public because I had found other people's' journeys helpful to read and if it would be of any use I would like it to be out there.

Then you might also be coming up against Google’s rules on health-related sites, set up to catch out dodgy pharmacies, fake doctors, etc. Its algorithm looks out for specific words and if it picks up on them, it will put much more emphasis on the need for credibility etc.

Whether you’re actually giving medical advice is unfortunately irrelevant as far as Google’s concerned - if the algorithm picks up the words, that’s what it thinks.

So assuming you explain clearly why you're sharing your blog and that you’re not claiming to be a professional, your best bet really is links. And not links from anyone’s social media, links from other websites that Google can follow to reach your site, and that will tell Google these other sites take you seriously.

[MyBlog]

Okay so it's not really going to be possible then. I won't be able to get links and it's strange I've read other people's stuff but maybe they got going before the rules tightened or something.

Thanks for the info.

[EmpressLesbianInChair]

Tightening up the rules on medical sites was fairly recent.

And Google can be a right pain in the arse on occasion...

I’m just one SEO consultant though, I don’t know everything. If other bloggers can tell you how they did it maybe it will work for you too.

Good luck!

[SaskiaRembrandt]

Your best bet will be to get backlinks - are you in touch with the other bloggers you've read? If they are established maybe they could help you out.

That would help to establish you as a genuine blog, not someone selling snake oil. It will take time though.

[SaskiaRembrandt]

Also - just a thought, but are you using the reader in WordPress.com? That could be a good way to connect with similar bloggers and help to raise your profile?

Disclaimer - I've never used it, but know it's there and people do.

[MyBlog]

Yes I'm using the free Wordpress.com website but have no idea what the reader is. Can you give me an idea?

The blogs I've found helpful have not been on Wordpress but other sites.

I don't even think 'psychotherapy' is in any titles, other than the 'about me' part where I explain I have been documenting my sessions for my own record and wanted to continue to do so but as a blog now for all to see. I haven't used psychotherapy in any words but more descriptions such as things like 'my journey towards the lighter and brighter path' but not as cheesy as that. But certainly not anything claiming to sell snake oil and if you looked at the site it's all about 'my therapist said this or I told how this happened and we did this exercise which helped massively...', or simply those moments when a penny dropped and I saw things with completely fresh eyes.

[MyBlog]

Your best bet will be to get backlinks
What's a backlink?

[EmpressLesbianInChair]

Backlinks are links from other sites.

The medical clampdown thing might well not apply to your site then, it’s just a possibility.

[HermioneMakepeace]

MyBlog Check out Miles Beckler on You Tube. He is a genius when it comes to Google. I have been watching his tutorials and it’s all beginning to make sense now.

[Norrisskipjack]

Right. I work in digital for one of the largest agencies in the uk, couple of things:

Backlinks absolutely aren’t your best bet, they’re old school and no where near as valuable as they used to be plus they’re expensive to get from any site with any authority (remember nothing is on the internet for free). For something your size, your best bet is to improve your content. In the last few algo updates, the quality of your content became a lot more important and it’s one of the easiest things for you to work on.

If you’ve checked the box that makes your site visible to search engines, the next thing you need to do is focus on your content. You need to optimise your writing so that you’re including 1 or 2 (maximum 5 at this stage) keywords that you want to appear for, 1 of which needs to be your brand name. I’m guessing you’ll also want to rank for ‘psychotherapist in’ for local searches, so include that in your page text, page title of your homepage and meta descriptions wherever you can.

Make sure your headings are marked up correctly as h1/, h2/ etc. These are important bits of signposting for Google to understand what your page is about.

Install a free google product called search console which will allow you to crawl your own site and understand any issues with your pages better. It also logs your site map with Google which helps with crawls and therefore helps you rank better.

Finally and I can’t stress this enough, get google analytics installed. If you don’t know, it’s a free bit of kit that allows you to monitor and track the traffic to your site. You’ll get a much better understanding of your traffic and what it’s doing.

There’s a number of free tools online that will give you a full SEO report and tell you what’s needed, a really good one for beginners is grademywebsite.com/

Follow the advice it gives you and your rankings should improve fairly quickly.

Without looking at your site I can’t be more helpful than that I’m afraid, but feel free to PM me and I can take a look

[HigaDequasLuoff]

Set up a separate anonymous twitter account that exists mainly to promote the blog. Tweet each time you write a blog post and start following people with interests in that area and as often as you can without being annoying, include a link to a blog post relevant to a topic of twitter conversation.

Join a few other chat websites (shock! Mumsnet is not the only one) that allow a 'signature' file at the end of each post. Put a link to your blog in your signature file and post regularly.

[SaskiaRembrandt]

Reader is a thing in your dashboard on WP. It's used to subscribed to blogs, follow search terms and so on. You could use it to find similar blogs and build a relationship with the bloggers, a kind of informal networking. Follow their blogs, post genuine comments, and get to know them so you become part of a community.

Backlinks absolutely aren’t your best bet, they’re old school and no where near as valuable as they used to be plus they’re expensive to get from any site with any authority (remember nothing is on the internet for free).

Backlinks are not expensive - they are free! Any backlinks you pay for are devoid of value. Never buy links, OP, it's a disreputable tactic* that will not provide you with any longterm benefit, and for a small, personal site like yours would be a massive waste of money even if the tactic did have value.

In a similar vein, don't attempt to optimise your content. It's another tactic search engines will see through. For years they have placed value on content that sounds natural. Optimised content, unless done really well will be picked up as an attempt to game the system and downgraded. Write well and write often, but use natural human language, don't try to bung in loads of keywords.

The rest of Norrisskipjack 's post is not relevant to you because you are using hosted WP, not self-hosted.

My advice (as someone who has done this stuff professionally for many years) is build relationships with other bloggers; try to get links to your blog from established blogs, not just for the search engine hits, but also because a blog like yours will benefit from more personal word-of-mouth recommendations.

*Seriously, the owners of most established sites and blogs get endless spam from people trying to buy links; no reputable site will ever go along with it.

[SaskiaRembrandt]

HigaDequasLuoff offers good advice! I know you said you don't want to use social media but if you did it anonymously you could protect your identity while still joining an established community. That could be really worthwhile for you, both in terms of gaining readers and of sharing your experiences with others who might find them useful.

[Norrisskipjack]

Sorry OP didn’t realise you were using hosted WP.

saskia to clarify, I never suggested she should write spammy content and I agree with you about backlinks, but it’s not realistic to expect her to be able to gain any kind of link from anywhere with any authority before she’s got a decent amount of content.

[SaskiaRembrandt]

HigaDequasLuoff I apologise if I misinterpreted your post. Glad to hear you're one of the good guys!

I agree with you about building a good body of content to build search engine ranking, but her blog isn't showing up in Google at all - not even the url, so no amount of content is going to help with that. Plus, it's a small, personal -journey blog, so precisely the medium that works best as part of a community. Search engine traffic isn't the best option for a blog like this even if it is being indexed, but becoming a trusted part of a relevant community is probably the best way she can build a readership.

[Norrisskipjack]

Yep agreed.

Internal linking may be a good start too, so OP Make sure when you’re referencing something else on your own blog, you hyperlink to that content and equally, when you read something useful from someone else’s content, link to it. It again helps google crawl your site successfully and helps your site seem like part of the overall landscape, not just existing in isolation.

Also slightly more troubling question and don’t feel you need to answer, sorry if this offends, it’s meant with kindness: have you thought about why you want others to read your thoughts about something as deeply personal as psychotherapy? I get that you want to help other people and that’s lovely, but you need to be focusing on helping yourself. Journaling is great and a blog is a fantastic way to do that, but you seem focused on the public aspect of it rather than the personal. I’d examine whether you’d still want to write your blog if no one ever read it and if the answer to that is no (not suggesting for a second that it would be), then it may not be as helpful tonyou as you’d hoped.

Again apologies if that offends, it’s not meant to