No credit card. Takes under a minute.

Login
INSIGHTS2 MIN READ

The Light Bulb Comes On! Sorry, Google For Confusing You!

famous

Published on August 13, 2013

Published on Wealthy Affiliate — a platform for building real online businesses with modern training and AI.

Ever wrote what you thought was a great article, but Google doesn't give it any love? Others you've done seem just as good and ranked well! So what happened to this one?

Reviewing the rankings of some of my blogs, I ran across a real dog. Google had it ranked on page 7! I expected at least the first page! What happened?

The light bulb comes on!

My keywords were "rental cars Costa Rica" and my site was about my small tourist beach town in Costa Rica. Anyone should know that the keywords "rental cars" go with tourism? Wrong! Google didn't make the jump!

Ready to put this into action?

Start your free journey today — no credit card required.

Wasted 4 hours!

My meta tags were clear that my town, Tamarindo is a vacation-type town, but Google didn't work with me. As Doctor Spock would say, "It's illogical."

As you know, rental cars are used on vacations and for other purposes. Plus, my site hadn't mentioned cars before. So, Google didn't automatically connect rental cars with vacations, and probably thought my article was off-topic.

What I should have done.

I'll bet you a year of my beach clean up salary that if I'd used the keywords "vacation rental cars Costa Rica" instead of just "rental cars Costa Rica", Google would have recognized that I was on-topic for my site, and ranked by article higher.

I don't think Google gives love for articles for small sites that suddenly talk about a seemingly unrelated topics. Google thinks lineal and doesn't jump logic gaps, unless there is a lot of supporting evidence.

Dance like a Google and don't waste your time on articles that won't rank.

Share this insight

This conversation is happening inside the community.

Join free to continue it.

The Internet Changed. Now It Is Time to Build Differently.

If this article resonated, the next step is learning how to apply it. Inside Wealthy Affiliate, we break this down into practical steps you can use to build a real online business.

No credit card. Instant access.

2.9M+

Members

190+

Countries Served

20+

Years Online

50K+

Success Stories

The world's most successful affiliate marketing training platform. Join 2.9M+ entrepreneurs building their online business with expert training, tools, and support.

Member Login

© 2005-2026 Wealthy Affiliate
All rights reserved worldwide.

🔒 Trusted by Millions Worldwide

Since 2005, Wealthy Affiliate has been the go-to platform for entrepreneurs looking to build successful online businesses. With industry-leading security, 99.9% uptime, and a proven track record of success, you're in safe hands.