If your website is not showing up on Google, the cause is almost always one of three things: Google hasn’t found the page yet, Google found it but was told not to index it, or Google crawled it and decided not to include it. Google Search Console tells you which one applies, and the fix depends on the answer. This guide walks through how to check, in order, from the quickest causes to the slowest.
Before you start, separate two different problems. “My site doesn’t appear at all, even when I search my business name” is an indexing problem. “My site appears for my name but not for my services” is a ranking problem. This article is mostly about the first, with a section at the end on the second.
Step 1: Confirm Whether Google Has Your Site at All
Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. If you see results, at least some of your pages are indexed. If you see nothing, Google has none of them. The site: search is a rough check, not a complete count, so don’t worry if the number of results looks odd.
For a reliable answer, set up Google Search Console and verify your domain. It’s free, and it’s the only place Google tells you directly what it thinks of your site. Our guide to starting SEO yourself with Search Console covers the setup.
Step 2: Check for an Accidental “Noindex”
This is the most common reason a brand-new site never appears, and it’s easy to fix. Many website builders and content management systems include a setting that asks search engines not to index the site while it’s being built. If nobody turns it off at launch, the site stays invisible.
How to check:
- In Search Console, use the URL Inspection tool on your homepage. If it says the page is excluded by a “noindex” tag, that’s your problem.
- Look through your site’s settings for anything like “discourage search engines” or “hide from search” and switch it off.
- Check individual pages too. SEO settings can apply noindex to a single page, a category or a whole post type.
Step 3: Make Sure Robots.txt Isn’t Blocking Google
Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt. If you see a line that reads Disallow: / under User-agent: *, you’re telling every search engine to stay out of the entire site. Development sites often launch with this left in place. Remove the line or ask your developer to, then request indexing again.
Note that robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing. A blocked page can occasionally appear in results with no description, but it won’t rank properly for anything.
Step 4: Submit a Sitemap and Request Indexing
A sitemap is a file listing the pages you want Google to know about. Most platforms create one automatically, usually at an address like /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml.
- In Search Console, open Sitemaps and submit your sitemap URL.
- Use URL Inspection on your most important pages and click Request indexing.
- Give it time. Google says crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and requesting it repeatedly doesn’t speed things up.
Step 5: Read the Page Indexing Report
Search Console’s Pages report groups every URL Google knows about and explains why some aren’t indexed. The statuses you’ll see most often:
- Discovered, currently not indexed: Google knows the URL exists but hasn’t crawled it yet. Common on new sites and sites with weak internal linking. Link to these pages from your menu or other relevant pages.
- Crawled, currently not indexed: Google read the page and chose not to include it for now. This usually means the page looks too similar to other pages, too thin or not useful enough. Improve or combine the content rather than resubmitting it.
- Duplicate without user-selected canonical: Google sees several versions of the same page and picked one. Decide which version you want and point the others at it.
- Excluded by noindex tag: see Step 2.
- Not found (404) or server error (5xx): broken pages or hosting problems. Fix or redirect them.
- Page with redirect: usually fine, as long as the redirect leads to the page you want indexed.
Step 6: Check for Manual Actions and Security Issues
Under Security & Manual actions in Search Console, confirm both reports say no issues were detected. A manual action means a Google reviewer found a violation of its spam policies. A security issue, such as a hacked site, can also remove pages from results. Both are rare for small business sites, but they’re worth ruling out in a minute.
Step 7: Fix What Makes Pages Hard to Index
If the technical checks pass and pages still aren’t indexed, the issue is usually the site itself.
- Orphan pages: pages no other page links to. Google finds pages mostly by following links, so connect every important page to your navigation or related content. Our guide to site architecture for SEO explains how to organize them.
- Near-duplicate pages: ten city pages with the same text and a swapped town name, or several blog posts on the same topic. Google tends to index one and skip the rest.
- Thin pages: a service page with two sentences and a contact form gives Google little reason to show it.
- Content that only loads with heavy scripts: if the main text appears only after complex scripts run, use URL Inspection’s live test to see what Google actually renders.
If Your Site Shows Up for Your Name but Not Your Services
That’s a ranking issue, not an indexing one, and it’s normal for newer sites. Google is showing your pages; it just trusts other pages more for competitive searches. The usual fixes:
- Give each main service its own page with real detail about what you do, where and for whom.
- Write title tags that describe the service and location plainly.
- Set up and complete your Google Business Profile, which often appears for local searches before the website does.
- Earn mentions and links from local organizations, partners and directories.
- Be patient. New sites typically take months, not weeks, to compete for service searches.
Our local SEO checklist covers the local side in detail.
Common Mistakes When Your Website Is Not Showing Up on Google
- Requesting indexing over and over instead of fixing the underlying cause.
- Launching a redesign without redirects from old URLs, so indexed pages turn into 404s.
- Building a new site on a temporary address and forgetting to remove the noindex setting after moving it to the real domain.
- Setting up Search Console for the www version while the site loads without www, or the reverse. Verifying the whole domain avoids this.
- Assuming the site is “not on Google” because it doesn’t appear on page one for a broad term like “plumber.”
Quick Checklist
- Run a site: search for your domain.
- Verify your domain in Search Console.
- Inspect the homepage URL and look for noindex.
- Check robots.txt for a sitewide block.
- Submit your sitemap.
- Review the Pages report and fix the biggest group of excluded URLs.
- Confirm there are no manual actions or security issues.
- Link every important page from your navigation or related pages.
If you’ve worked through the list and your site still isn’t appearing, or you’d rather have someone handle it for you, our SEO services start with exactly this kind of indexing review.