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A website not showing on Google is almost always one of three things: Google hasn’t indexed it yet, a setting on the site is telling Google to stay away, or the site is indexed but doesn’t rank for the search you tried. You can tell which in about a minute. Search Google for site:yourdomain.com (your own domain, no space after the colon). No results means Google doesn’t have the site. Results mean it does, and what you’re dealing with is ranking.
That split decides the fix. A site Google hasn’t picked up usually needs one setting changed and a request in Google Search Console, which costs nothing. A site that’s indexed but missing when you search “electrician” plus your town needs better pages and some patience. The checks below run in the order worth doing them, each with the Google help page behind it. If you’d rather hand the whole thing over, building and fixing sites that get found and bring in calls is what our website service does.
How do I check if Google has my website at all?
Turn SafeSearch off and search site:yourdomain.com. Google’s guide to missing pages says that if results appear, the site is indexed, and if nothing appears, the next step is the URL Inspection tool in Search Console. To check one page, put its full address after site: instead.
Then match what you see to a row:
| What you see | What it means | Where to go next |
|---|---|---|
| The site: search finds nothing | Google hasn’t indexed the site | Check the settings in “What stops Google from indexing a website?”, then add the site to Search Console |
| Some pages show, others don’t | The site is indexed but some pages are missing | Inspect the missing pages in Search Console and make sure your menu or another page links to them |
| Your site shows for your business name but not for your service and town | Indexed, but not ranking for that search | “Why does my website show for my business name but not for my services?” |
| Your business shows in the map results, but your website isn’t in the results below the map | Your Business Profile is ranking; your website’s pages aren’t | Same section: the map and the web results are ranked on different things |
| It used to show, and now the site: search finds nothing | The site has dropped out of the index | “My website used to show on Google and now it’s gone” |
| Your website shows, but your business isn’t on Google Maps | A Business Profile problem, not a website problem | Our guide to a business not showing on Google Maps |
Why is my new website not showing on Google yet?
Usually because it’s new: Google says indexing a new page typically takes anywhere from a day or two to a few weeks. The same Search Console Help page says to allow at least a week after submitting a sitemap or an indexing request before assuming there’s a problem.
Ranking takes longer than indexing. Google’s SEO Starter Guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether a change worked. So a site that went live four days ago and doesn’t show yet is normal. One that went live six weeks ago and still returns nothing for a site: search has a problem, and it’s usually one of the settings below.
What stops Google from indexing a website?
On a freshly built site, the usual culprit is a “hide from search engines” setting that was switched on while the site was under construction and never switched off at launch. WordPress, Wix and Squarespace all have one. Check yours:
| Platform | Where the setting is | What it should say |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | Settings, then Reading, then Search engine visibility | “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” unticked. When it’s ticked, WordPress adds a noindex, nofollow tag to the site’s pages (WordPress documentation). |
| Wix | Dashboard, then SEO & GEO, then Tools and settings, then SEO Settings | “Let search engines index your site” switched on. Wix says this works whether or not the site is on a paid plan (Wix Help Center). |
| Squarespace | Page settings for each page, then the SEO tab | “Hide this page from search results” unchecked. The site also needs a paid plan, must be published and can’t have a site-wide password: search engines won’t find trial, expired or canceled sites (Squarespace Help). |
| Any site | The robots.txt file and each page’s code | No “Disallow: /” line blocking the whole site in robots.txt, no noindex tag on pages you want found, and no password on them. |
The last row has a trap. If robots.txt blocks a page, Google never sees the noindex tag on it, and Google’s noindex documentation says a blocked page can still turn up in results when other pages link to it. If you want a page indexed, both blocks have to go.
Google’s list of causes also includes a manual action or security issue (worth checking if you bought the domain secondhand), an old removal request that is still active, and pages nothing links to, which Google may never find.
How do I get Google to index my website?
Add the site to Google Search Console, inspect your homepage, fix whatever it reports, then request indexing. Step by step:
- In Search Console, open the property selector, choose Add property, then pick Domain or URL prefix. A Domain property covers every version of your site, including www and non-www, http and https, but you verify it by adding a DNS record. A URL prefix property covers only addresses that start with the exact prefix you enter, such as https://www.yourdomain.com, and has more ways to verify (Search Console Help: add a property). If your web designer controls the domain, they’ll need to add the record or give you access. If they won’t, read what to do when your web designer won’t give you access.
- Paste your homepage address into the inspection bar at the top of any Search Console screen. “URL is on Google” means the page is eligible to appear, which Google says is not a guarantee that it will. “URL is not on Google” comes with a reason in the Page indexing section (URL Inspection tool help).
- Fix that reason (the next section explains the common ones), then run the live test in the same tool to confirm the live page can now be indexed.
- Click Request indexing. Each property has a daily limit, and a request doesn’t guarantee the page gets indexed, so request your homepage and main service pages rather than every page.
- Submit your sitemap in the Sitemaps report, or add a line such as Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to robots.txt. Google calls a sitemap “merely a hint” and says a site of about 500 pages or fewer may not need one, but it takes a minute and helps Google find pages your menu doesn’t link to (build and submit a sitemap, do you need a sitemap). Your platform or developer can tell you the sitemap’s address.
- Wait at least a week before deciding it hasn’t worked.
What do the Search Console indexing messages mean?
Each one tells you what to change. Here are the reasons you’re most likely to meet on a small business site, explained in Google’s Page indexing report help:
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| URL marked ‘noindex’ | The page tells Google not to index it | Remove the tag (often the platform setting above), confirm with URL Inspection, then request indexing |
| URL blocked by robots.txt | robots.txt stops Google from crawling the page | Edit robots.txt to allow the page |
| Discovered, currently not indexed | Google knows the address but hasn’t crawled it yet | Link the page from your menu or another indexed page, and list it in your sitemap |
| Crawled, currently not indexed | Google crawled the page and hasn’t indexed it for now | Google says it may be indexed later and there’s no need to resubmit. If the page says very little, adding real detail about the service is the useful change. |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | Google treats the page as a copy of another one and chose that one | Not an error. If Google picked the wrong page, mark your preferred one as canonical; if the page isn’t a copy, make its content clearly different |
| Page with redirect | The address redirects to another page, so this address isn’t indexed | Nothing to fix if the redirect is intended; inspect the page it redirects to instead |
Why does my website show for my business name but not for my services?
Because being indexed only makes your pages eligible to appear. Hardly anyone else competes for your business name, but “plumber” plus your town is a contest with every other plumber in the area, and two different systems decide who shows.
The map results at the top of a local search come from Google Business Profiles, ranked mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and Google says there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. The ordinary web results below the map are where your website’s pages compete. Google’s SEO Starter Guide keeps the advice simple: think about the words a customer would search, and give each page a title that is unique, clear and accurate about what’s on it.
In practice that means a page for each main service, written in the words customers use, with the service and the area in the page title. A homepage titled “Home” that lists every service in one paragraph gives Google little to match against a search like “blocked drain repair”. Be careful with suburb pages. Google’s spam policies list pages targeted at specific cities or regions that funnel users to one page as doorway abuse, so fifty copies of one page with only the suburb name changed are a risk.
Worked example: a plumber’s new site
These are example details, not a real client. A plumber launches a new site and, three weeks later, can’t find it when searching for their services.
- A site: search on the domain shows five pages. The site is indexed, so there’s no blocking setting to hunt for.
- Searching the business name shows the site first. Indexing and the brand are fine.
- Searching “blocked drain repair” plus the town shows the map results and competitors’ pages, but not this site.
- The homepage title is “Home | Business Name”, and blocked drains is one bullet point on a services page shared with eight other services.
The fix is a separate blocked drains page with the service and the town in its title, covering what the job involves, the areas served and how to book. It goes in the main menu, then gets inspected and submitted in Search Console, and the plumber gives it the few weeks the Starter Guide suggests before judging the result. The Business Profile is worked on separately, because it drives the map results. Once the pages show and the visits start, the next question is whether visitors call; if they don’t, see why a website gets traffic but no leads.
My website used to show on Google and now it’s gone. What happened?
Rule out the simple causes first, because they’re quickest to check: the site is down, the domain or hosting lapsed, or a rebuild went live without redirects or with the hide setting back on.
- Open the site on your phone over mobile data. If it shows an error, fix that first. Google keeps pages that return server errors for a while but eventually drops them, and it removes indexed pages that return a 404 (how HTTP errors affect Google Search).
- If the site was redesigned, moved to a new domain or switched to https, check that the old addresses send visitors to the new ones with 301 redirects. Google’s missing pages guide names wrong redirects after a move as a cause.
- Run the platform checks in the table above again. If the new design was built on a hidden copy of the site, the setting may have come across with it.
- In Search Console, open the Manual Actions and Security Issues reports. A manual action can remove pages from results entirely. Fix every affected page, since fixing only some won’t bring a partial return, then use Request Review (Manual Actions report help).
What mistakes keep a website off Google for longer?
- Paying for “guaranteed first page” or “priority submission”. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, that it never accepts money to include or rank sites, and it warns against SEOs selling a priority submit service.
- Requesting indexing over and over. There’s a daily limit, and for pages marked “Crawled, currently not indexed” Google says resubmitting isn’t needed.
- Not having your own access to Search Console. If only your designer can see it, you can’t run any of these checks yourself, so add the property yourself or ask to be added.
- Expecting Google Ads to lift your organic rankings. Google says advertising has no effect on a site’s organic results. Ads are a separate paid placement, and they’re the way to get calls from search while the site earns its rankings, which is what our Google Ads management is for.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay Google for my website to show up?
No. Google says organic listings cost nothing and that it never accepts money to include or rank sites in its search results. Paying for Google Ads only gets you into the ad slots.
Will submitting my site to Google make it show up straight away?
No. Google calls a sitemap a hint, and an indexing request doesn’t guarantee the page will be indexed. Google suggests allowing at least a week after either before assuming there’s a problem.
Search Console says “URL is on Google” but I still can’t find my site. Why?
That message means the page is eligible to appear. It says nothing about where the page ranks for what you searched. Confirm it with a site: search, then search your exact business name. If both find the site, you have a ranking problem, covered in the business name section above.
Does my website need a paid plan to show on Google?
It depends on the platform. Wix says its sites can be indexed whether or not they’re upgraded. Squarespace says search engines won’t find sites on a trial, expired or canceled plan, so the site needs a paid plan and must be published.
Sources: 1. Why is my page missing from Google Search? (Search Console Help). 2. URL Inspection tool (Search Console Help). 3. Page indexing report (Search Console Help). 4. Add a website property (Search Console Help). 5. Manual Actions report (Search Console Help). 6. SEO Starter Guide (Google Search Central). 7. Block Search indexing with noindex (Google Search Central). 8. Build and submit a sitemap (Google Search Central). 9. What is a sitemap (Google Search Central). 10. How HTTP status codes and network errors affect Google Search (Google Search Central). 11. Spam policies for Google web search (Google Search Central). 12. Do you need an SEO? (Google Search Central). 13. Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (Google Business Profile Help). 14. Settings Reading Screen (WordPress Documentation). 15. Enabling search engines to index your site (Wix Help Center). 16. Why doesn’t my site appear in Google search results? (Squarespace Help).
