“I have a website but it doesn’t show up on Google” is one of the things we hear most. Usually the problem is not serious, and a few minutes of checking finds the cause. Go through the eight points below in order.
First try this: site:yourdomain.com
Type site:yourdomain.com into Google’s search box (with your own domain). This search shows which pages of your site Google has recorded.
- If there are no results, Google has not indexed the site yet. Points 1, 2, 3 and 4 below are for you.
- If pages appear but you are missing for the search you want, the problem is ranking, not indexing. See points 5 to 8.
1. The site is very new
A newly launched site can take anything from a few days to a few weeks to appear on Google. To shorten that, add the site to Google Search Console and submit the sitemap. You do not need to keep changing the site while you wait.
2. The site is closed to search engines
Some site builders switch on “hide from search engines” while the site is being built, and nobody switches it off after launch. If the page source has a noindex tag, or the robots.txt file has a Disallow: / line, Google will not list the site. The URL Inspection tool in Search Console tells you in one click.
3. No sitemap has been submitted
A sitemap (sitemap.xml) is the list of pages on your site. Submitting it once under Sitemaps in Search Console makes it easier for Google to find every page. It makes a real difference for new sites with few links.
4. The pages are not “different enough” for Google
If the Pages report in Search Console says “Crawled - currently not indexed”, Google has seen the page but did not think it worth adding. Pages that copy each other, near-empty pages with a few sentences and text taken from other sites usually end up here. The fix is to give each page useful information of its own.
5. The word you search for never appears on your site
If your customer searches “dental clinic in Hamburg-Altona” but your site mentions neither “Altona” nor “dental clinic”, Google cannot match you to that search. Write your services and the places you serve in the words your customers use. A separate page for each important service works best.
6. You are mixing up map results and normal results
In local searches the map and the list of businesses appear at the top. The way to appear there is not your website but your Google Business Profile. If you have no profile, or it is incomplete, you will not appear on the map however good your site is. We cover the steps in our Google Business Profile guide.
7. The site is slow or broken on phones
Google also looks at page experience when ranking. A site that loads slowly on a phone, has unreadable text or buttons crammed together can stay in the background. Measure your site with PageSpeed Insights; how to read the score is in our website speed article.
8. Your competitors are very strong for that search
For very broad, competitive searches like “lawyer London”, a new site takes time to reach the top. Starting with narrower, clearer searches is realistic, such as “tenancy lawyer Camden”. Fewer people make these searches, but the person searching wants exactly what you do.
When to worry
If the site has been live for months, Search Console is connected, the pages are indexed and you still do not show up even for your business name, have an expert look at it. Rarely, the site has something Google treats as spam (hidden text, bought links); in that case you will see a warning under Manual actions in Search Console.
If you would like us to do these checks for you, see our plans. On every plan we connect the site to Search Console and watch for problems.