Why your website isn't showing up on Google — and how to fix it, step by step

“My new website doesn't show up on Google” is one of the most common problems people write to us about. The good news: in most cases the cause can be found in a few minutes. The less good news: “doesn't show up” can mean two very different things.

• It isn't indexed — Google doesn't have the website (or some pages) in its index, so it can't show it at all.
• It's indexed but ranks poorly — it appears, but on page 5, where nobody looks.

Let's take them one at a time, starting with the check that tells you which situation you're in.

The 10-second check

Type site:yourdomain.com into Google (no spaces, no www). The results are the pages of your website that Google has indexed.

• No results — the website isn't indexed. Carry on with the reasons below.
• Only some pages — some are indexed, others aren't. Search Console tells you exactly why.
• All pages appear — the problem isn't indexing but ranking. Jump straight to the last section.

1. The website is too new

Google first has to discover the website, then crawl it, and only then decide whether to index it. For a new domain with no links from elsewhere, this can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. There's no guaranteed timeframe, but you can speed it up: add the website to Search Console and submit your sitemap (see point 3).

2. Google has been blocked without you knowing

This is the cause we find most often on websites that “used to be indexed but disappeared” or that were launched in a hurry. Three places to check:

• The noindex tag. An instruction in the page's code telling Google not to index it. It's often left on after a website was built on a test address. In WordPress, check under Settings → Reading that the option discouraging search engines isn't ticked.
• The robots.txt file. It lives at yourdomain.com/robots.txt. If you see Disallow: / under User-agent: *, the whole website is blocked.
• A password. A password-protected or “under construction” website can't be crawled by Google.

3. You don't have Search Console and a sitemap

Google Search Console is free and is the only place where Google tells you directly what it sees on your website. If you haven't set it up yet:

1. Add the website as a Domain property and confirm ownership with a DNS record at your domain provider.
2. Under Sitemaps, submit your sitemap address (usually yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml).
3. Use URL Inspection on your home page and key pages, then request indexing.
4. After a few days, open the Page indexing report: every page that isn't indexed appears there with the exact reason.

The reasons you'll see most often in the report:

4. The same page at several addresses

To Google, http://, https://, with www and without www can be four different websites with the same content. Pick one version (ideally https), permanently redirect the others to it, and make sure each page's canonical tag points to the correct address.

5. Thin or near-duplicate content

Google doesn't index every page just because it exists. Pages with very little text, pages that are almost identical to each other (for example, the same service page repeated for ten towns with only the name changed) or text copied from other websites often stay unindexed. The fix is useful content specific to your business: what exactly you do, for whom, where, at what prices, with what examples.

6. Technical problems

• Server errors — overloaded or down hosting just when Google visits.
• Redirect loops or long redirect chains.
• Content loaded only through JavaScript, which Google doesn't always see the way a visitor does.
• Very slow pages that load with difficulty or with errors.

7. Security issues or manual actions

Rarer, but serious: a hacked website (with injected spam pages) or one that broke Google's rules can be removed from results. In Search Console, check the Security issues and Manual actions sections. If something appears there, fix the cause, then submit a reconsideration request.

It shows up, but not on the first page

If the website is indexed but nobody finds it, the problem is ranking. There's no single cause, but most small websites lose out on the same things:

• The copy doesn't use the words people search for. “Complete mobility solutions” won't show up for “car repair [town]”.
• The local side is missing: there's no clear page about your service and town, and your Google Business Profile is missing or incomplete. We've written about that in our Google Business Profile guide, and if you'd rather we handle it, see Local SEO and Google Business.
• The website is slow or hard to use on a phone.
• Nobody links to the website: without mentions and links from elsewhere (directories, partners, local press), Google has few signals that the website matters.

Quick checklist

1. Search for site:yourdomain.com.
2. Check the noindex tag and the robots.txt file.
3. Add the website to Search Console and submit the sitemap.
4. Request indexing for key pages.
5. Read the reasons in the Page indexing report.
6. Pick one address version and redirect the rest.
7. Improve thin or duplicate pages.
8. Check Security issues and Manual actions.

For every website we launch, these steps are part of the launch: sitemap submitted, indexing checked, no blocks left over from development. If your website still doesn't show up, get in touch and we'll look at it together.