Why is my website not showing up on Google?

If your website isn’t showing up on Google, it’s almost always one of three things: Google hasn’t found it yet, something on the site is telling Google to stay away, or Google has found it but ranks it too low for anyone to see.

Each has a different fix, so the first job is working out which one you’ve got. That takes about five minutes.

Step 1: check if Google knows your site exists

Go to Google and search for site: followed by your web address, with no spaces. For example:

site:yourbusiness.co.uk

What you see tells you where to look next:

• Nothing comes up. Google hasn’t indexed your site at all. Go to step 2.
• Your pages come up, but you can’t find yourself when you search for what you do. Google knows about you but isn’t ranking you. Skip to step 3.
• Some pages come up, but not the important ones. It’s a mix of both. Work through both.

Step 2: if Google hasn’t found your site

It’s new

A brand new site can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to appear. You can speed that up by telling Google it’s there, which is the next point.

Google hasn’t been told about it

Add your site to Google Search Console. It’s free, and it’s Google’s own tool for website owners. Once you’ve verified you own the site, submit your sitemap (usually at yourbusiness.co.uk/sitemap.xml), then use the URL inspection tool on your home page and click “Request indexing”.

Something is blocking Google

This one’s more common than you’d think, and it’s usually an accident:

• A “noindex” setting. Many website builders and WordPress have a tick box that hides the site from search engines while it’s being built. If nobody unticked it at launch, Google is being told to ignore you. In WordPress, it’s under Settings, then Reading, labelled “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”.
• A robots.txt file blocking everything. Visit yourbusiness.co.uk/robots.txt. If you see “Disallow: /” on its own, the whole site is blocked.
• The site is behind a password or “coming soon” page.

Search Console’s URL inspection tool will tell you directly if a page is blocked, and why.

Step 3: if Google knows about you but you don’t rank

This is the most common situation, and the hardest to fix quickly. Google shows the pages it thinks best answer the search. If yours don’t appear, one or more of these is usually the reason.

1. 01
   Your pages don’t clearly say what you do and where. If your home page says “Quality you can trust since 1998” but never says “electrician in Dolgellau”, Google has to guess. Each main service should have its own page, and your town should be in the text.
2. 02
   You don’t have a Google Business Profile. For local searches, the map results come first. See how to get your business on Google Maps.
3. 03
   Other sites don’t mention you. Links and mentions from local directories, suppliers, the local paper or a trade body tell Google you’re a real, established business.
4. 04
   The site is slow or awkward on a phone. Google’s page experience guidance rewards pages that load quickly and work well on mobile.
5. 05
   There isn’t much on it. A single page with two sentences gives Google nothing to match against searches.
6. 06
   The competition is strong. “Web design London” is a different fight from “web design Barmouth”. Being specific about your service and area helps you win the searches you can actually win.

If your site used to show up and then disappeared

Something changed. The usual suspects:

• The domain name expired. Check your renewal date with whoever you registered it with.
• The site was rebuilt or moved and the old page addresses weren’t redirected to the new ones.
• The security certificate expired. Browsers show a “not secure” warning and people leave.
• The site was hacked. Look in Search Console under Security Issues.
• A manual action. Rare for small businesses, but Search Console will show it under Manual Actions if Google has penalised the site.

A quick checklist

• Search site: plus your domain to see what Google has indexed
• Set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap
• Check for a noindex setting and your robots.txt file
• Make sure every main service has its own page that names your town
• Create and complete your Google Business Profile
• Test the site on your phone, and check it loads quickly

Want a second pair of eyes?

The free website check tests your site’s speed and phone performance with Google’s own tools and tells you, in plain English, what’s worth fixing. It takes about 20 seconds.

If it turns out the site needs more than a few fixes, here’s what a website costs in the UK, including what I charge. If something on the site is broken, website rescue is the quicker route.