When your website isn’t showing up on Google, the cause can span technical concerns to content-related issues. In this post, learn common reasons and practical fixes to improve your site’s visibility.
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The logo sparkles, the copy calls. You’ve put the final flourishes on your website. In the movie version of your life, this is where the music crescendos.
But when you search for it on Google, it’s nowhere to be found, and the music changes to an unexpected silence.
If you’ve ever wanted to toss your laptop out the window, you’re in great company.
When you’re building a new website, or creating new pages, it’s more common than you think that they don’t immediately pop up in search.
This is a super common problem, and the reasons why your website seems to be invisible can range from technical issues to content-related challenges.
When I began my SEO journey, one of my mentors shared a story that highlights just how easy it is to overlook tiny details with outsized impact:
She had a client who invested a significant amount of money into creating a stunning website. The client spent a year diligently blogging and was dismayed to find that her site was getting zero visitors. Feeling desperate, she hired an SEO expert to investigate and provide advice.
What was the issue? The website was blocking search engines from indexing it.
In simple terms, this means that the site was effectively invisible to search engines like Google. The website had a setting enabled that told search engines not to include it in their index, making it impossible for anyone to find it through search.
This is a trick sometimes used by developers when they’re working on a website and don’t want it to be publicly accessible yet. They might enable this setting to keep the site hidden during the development phase. However, occasionally, they forget to turn off this setting once the site is live.
For what it’s worth, I don’t recommend this strategy, as it can lead to exactly the kind of situation my mentor’s client experienced. There are better ways to protect pages-in-progress (although that’s a topic for another day).
In this post, we’ll explore this and other common reasons why your site might not be showing up on Google, along with actionable steps to fix these issues. Whether you’re new to SEO or just looking to troubleshoot, these tips will help you get your site noticed.
1. Give it some time
This one is about setting expectations.
If your website is brand new, don’t expect it to show up in search results immediately.
The process of getting crawled, indexed, and ranked by Google can take some time. Factors such as your site’s structure, content quality, frequency of updates, and even the presence of backlinks can influence the timeframe.
Generally, most high-quality content is indexed within about a week, though it can sometimes take longer, up to eight weeks in certain cases [1].
Additionally, new websites often experience what’s known as the “Google Sandbox” effect.
This is a period of time during which new sites don’t rank well, even after being indexed. This sandbox effect, recently confirmed by leaked Google documents, serves as a form of probation (hazing?) where new sites have to establish their credibility before earning higher rankings. This period can last anywhere from one to six months [2,3]
While you can’t necessarily bypass “being new”, understanding these processes and timelines can help you set realistic expectations for your site’s visibility.
2. Check To See If Your Site is Indexed
If your website has been live for some time and you’re still not seeing any traffic, the next step is to check if Google has indexed your site. Indexing means that Google has crawled your website and stored information about your pages, making them eligible to appear in search results.
How to Check: To see if your site is indexed, go to Google and type site:yourwebsite.com into the search bar, then hit enter.
This command will show all the pages from your domain that Google has indexed. If your pages show up, your site is indexed.
If no relevant results appear, your site might not be indexed yet, or there could be an issue preventing it from being indexed.
3. If Your Site Is Blocked from Indexing:
If your website or an individual page isn’t showing up on Google, it might be because it’s accidentally being blocked from being indexed.
This area can be a bit technical and might require some help from a developer or your techy sidekick of choice. Here’s how you can check:
Check WordPress Settings: If you’re using WordPress, go to “Settings” > “Reading” in your dashboard. Make sure the option “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is not checked. This setting can prevent your site from appearing in search results.
Look at the Robots.txt File: The robots.txt file on your website can block search engines from indexing certain pages. To check, type yourwebsite.com/robots.txt into your browser’s address bar. If you see a line like Disallow: / (note the forwardslash), this could mean that your site is blocked from being indexed.
Use Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a user-friendly tool for checking indexing issues on individual pages. Here’s how to use it:
- Go to Google Search Console and navigate to the “URL Inspection” tool.
- Enter the URL of the page you want to check.
The tool will show the page’s indexing status. If the page isn’t indexed, you can request indexing directly from the tool. - If a page is shown as “Blocked by robots.txt,” check your SEO plugin settings (such as Yoast) to ensure you haven’t inadvertently blocked the page from being indexed by search engines (see image below). This might involve adjusting the plugin settings to allow indexing for that page.
If you’re unsure how to interpret the robots.txt file, the Google Search Console data, or how to fix these issues, reaching out to your developer or help desk can help resolve them and ensure your site is correctly set up for indexing.
4. Submit Your Sitemap to Google
Have you submitted your sitemap to Google? A sitemap helps Google understand your site’s structure and find all your pages, which is especially helpful if you run a smaller website that is updated infrequently.
Steps to Submit Your Sitemap:
- Locate Your Sitemap: Most CMS platforms, like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix, can automatically generate a sitemap for you. To see if you have one, try typing in your website URL followed by /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml. For example, yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml.
- Create a Google Search Console Account: If you haven’t already, create an account on Google Search Console. Follow the prompts to verify your site.
- Submit to Google Search Console: Once your site is verified, go to the ‘Sitemaps’ section in Google Search Console. Enter the URL of your sitemap (e.g., yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml) and click “Submit.”
And that’s it! This will help Google find and index all your pages.
5. Research Your Keywords
Keyword research helps you understand the terms people use to find services like yours. If your site is indexed but not showing up in search results, it could be due to the keywords (or lack thereof) in your content.
What to Do: Start by identifying the SEO keywords relevant to your business. These are the words and phrases that potential clients might use when searching for your services. Once you have a list, incorporate these keywords naturally into your content, including titles, headings, and body text.
For a more detailed guide on how to do keyword research, check out my free resource, “SEO Simplified: Master Keywords With The GROW Framework.” This guide will walk you through the process step-by-step, helping you find and use the right keywords to attract your ideal clients.
6. Optimize Pages Around a Single Focus Keyword
Each page on your site should target a specific focus keyword. This helps search engines understand the main topic of your content and rank it appropriately.
Best Practices: Ensure your content is centered around the chosen keyword, and use it strategically in key places such as the SEO title, page title (H1), image file names, and body content. Be mindful to avoid keyword stuffing, as this can negatively impact your SEO by making your content appear spammy and less readable.
7. Fill in Your SEO Page Titles
SEO titles and descriptions are crucial for helping search engines understand the content of your pages.
According to the 2024 Google documentation leaks, the contents of SEO titles are specific ranking factors, making them essential for your site’s visibility in search results[4].
How to Optimize: Use concise, descriptive titles that include your focus keyword. While Google doesn’t specify a strict length for SEO titles, studies have shown that shorter titles often have better click-through rates (CTR). Research by Backlinko found that titles between 40-60 characters have the highest CTR, significantly outperforming longer or shorter titles [5]. Aim for a keyword-rich phrase within this range to optimize both ranking and click-through rates.
Additionally, there has been ongoing debate about whether click-through rate (CTR) is a direct ranking factor. While some evidence suggests that Google uses CTR data in certain contexts, the exact role it plays is still not fully confirmed. It’s generally agreed, however, that higher CTR can lead to better visibility, as it indicates to Google that users find the content relevant and engaging [6,7].
Optimizing your SEO title will help ensure that your content is accurately represented in search results and attract more (and better aligned) visitors to your site.
8. Check Your Page Speed
Page speed is a significant factor in SEO, particularly since Google now uses mobile-first indexing.
This means that Google primarily considers the mobile version of your website for ranking purposes, making mobile page speed crucial for SEO.
Assessing Speed: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your page speed. One key metric to focus on is Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures the time it takes for the main content of a page to become visible to users. An LCP slower than 3 seconds can lead to higher bounce rates, where users leave the page before it fully loads.
Why Focus on Mobile Page Speed? LCP is a part of Google’s Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics introduced as part of the overall ranking factors to assess the user experience on a webpage. Core Web Vitals, including LCP, are essential for evaluating page performance, as they reflect how quickly the main content loads and how users perceive the experience on mobile devices. These metrics play a critical role in determining your site’s ranking and visibility.
Optimization Tips: Start with image optimization.
- Compress images to reduce their file size without sacrificing quality.
- Use appropriate image formats, such as JPEG for photographs and PNG for graphics with transparent backgrounds.
- Follow best practices for naming your image files with descriptive, keyword-rich names.
Need some guidance? Check out this bonus resource: How To Optimize Your Images For SEO
9. Still Having Trouble? Get A Website Audit
If you’re still struggling to rank, an SEO audit can uncover tricker technical issues, content gaps, and other SEO challenges. An audit provides actionable recommendations to improve your site’s visibility and effectiveness.
Hiring an SEO expert brings specialized knowledge and efficiency, saving you time and providing you access to advanced tools and up-to-date strategies.
While DIY SEO can be valuable, investing in a professional website audit will save you time, reduce stress, and potentially lead to better results, helping you improve your online visibility with long-lasting benefits.
Website Not Showing Up On Google?
Understanding why your website isn’t showing up on Google can be challenging, but taking proactive steps can make a big difference. From double-checking that your website is indexed and not blocked, to optimizing for keywords and improving page speed, each action brings you closer to better rankings and more qualified traffic.
If you’ve tried these steps and are still struggling, consider a signing up for an SEO Site Review And Strategy Call. During this comprehensive audit, we can identify more nuanced issues and I’ll provide personalized, prioritized recommendations to improve your website’s performance.
Not quite sure where to begin? Book a free call, and let’s get your SEO on the right track together.
References
1. How Long Before Google Indexes My New Page (And Why It Depends)?
2. Unpacking Google’s Massive Search Documentation Leak
3. How To Get Out Of Google Sandbox As Quickly As Possible
4. Secrets from the Algorithm: Google Search’s Internal Engineering Documentation Has Leaked