First, check whether Google has indexed your site
Type site:yourdomain.com into Google. If nothing appears, Google hasn't indexed your site yet. If some pages appear but not others, only part of the site is indexed.
For a clearer picture, add your website to Google Search Console (it's free). The Pages report shows which pages are indexed and why others aren't, and URL Inspection checks any single page.
1. The website is new
Google needs to discover a new site before it can index it, which can take days or weeks. Speed it up by submitting your sitemap in Search Console and requesting indexing for your most important pages.
2. A noindex tag is blocking it
Many website builders and WordPress have a setting like "discourage search engines" that's switched on during development and forgotten at launch. It adds a noindex tag that tells Google to stay away. Check your page source for noindex, and turn the setting off.
3. robots.txt is blocking Google
Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt. A line like "Disallow: /" under "User-agent: *" blocks the entire site. It should only block private areas such as admin pages.
4. No sitemap
A sitemap lists every page you want indexed. Most modern platforms create one at /sitemap.xml. Submit it in Search Console so Google knows exactly what to crawl.
5. "Crawled – currently not indexed"
This Search Console status means Google saw the page but decided not to index it yet, often because the page looks thin, very similar to others, or unimportant. Add genuinely useful content, link to the page from your homepage and related pages, and give it time.
6. Duplicate or very similar pages
If many pages say almost the same thing (for example, copies of one page with only the city name changed), Google may index one and ignore the rest. Each page needs its own purpose and content, plus a correct canonical tag.
7. The site is slow or broken on mobile
Google indexes the mobile version of your site. If pages are very slow, show errors or hide content on phones, rankings suffer. Test with PageSpeed Insights and fix the biggest issues first.
8. Indexed, but not ranking
Sometimes the site is indexed but doesn't appear for the searches you care about. That's a ranking problem, not an indexing one. It usually needs clear page titles with the right words, helpful content that answers the searcher's question, internal links, a Google Business Profile for local searches, and links from other trusted websites.
9. A manual action or security issue
Rarely, a site is penalised for spam or hacked content. Search Console's Manual actions and Security issues sections will tell you. Fix the problem, then request a review.
A quick checklist
If your website isn't showing on Google, go through these in order:
- Add the site to Google Search Console and verify it
- Submit your sitemap
- Check for noindex tags and robots.txt blocks
- Inspect your key pages and request indexing
- Improve thin pages and link to them internally
- Fix mobile speed problems
- Build your Google Business Profile and a few quality listings
