Why is my website not showing on Google?

Not indexed, or not ranking?

Search Google for your exact business name, or a full sentence from your homepage in quotes. Then try site:yourdomain.com.

• Nothing comes up for any of these: the site probably isn't indexed. Work through the reasons below.
• Your pages appear for your name but not for "plumber in Leeds": you're indexed but not ranking. Skip to the last section.

The site: search is a rough guide, not a complete list. For a reliable answer, add the site to Google Search Console and use URL Inspection. How to check if a page is indexed explains each method.

The ten common reasons

1. The site is new

Google has to find a site before it can crawl and index it, and Google says crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks. A site launched last week with no links pointing to it may simply not have been found yet. Add it to Search Console and submit a sitemap, as explained in how to submit a sitemap to Google.

2. A noindex left on from development

This is the most common cause of a whole site vanishing. WordPress's "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" setting, a builder's "hide from search" option, or an X-Robots-Tag: noindex header from a staging setup tells Google to leave every page out. See Excluded by noindex tag for every place it can hide.

3. robots.txt blocks Google

A single line, Disallow: / under User-agent: *, stops Google crawling the whole site. Like a leftover noindex, it often comes from a staging site. Check it with the Robots.txt Tester, and read Blocked by robots.txt for the fixes.

4. The site is behind a password

Google can only index what it can see. A Shopify store with the password page still on, a "coming soon" plugin, or HTTP authentication hides everything behind it.

5. Pages return errors

Pages that return 404, 500 or 403 to Googlebot aren't indexed, even if they work in your browser. Firewalls and bot protection sometimes block crawlers while letting people through. Check the real status code with the HTTP Status Code Checker, and see the status code guide for what each one means.

6. Canonical tags point somewhere else

If every page's canonical tag points to the homepage, or to an old domain, or to a staging URL, Google is being told those other URLs are the real ones. Read the canonical with the SEO Checker, and see the canonical tags guide.

7. The content needs JavaScript that fails

If the text, links or navigation only appear after JavaScript runs, and that script fails for Googlebot, Google sees an almost empty page. In URL Inspection, use Test live URL and View tested page to see what Google rendered.

8. Google crawled the pages and chose not to index them

Thin pages, near-duplicates and pages with nothing new are often crawled and left out. Search Console shows this as Crawled – currently not indexed, or Discovered – currently not indexed when Google hasn't got round to crawling them.

9. A manual action or security issue

Rare, but serious. Search Console's Security & Manual Actions section shows whether a reviewer has penalised the site for spam, or whether Google found malware or hacked content. Each report explains what to fix and how to ask for a review.

10. Someone used the Removals tool

The Removals tool in Search Console temporarily hides URLs from Google's results. A request made by a previous developer, or by mistake, can hide a page or a whole folder. Check the tool's history and cancel any request you don't want.

Check everything at once

Most of these causes can be checked in one pass. A site audit crawls the site the way a search engine does and flags noindex pages, robots.txt blocks, error pages, broken canonicals, redirect chains and pages nothing links to:

For causes only Google can see, use Search Console: the Page indexing report, URL Inspection, Manual actions, Security issues and Removals. No outside tool can tell you for certain whether Google has indexed a URL. Tools can tell you whether it can be indexed.

If you're indexed but can't find yourself

Being indexed only means Google can show a page. Where it ranks depends on how well it answers the search compared with every other page. A new site rarely ranks for broad, competitive phrases. What helps:

• Target specific searches. "Emergency boiler repair in Leeds" is realistic for a new site. "Plumber" isn't.
• Give each service or product its own page with a clear title and real detail, rather than one page listing everything.
• For local businesses, set up a Google Business Profile. It's how most local results in Google Maps are shown.
• Earn mentions and links from local directories, suppliers, partners and press. They help Google find the site and judge it.
• Check Search Console's Performance report. It shows the searches you already appear for, which is a better guide than searching yourself, because your own results are affected by location and history.

Questions