Why Isn't My Website Showing Up on Google?

First, check whether Google knows your site exists

Go to Google and search site:yourbusiness.com (your own web address, with no space after the colon). This lists the pages of your site that Google has in its index.

• Nothing comes up. Google hasn't added your site yet, or something is telling it to stay away. That's an indexing problem, and it's usually fixable in a day once you find it.
• Your pages come up, but you don't show up when you search for your service. Google knows about you, but ranks other sites higher. That's a ranking problem, and it takes longer to fix.

The two have different causes, so the rest of this page is split the same way.

Website or Google Maps?

When you search for a local service, Google usually shows a map with three businesses at the top, then the regular website results below it. Those come from two different places. The map comes from your Google Business Profile, and the website results come from your website. If it's the map you're missing from, read why your business isn't showing up on Google Maps instead.

Why Google hasn't added your site

• It's brand new. Google says it can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to find and add a new site. Nothing is broken; it just hasn't been crawled yet.
• Nothing links to it. Google finds new sites mostly by following links from sites it already knows. A site that no other website, listing or profile points to can sit unnoticed.
• A setting is telling Google to stay out. Sites are often built with a "don't index this" tag so Google skips the unfinished version, and someone forgets to remove it at launch. In WordPress it's a checkbox called "Discourage search engines from indexing this site."
• The robots.txt file blocks it. A small file on your site tells search engines which pages they can visit. One wrong line can block the whole site.
• It's still behind a password or a "coming soon" page. If you have to log in to see it, so does Google, and Google can't.
• Google can't read the page. Some sites send Google a nearly empty page and fill in the words with code afterward. People see a normal site; Google may see very little.
• The address changed. If you moved to a new domain, or from http to https, without redirecting the old addresses, Google may still be showing (or dropping) the old ones.

Why you're on Google but nobody finds you

• Your pages don't say what you do and where. If "roof repair" and "Saginaw" aren't in your page titles and headings, Google has little reason to match you to "roof repair Saginaw."
• Everything is on one page. One page can't rank for every service in every town. A page for each main service gives Google something specific to show.
• You're searching your business name. Showing up for your own name is the easy part. Customers who don't know you yet search for the service, like "plumber near me."
• The site is slow on phones. Most local searches happen on a phone. Google measures how fast your pages load there, and so do your visitors.
• Competitors have been at it longer. More reviews, more pages, more links from local sites. You can catch up, but it takes months, not days.

How to get Google to find your site faster

• Add your site to Google Search Console. It's free, from Google, and it's where Google tells you directly what it sees on your site and why pages are or aren't indexed.
• Submit your sitemap. In Search Console, go to Sitemaps and enter your sitemap address (usually yourbusiness.com/sitemap.xml). It gives Google a list of every page you want found.
• Use URL Inspection on your homepage. Paste your web address into the search bar at the top of Search Console. It shows whether the page is on Google, and if not, the reason. If it's missing and nothing is blocking it, click Request Indexing. Requesting it more than once won't speed it up.
• Link to it from places Google already knows. Your Google Business Profile, Facebook page, and listings on Bing, Apple Maps and Yelp should all link to your website.
• Fix the "Why" first. If Search Console says a page is blocked or marked "noindex," requesting indexing won't help until that setting is changed.

Even then, Google decides when and whether to add a page. Nobody can make it happen on a schedule, and anyone who guarantees you a number-one spot on Google is not being straight with you.

What it costs if you want it handled

Plenty of business owners fix this themselves with the steps above. If you'd rather hand it off, our prices are listed on our pricing page:

• $900 one-time for a new website built so Google can read every page, with Search Console and your sitemap set up at launch
• From $300 a month for Local SEO Management on the website you already have
• From $150 a month for Google Business Profile Management, if it's the map you're missing from
• $129 a month with $0 down for a website with hosting and edits included