Website Not Showing Up on Google? A Diagnosis Tree

A website that does not show up on Google is in one of a small number of states: Google does not know it yet, Google knows it but has not indexed it, something on the site tells Google not to index it, the wrong version of the domain is indexed, or it is indexed but does not rank for the query you tried. Each state has a different fix, and the first job is to find out which one you are in. Work through the steps below in order and stop at the first one that applies.

Step 1: is anything indexed at all?

Search Google for site:yoursite.com. Three possible outcomes:

• Results appear. Google has indexed at least part of the site. Jump to step 4.
• Nothing appears. Google has nothing, or only the wrong domain version. Continue with step 2.
• A few odd URLs appear (tag pages, a PDF, a staging subdomain) but not the pages you care about. Treat it as "partly indexed" and continue with step 3 for the missing pages.

The site: operator is rough. For the real answer, verify the site in Search Console if you have not already, then open URL Inspection and paste the home page URL. The verdict is either "URL is on Google" or "URL is not on Google", with the exact reason underneath. The Google index checker does the same check for a short list of URLs at once, after a Google sign-in.

Verification itself takes a few minutes (DNS record for a Domain property, or an HTML file, meta tag or Analytics tag for a URL prefix property). It is worth doing before anything else, because every later step uses Search Console.

Step 2: is the site simply new?

If the site went live days ago, this is usually the whole explanation. Google finds new sites through links from pages it already crawls and through sitemaps in Search Console. A brand new domain that nothing links to can sit unknown for weeks.

What shortens the wait:

1. Verify the site in Search Console and submit the sitemap under Indexing > Sitemaps.
2. Inspect the home page URL and click Request indexing. Do the same for two or three key pages. This queues them for crawling; it is a hint, not a command.
3. Get a few real links: your social profiles, a Google Business Profile if you are a local business, directories relevant to your field, partners and suppliers.
4. Make sure the home page links to every important section, and that those sections link down to the pages.

Then wait. Typical timing is days to a couple of weeks for the home page and longer for the rest. How long Google takes to index sets expectations in more detail.

Step 3: is something telling Google to stay away?

This is the step people skip, and it is where "new site" problems usually turn out to be configuration problems. Inspect a missing URL in Search Console and read the Page indexing section of the result. The line you want is the reason, which matches the Page indexing report. The common ones:

What URL Inspection says	Cause	Fix
Excluded by 'noindex' tag	A <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tag or an X-Robots-Tag: noindex header	Remove it. On WordPress check Settings > Reading > Discourage search engines, on Wix the per page "Let search engines index this page" option, on Squarespace "Hide this page from search engine results"
Blocked by robots.txt	A Disallow rule matches the URL	Edit robots.txt, then test it
Blocked due to unauthorized request (401)	Password protection, HTTP auth, a "coming soon" plugin	Remove the protection from public pages
Blocked due to access forbidden (403)	Firewall, CDN bot protection, IP block	Allow Googlebot by its published IP ranges
Server error (5xx)	The server fails when Googlebot asks	Fix the error, check logs, add capacity
Soft 404	The page returns 200 but looks empty or like an error	Give the page real content or return a real 404
Page with redirect	The URL redirects elsewhere	Inspect the destination instead; make sure it is the version you want indexed
Discovered - currently not indexed	Google knows the URL and has not fetched it yet	Internal links, a healthy server, patience
Crawled - currently not indexed	Google fetched it and chose not to index it	Content and duplication problem, not a technical one

Run the same URL through the indexability checker to see status code, redirects, meta robots, X-Robots-Tag and canonical in one view. The pattern that catches most new sites is a site builder or plugin that was set to hide the site during development and never switched back. The full list of reasons and what each one wants is in why is my page not indexed.

Step 4: are you searching for the right thing?

Indexed is not the same as visible. If site:yoursite.com shows your pages but a search for "plumber in Leeds" does not, the site is in the index and simply not ranking for that query yet. That is normal for a new or small site and it is not a technical fault.

Three checks:

1. Search your brand name. A site usually ranks for its own name within days of being indexed. If it does not, and another company shares the name, you are competing with their history.
2. Open Search Console, Performance. If the pages have impressions for any query, Google is showing them. The queries listed tell you what Google thinks the site is about.
3. Search in a private window and ignore personalised results. Location also changes results; a local business is shown to local searchers.

If the site is indexed, gets impressions, but sits far down for everything, the problem is ranking, which comes down to content, links and competition. Indexed but not ranking is the next read.

Step 5: is the wrong version of the domain indexed?

yoursite.com, www.yoursite.com, http:// and https:// are four different sites to a crawler. If site:yoursite.com shows results under www and you have been searching or inspecting without it (or the other way round), everything may be fine.

Problems start when both versions respond with the same content and no redirect. Google then picks one as canonical, sometimes not the one you use, and the other version shows "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user" or "Alternate page with proper canonical tag". The fix:

• 301 redirect every non-preferred version to the preferred one (http to https, non-www to www or the reverse).
• Use the preferred version in the canonical tag, the sitemap and all internal links.
• Verify a Domain property in Search Console so the reports cover all versions.

A quick way to see what each version does is the redirect checker: enter the four variants and confirm that three of them redirect once to the fourth.

Step 6: manual action or security problem

Open Security & Manual Actions in Search Console. A manual action for spam, hacked content or deceptive pages removes pages or the whole site from results and is explained there, with a request review button once you have fixed the cause. A security issue (malware, phishing) comes with a warning in results that scares users away. Both are rare for ordinary sites and both are visible only in Search Console, which is one more reason to have it set up.

Step 7: is the host or CDN blocking Googlebot?

Everything looks right in your browser, but the live test in URL Inspection reports a 403, a timeout or a page that just says "checking your browser". Causes:

• Bot protection that challenges all non-browser traffic. Googlebot does not solve JavaScript challenges.
• Firewall rules that block by country when the crawler comes from the United States.
• Rate limits that return 429 after a few requests.
• Hosting plans that throttle or suspend the site under load.

Run Test live URL in URL Inspection and click View tested page to see exactly what Google received, including the HTTP response. Then allow Googlebot by its published IP ranges in the firewall or CDN, not by user agent string alone, because the string is easy to fake and strict rules often ignore it.

Note that other crawlers hit the same wall. TurboIndexBot, the crawler TurboIndex uses to fetch each sitemap URL before submitting it to Google, records the status code it got per URL, so a 403 from a firewall or a noindex tag shows up next to the page instead of being sent as a submission, and the URL Inspection result afterwards shows Google's own reason for every URL in the sitemap. Its user agent and how to allow it are documented on the TurboIndexBot page.

Step 8: it used to show up and now it does not

A site that disappears after being visible is a different problem from one that never appeared. Common causes: a deploy that pushed a noindex tag or a Disallow: / to production, an expired domain or SSL certificate, a migration without redirects, a hack, a manual action, or a quality reassessment that dropped many thin pages at once.

Check the Page indexing report for a sudden rise in one reason on a specific date, compare it with your deploy history, and read why pages get deindexed for the recovery steps per cause.

What to do next

1. Confirm the state with site: and URL Inspection.
2. Verify the site in Search Console if you have not, and submit the sitemap.
3. Inspect three missing URLs and fix whatever reason they show, blocks first.
4. Fix the domain version with 301 redirects and consistent canonicals.
5. Request indexing for the home page and the most important pages, once.
6. Check back after a week in the Page indexing report, filtered to your sitemap.