Why your website is not showing up on Google, and the checks in order

Run them top to bottom. Stop when you find the cause.

• Search site:yourdomain.com to see what, if anything, is indexed.
• Open Search Console. Check Page indexing and the Performance report.
• Inspect a URL with the URL Inspection tool. See crawl, index, and canonical.
• Read robots.txt at yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Look for Disallow or Noindex via x‑robots‑tag headers.
• View the page source. Check for a meta robots noindex or a wrong canonical.
• Check your sitemap in Search Console. Are the key URLs listed and fetchable?
• Check links. Do you have any links from other sites to your homepage and key pages?

Likelihood: highest for a new domain or a site launched this week. Discovery and indexing take from days to a few weeks, as of 2026.

• Check: search site:yourproduct.com. If you see zero results, Google has not indexed anything yet.
• Check: in Search Console, does the property show data? New properties can be empty until Google has crawled. The data lags about two days.
• Check: URL Inspection on https://yourproduct.com/. If it says URL is not on Google, note the reason.

• Fix: add at least one link from a known page you control. For example, a GitHub profile, a personal blog, or a social profile bio. Use the homepage URL.
• Fix: submit a sitemap in Search Console. Include only canonical URLs you want indexed.
• Fix: in URL Inspection, Request indexing for your homepage and one or two key pages. Small daily quota applies.
• Fix: make the homepage fast, mobile friendly, and with a clear title and content that states what the site is.

What a fixed page looks like: site:yourproduct.com now shows the homepage and /pricing within a week, then more pages follow over time.

Likelihood: very common after a launch from staging. A robots.txt or meta tag can tell Google not to index your pages at all.

1. 1

   Read robots.txt

   Open https://yourproduct.com/robots.txt. Look for Disallow: / or rules that block / or /public. If a disallow applies to Googlebot, crawling can be stopped.

2. 2

   Check for noindex headers

   Use your browser dev tools. In the Network tab, click the page. Under Response headers, look for x-robots-tag: noindex.

3. 3

   Check the meta robots tag

   View source on a problem URL like /guides/getting-started. Search for <meta name="robots" content="noindex">.

4. 4

   Inspect the URL

   In Search Console, URL Inspection shows if robots.txt blocked crawling, if the page is noindex, or if Google chose a different canonical.

• Fix: remove the blocking rule that should not be there. For example, delete Disallow: / from robots.txt.
• Fix: remove meta robots noindex on production templates. Check both the homepage and a deep page.
• Fix: if you must block crawling of assets, do not block the HTML pages you want indexed.
• Fix: redeploy. Re‑test in URL Inspection. Then Request indexing for the fixed URLs.

What a fixed page looks like: URL Inspection now says URL is on Google, and site:yourproduct.com lists it within days.

Likelihood: high for brand new projects. Google finds most new sites through links from pages it already knows. With zero links, discovery is slow or stalled.

• Check: in Search Console, the Links report. Do you see any external links?
• Check: search for your brand in quotes, "yourproduct". If nothing is returned about your site, you likely have no mentions or links.
• Check: paste your URL into a third‑party link index if you use one. You only need a few real links to get started.

• Fix: link to your site from profiles you control: GitHub, LinkedIn, X, personal site. Use the exact homepage URL.
• Fix: publish a short post on your blog that others can cite. Link it from your homepage. Share it where your users read.
• Fix: ask one partner or friend with a site to link to your homepage with your brand name.
• Fix: list the site on a relevant directory you trust. Avoid spammy lists and paid link schemes.

What a fixed site looks like: Search Console starts to show your homepage as discovered and then crawled. site:yourproduct.com shows at least the homepage first, then key pages.

Likelihood: common for generic names. If someone else owns the brand or a stronger entity, your site will not show first for that name at launch.

• Check: search your brand alone, for example, yourproduct. Then search it with your domain, yourproduct.com. Compare who holds the top spots.
• Check: add a qualifier, yourproduct app or yourproduct CRM. See if you appear for the longer forms.
• Check: in Search Console, the Performance report, filter by Query contains your brand. Look at average position and impressions.

• Fix: target brand plus qualifier on your homepage title and h1. Example title: YourProduct CRM for Agencies.
• Fix: add organisation details, address or founder names on /about. These help disambiguate entities over time.
• Fix: publish pages for unbranded problems you solve. Rank there first while your brand gains signals.
• Fix: get a few mentions that use your brand and link your homepage. Over months, this shifts your brand query visibility.

What a fixed site looks like: you appear for "yourproduct crm" within weeks, and for "yourproduct" alone as you gain mentions and links. Competitive brands take longer.

Likelihood: high on template sites and programmatic pages. Google may crawl but not index pages that add little or repeat others. Not every crawled page is indexed.

• Check: in Search Console, Page indexing. Look for Crawled, currently not indexed and Duplicate without user-selected canonical.
• Check: inspect a sample URL. See the chosen canonical, the rendered HTML, and whether Google sees the main content.
• Check: on your site, compare /features and /solutions if they repeat the same copy. Compare city pages if they only swap a place name.
• Check: titles. If 20 pages have near‑identical titles, expect deduplication or low priority.

• Fix: consolidate near‑duplicates. Keep the strongest URL, 301 redirect the rest, and update internal links.
• Fix: add specific, original content that answers a search. Show examples, screenshots, pricing details, and unique text.
• Fix: set one canonical per cluster. Use a rel=canonical to the preferred URL. Ensure that URL is self‑canonical.
• Fix: remove index bloat from filters or empty pages. Noindex where appropriate, but do not block with robots.txt if you want the canonical recognised.

What a fixed site looks like: fewer but stronger URLs. Page indexing shows more Valid and fewer Excluded. The chosen canonical matches your intent on yourproduct.com/features.

Likelihood: common. Your page may be indexed but ranked low for a head term. That looks like “not showing” in practice.

1. 1

   Confirm index status

   Search Console, URL Inspection on /pricing. Status should be URL is on Google. If not, go back to reasons 2 or 5.

2. 2

   Check queries and position

   In the Performance report, filter by Page = /pricing. Sort queries by impressions. Note average position. Remember, position is averaged across impressions.

3. 3

   Search like a user

   Use an incognito window in your target country. Search your main query. Note what ranks, the features present, and content depth on page one.

• Fix: focus the page on one clear intent. If /pricing is trying to rank for “project management”, it will lose. Aim it at "yourproduct pricing" and linked pages for generic terms.
• Fix: upgrade the content. Answer the query fully, with honest detail, comparisons, and FAQs. Avoid filler and keyword stuffing.
• Fix: improve page experience. Meet Core Web Vitals targets, use HTTPS, and avoid intrusive interstitials.
• Fix: add internal links from strong pages like /guides/getting-started and the homepage. Use descriptive anchors.
• Fix: earn a handful of relevant links over time. Links remain one signal among many.
• Fix: watch the last 28 days vs the 28 before in Search Console for movement. Expect months for hard queries.

What a fixed page looks like: /pricing moves from average position 40 to 12, then into striking distance. Clicks follow when you reach page one for the right query.

Likelihood: low for clean sites. Still check it early so you do not waste weeks chasing the wrong cause.

• Check: in Search Console, Manual actions. If present, it explains the issue and affected URLs.
• Check: in Security issues, confirm there is no hacked content or malware.
• Check: the Google Search Status Dashboard for recent core or spam updates. Correlate with your traffic by date.
• Check: your deploy history. Look for a noindex, robots, canonical, or redirect change around the drop date.

• Fix: for manual actions, follow the guidance in the report, clean the issue, then request review.
• Fix: for hacked sites, clean and secure the server before requesting review.
• Fix: if a deploy caused the loss, revert the change, then re‑test and request indexing for key URLs.
• Fix: do not rush to use the disavow tool unless you have a clear link scheme history and know what you are doing.

What a fixed site looks like: Manual action removed, pages return to index over days to weeks. Traffic recovers only if quality and relevance are present.

Crawling: Googlebot discovers and fetches URLs from links, sitemaps, and past crawls. It renders pages with an evergreen Chromium in a second wave.

Indexing: Google analyses content, groups duplicates, picks a canonical, and decides whether to store the page. Not every crawled page is indexed.

Serving: for a query, ranking systems order results by relevance, quality, usability, and context. Features like snippets and carousels are added around them.

• Robots and noindex errors stop crawling or indexing, so fix them first.
• Duplicate content and weak pages block indexing, so consolidate or enrich.
• Ranking needs time. Improve content and links, then monitor position and impressions.

Day 0: you deploy yourproduct.com. site:yourproduct.com shows nothing. URL Inspection says URL is not on Google. robots.txt is clean. Meta robots is missing on /, which is good.

You add a sitemap at /sitemap.xml with /, /pricing, and /guides/getting-started. You verify Search Console and submit the sitemap. You Request indexing for / and /pricing.

You link the homepage from your GitHub profile and a personal blog post. The Links report shows two referring domains a week later. URL Inspection now shows Discovered for /pricing, then Crawled.

Two weeks in, site:yourproduct.com lists the homepage and /pricing. The Performance report shows impressions for queries like yourproduct pricing at average position 25.

You refine titles. Homepage: YourProduct CRM for Agencies. Pricing page: YourProduct Pricing. You add internal links from /guides/getting-started. You improve LCP and CLS on both pages.

Month two, /pricing reaches average position 12 for yourproduct pricing. You publish a comparison page and a how‑to post that earns a natural link. Clicks start to appear for long‑tail terms.