It can be frustrating not to see your website in Google Search.
Being on Google is important for attracting traffic and potential customers, whether you are a business owner, blogger, or running a personal site.
In this article, we will list the main reasons that cause websites to not appear on Google and how to fix those problems.
- Your website is new
- Robots.txt file is blocking Googlebot
- Low-quality or duplicate content
- Google Penalty
- Technical issues on your website
- Unsecure or HTTP Website
1. Your website is freshly launched
For Google to index a new website it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. It needs to crawl and process your website before it can be found in search.
For your website to appear on Google faster you should submit your website to Google Search Console. Building high-quality backlinks also helps people find your website faster.
If you have a local business, a restaurant or a shop, create an account on Google Business Profile. This will help your website appear in both search and Google Maps.
How to check if your website is indexed on Google?
It is very simple – type “site:yourdomain.com” into the search box.
When your website has not been indexed you will see something like this:
When you want to check if a single page is indexed try searching for the exact URL of the page. If it shows, this means that it is indexed.
How to submit a website to the Google Search Console?
Submitting your website to the Google Search Console is the fastest way for it to show up on Google.
Create an account for your domain and upload an XML sitemap to the Search Console. An XML sitemap is a file that includes all your important pages and posts. Creating it can be easy when you use an SEO plugin. Our favourite is Rank Math.
To submit XML sitemap to the Google Search Console:
- Log in and choose your site.
- Click Sitemaps in the menu to the left.
- Under Add a new sitemap, enter the URL of your sitemap. For example https://site-not-on-google.com/sitemap_index.xml
- Click Submit.
Adding your website sitemap to the Google Search Console helps it find the most important pages and improve your site’s performance in Google Search.
2. Your website is blocking search engines
Some settings on your website could cause it to be completely inaccessible to search engines.
Both robots.txt file and noindex meta tags can affect the visibility of your website.
Robots.txt file
The robots.txt file controls how search engines crawl your site. To check it, add /robots.txt to the end of your domain. It should look like this:
https://site-not-on-google.com/robots.txt
If nothing appears, this means that you don’t have a robots.txt file and all search engines are allowed to crawl your website.
If you see this code, this means that your website is blocking search engine robots:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
To solve this problem just remove / from your robots.txt file. It should look like this allowing search engine web crawlers.
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Noindex tag
If this meta tag is found in the code of your website, search engines won’t index it.
How to check if your website has a noindex tag?
Go to your website, right-click the mouse and select “View page source”.
If you see the code:
<meta name=’robots’ content=’noindex,follow’ />
This means that settings on your website are blocking it from being indexed.
If you see the code:
<meta name=’robots’ content=’index,follow’ />
Then all is well in your settings and there is another problem.
In case you have a noindex tag, you should remove it.
For a WordPress website, go to Settings -> Reading and make sure to have the correct settings. The square for search engine visibility should look like in the picture below.
It should be left unchecked. If it is checked remove this and save.
If you have an SEO plugin, make sure that its settings are not blocking search engine robots.
3. Low-quality or duplicate content
Why your website is not showing up on Google can be due to the quality of the content.
Low-quality or duplicate content can really hurt your website.
Google is all about high-quality, original content that brings value to its users. This is what you should strive for.
Also AI-generated content may harm your website if it is not properly optimised and edited.
The solution to this problem is simple. You should strive to produce unique content that has value for the final user.
4. Google Penalty
Google can penalize your website if it violates Google Search Essentials spam policy (formerly known as Google Webmaster Guidelines).
This can be in the form of a manual or algorithmic penalty.
If it is a manual penalty, someone at Google will manually place a penalty on your domain. You will be informed about it in Google Search Console under the “Security & Manual Actions” tab. All problems will be listed there.
Once you are done fixing the problems submit a reconsideration request by clicking Request Review and wait for the answer.
Unlike manual penalties, algorithmic penalty is done automatically. It is when Google’s algorithms reduce the ranking and traffic of a website because it violates search engine guidelines.
These penalties are not done by a human but are the result of updates of the Google ranking algorithms.
To resolve these issues make sure to first identify them. Then improve content quality, fix technical SEO problems, and wait for Google to recrawl and reassess your website.
5. Technical issues on your website
If your website is not mobile-friendly this can be one of the issues that prevent your website appear on Google. Slow page speeds and broken links can also be the culprits preventing Google from properly crawling and indexing your site.
The solution would be to optimise your website to be mobile-friendly, have a fast loading time, and fix broken links along with any technical problems that may be hurting your website.
To troubleshoot this, do a site audit by using Google PageSpeed insights, and tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush.
6. Unsecure or HTTP Website
Websites that do not use HTTPS encryption are considered less secure by Google. This encryption protects sensitive data exchanged between website visitors and the website. Without it, your login credentials, credit card numbers, and other personal data are not safe.
It is no wonder why Google prioritizes websites with HTTPS encryption.
If there is no such encryption on the website, visitors may see a “Not Secure” warning in their browser. This will harm your credibility and ranking and reduce traffic.
The solution to this problem is simple. Instal an SSL certificate and make your site secure.
Conclusion
If your website is not appearing on Google it is important to assess what the issue is. Start by making sure that your website is indexed. The next step is dealing with content and technical issues.
Be patient, continue optimising your website, and, in time, your website will become more visible in search results.
Need help optimising your website? Contact us for a detailed SEO audit and action plan.
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