How to check if Google has your website

The quickest check is to type site: followed by your web address into Google, for example site:yourbusiness.com, with no space after the colon. If any pages appear, Google has your site. For a precise answer about one page, use the free URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console, which tells you whether that exact page is indexed and, if not, why. Both take a couple of minutes.

What "indexed" means

When Google has your website, the technical word is indexed: Google has visited the page, read it and stored it in its index, the list of pages it can show in results. A page that is not indexed cannot appear in Google at all, no matter what anyone searches.

Being indexed is not the same as appearing for every search. Your page can be indexed and still only show up when someone types your business name. These checks answer the first question, "does Google have it?", not the second.

Check one: a site search, in thirty seconds

Open Google in any browser, on your phone or computer.
In the search box, type site: followed by your domain, with no space and no www or https. For example: site:smithplumbingohio.com
Press search.

How to read what you see:

A list of your pages. Google has your site. Scroll through and look for your home page and your main service pages.
Only some pages. Google has part of your site. Pages missing from the list may be new, or may have a problem.
"Your search did not match any documents" or no results at all. Google does not have any page from that address.
Pages with odd titles in another language, or about casinos or pills. Your site may have been hacked and filled with spam pages. Treat that as urgent.

Checking one particular page

You can narrow the search to one page by adding its path: site:smithplumbingohio.com/water-heaters. If it appears, that page is indexed.

What the site search cannot tell you

The site search is a rough check. The number of results Google shows is an estimate and can jump around. Google can also leave out pages it has stored, or show a page it has since removed. For anything you need to be sure of, use the second check.

Check two: URL Inspection in Search Console

Google Search Console is Google's free tool for site owners. If it is not set up for your site yet, you will need to add and verify your site first, which can take a day; Google Search Console for small business owners explains the setup.

Once you are in:

Copy the full address of the page you want to check from your browser, including https://.
Paste it into the search bar at the very top of the screen, which says "Inspect any URL", and press Enter.
Wait a few seconds for the result.

How to read the result:

"URL is on Google". The page is indexed. Done.
"URL is on Google, but has issues". It is indexed, with warnings, often about mobile display or structured data. Usually not urgent.
"URL is not on Google". The page is not indexed. Below that, Search Console gives a reason. Open the Page indexing section to see it.

The reasons you are most likely to see

URL is unknown to Google. Google has never heard of this address. Common for brand-new pages. Click Request indexing.
Discovered, currently not indexed. Google knows the address but has not visited yet. Usually a matter of time.
Crawled, currently not indexed. Google visited but chose not to store it, often because the page has very little on it or looks like another page.
Excluded by "noindex" tag. The page tells Google not to index it. If you want it in search, this needs removing in your site's settings.
Blocked by robots.txt. A file on your site tells Google not to visit. Often left over from when the site was built.
Page with redirect. The address forwards to another page. Check the page it forwards to instead.
Not found (404). The page does not exist at that address.
Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user. Google decided another page is the main version of this one.

Test the live page

On the same screen, Test live URL fetches the page as it is right now, rather than as Google last saw it. It is useful after you fix something: if the live test says the page can be indexed, click Request indexing and give it some days.

Check three: the Pages report, for the whole site

If you want to see every page at once, open Indexing, then Pages in Search Console. The chart shows indexed and not-indexed pages, and the table below groups the not-indexed ones by reason. Click a reason to see which addresses fall under it.

You do not need every page indexed. Thank-you pages, old addresses that redirect and private pages are often left out on purpose. What matters is that the pages customers need, like your home page, services, area and contact, are in.

Searching your business name is a different check

Typing your business name into Google is worth doing too, but it answers a different question: what a customer sees when they look you up. Your Google Business Profile, review sites and social media may appear above or instead of your website. Google search results for your own business name explains what shows there and why.

If your site is not indexed

Start with the reason Search Console gives. The common ones, in rough order:

The site is very new. Give it one to three weeks after submitting a sitemap and requesting indexing.
A noindex setting is switched on. Many builders have a "hide from search engines" option. Turn it off.
Robots.txt is blocking Google.
The pages have very little text.

Why your website isn't showing up on Google goes through each cause and its fix, and is your website hidden from Google by mistake covers the settings that most often cause it.

What to do this week

Do a site: search for your domain and note which pages appear.
Set up Search Console if it is not set up, and inspect your home page.
Inspect your two or three most important service pages.
Note the reason for any page that is not indexed, and fix the ones that are within your control.
Check again in two weeks.

If you are planning a new site, you can see your site rebuilt first and confirm every page is open to Google before it replaces the old one.