Why your website isn't showing up on Google

When a website is not showing up on Google, it is usually one of five things: the site is too new for Google to have found it, a setting is telling Google to stay away, the pages have too little on them, the address changed and Google is still looking at the old one, or the site is in Google but not for the search you tried. The first step is working out which, because each has a different fix and only some of them are in your hands.

First, which kind of "not showing up" is it?

Owners use the same words for three quite different problems. Do these two searches to find out which one you have:

Type site:yourdomain.com into Google (your own address, no space after the colon).
Type your exact business name, and then your business name plus your town.

Now match what you see:

Nothing appears for the site: search. Google has none of your pages. Read the sections on new sites, hidden sites and blocked sites below.
The site: search shows pages, but your name search does not show your site. Google has your site but is showing other things first, often your Google Business Profile, directories or a business with a similar name.
Your name search finds you, but "plumber in [town]" does not. Google has your site and knows who you are. This is about competition for broad searches, which is a slower and less predictable matter.

Reason one: the site is new

A brand-new site, or one on a brand-new domain, is unknown to Google until something points it there. That can take from a few days to several weeks.

What to do:

Add the website address to your Google Business Profile and social media pages.
Set up Google Search Console, submit your sitemap and request indexing of the home page.
Wait two to three weeks before deciding something is wrong.

How long it takes a new website to show up on Google sets out realistic timing.

Reason two: a setting hides the site

This is the most common cause on sites that have been live for months and still do not appear at all. Somewhere a setting is telling Google "do not include this site".

Where to look:

Website builders often have a switch called "hide from search engines", "allow search engines to index this site" or "site visibility". It is often turned on while a site is being built and forgotten at launch.
WordPress has a box under Settings, Reading called "Discourage search engines from indexing this site". It must be unticked.
Individual pages may have their own "hide this page from search" option in the page settings.
A password or "coming soon" page. If visitors see a placeholder or a login, so does Google.

In Search Console's URL Inspection tool, this shows up as "Excluded by 'noindex' tag". Fix the setting, then request indexing.

Reason three: Google is blocked from visiting

A small file called robots.txt tells search engines which parts of a site they may visit. A single wrong line in it can shut Google out of the whole site. It is a common leftover from development or a migration. Search Console reports it as "Blocked by robots.txt". Robots.txt explained for small business owners shows how to read the file and what a blocking line looks like.

Other technical blocks are rarer but worth knowing:

The site is down, or very slow to respond, when Google visits.
Security settings or a firewall are refusing Google's crawler.
The pages are built in a way that shows content only after a lot of code runs, and Google sees an empty page.

Reason four: the pages have too little on them

Google visits, reads the page and decides it is not worth storing. That happens when:

A page has a heading and a photo but almost no text.
Several pages say nearly the same thing with only the town name changed.
The important words, like your services and prices, are inside images, so Google cannot read them.
The site is a single page with a logo and a phone number.

Search Console shows these as "Crawled, currently not indexed". The fix is to give each page something real to say: what the service is, who it is for, where you offer it, what it costs. Thin pages: when a page has too little to say explains what counts as enough.

Reason five: the address changed

If you recently moved to a new domain, or from one website builder to another, Google may still have your old addresses and not yet know about the new ones. Customers who search may land on old pages that no longer exist.

Check:

Do your old page addresses forward to the matching new pages? Type a few into your browser and see where you land.
Is the new site's sitemap submitted in Search Console?
Is your Google Business Profile pointing to the new address?

Also check the basics: if your domain registration expired, the site disappears for everyone. What happens if your domain expires covers that.

Reason six: it shows, just not where you expected

If Google has your site and finds it for your name, but not for broad searches like "bakery near me", nothing is broken. For local searches, Google often shows its map results first, drawn mostly from Google Business Profiles, and then a long list of businesses and directories. Where any one site appears depends on many things, and nobody can promise a position.

What genuinely helps Google understand and trust a local business:

A complete Google Business Profile with the website linked; see Google Business Profile and your website.
A separate page for each main service, in the words customers use.
Your towns and service area written on the site.
The same name, address and phone number everywhere.
Real reviews over time.

Why your competitor shows up above you on Google goes deeper on this case.

Rare causes

A hacked site. Spam pages, warnings in the results or Google showing odd titles for your pages. Search Console's Security issues report will say so.
A manual action, where Google has penalized the site for breaking its rules. Very rare for ordinary small businesses, and shown in Search Console if it happens.
A name that is also a common word or a bigger brand. Customers then need your town in the search to find you.

What to do this week

Do the site: search and the business-name search, and decide which case you are in.
Check your builder's or WordPress's search visibility setting.
Set up Search Console and inspect your home page. Note the reason it gives.
Read your main pages as a stranger. Is there enough text to explain what you do and where?
If you moved recently, test a few old addresses.

If the cause turns out to be an old site that hides its content in images or has little text, you can see your site rebuilt first with real text on every page and the search settings checked before launch.