Why isn't my website showing up on Google?

It helps to know how Google works. It finds pages (crawling), stores them (indexing), then picks which ones to show for each search (ranking). In Google's own words, not every page makes it through each stage, and Google "doesn't guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve your page." It also "doesn't accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher." If someone offers to submit your site to Google for a fee, keep your money.

The five-minute check

Work through these three steps in order. Each answer points to one of the four fixes below.

Which problem do you have?

1. Search Google for your exact business name.

• Your website shows upFix 4 →
• It doesn'tStep 2 ↓

2. Search site:yourbusiness.com, using your own web address.

• Some pages show up, but not the one you wantStep 3 ↓
• Nothing shows upStep 3 ↓

3. In Google Search Console, paste the page's address into URL Inspection.

• "URL is unknown to Google"Fix 1 →
• "Excluded by 'noindex' tag" or "Blocked by robots.txt"Fix 2 →
• "Discovered" or "Crawled – currently not indexed"Fix 3 →
• "URL is on Google"Fix 4 →

A site: search is a quick look, not a full list. Google says a page that is indexed "can show up" in those results but isn't guaranteed to. URL Inspection in Google Search Console is the real answer. Search Console is free. Adding your site takes a few minutes: you prove you own the web address, usually by adding a short code where you bought it, and Wix can connect it for you.

What we saw on our own site

We checked primilink.com on October 30, a few days after relaunching it. The homepage was indexed, and so were two guides we had published the day before. Our web design page was "Discovered – currently not indexed," and our services page was still "URL is unknown to Google," even though both were in the sitemap we had given Google. Same site, same sitemap, three different answers. That is normal for a new site, and it is why you check the specific page you care about, not just the homepage.

Fix 1: Google hasn't found your site yet

This is normal for a new site or a new page. Google says crawling "can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks." You can't force it, but you can point Google in the right direction:

1. Add your site to Google Search Console if you haven't. Everything below happens there.
2. Submit your sitemap, the list of your pages. It usually lives at yourbusiness.com/sitemap.xml. WordPress builds one at /wp-sitemap.xml unless an SEO plugin replaces it. Google calls a sitemap "merely a hint," but it is the standard first step.
3. Request indexing for your most important pages. In URL Inspection, paste the address and click Request indexing. Do your homepage and your main service pages. There is a daily limit, and Google says requesting the same page again "won't get it crawled any faster."
4. Give Google a way in. Link to your website from your Google Business Profile, your Facebook page and any directory listings. Make sure your important pages are linked from your menu or homepage.
5. Check again in a week. If a page is still unknown after a few weeks, work through Fix 2 and Fix 3.

Fix 2: Something is telling Google to stay away

This is the most common cause on sites that were just built or rebuilt. A setting that kept the unfinished site private gets left on after launch. Check the one for your platform:

• WordPress: go to Settings, then Reading, and look at Search engine visibility. If "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is checked, uncheck it and save. Since version 5.3, that box adds a noindex tag to every page. SEO plugins such as Yoast also have a per-page setting that can hide a single page.
• Squarespace: new sites start out private, and Squarespace says private sites can't be found or indexed by search engines. A site-wide password hides it too, and so does the "Block Search engine crawlers" box in the Crawlers settings.
• Wix: in SEO Settings, make sure "Let search engines index your site" is on. Check that your latest changes are published and the pages aren't password-protected.
• Any site: a developer may have added a noindex tag to every page while building it. In one r/SEO thread, a business removed the tag after launch, but Search Console kept showing "noindex" until Google came back to recrawl. After you fix it, request indexing so Google sees the change sooner.
• The robots.txt file: open yourbusiness.com/robots.txt. If it says Disallow: / under User-agent: *, every crawler is being told to stay out of the whole site. Remove that line. Coming-soon and maintenance-mode plugins can block Google the same way.

Once the block is gone, request indexing for your key pages. Pages usually come back after Google's next visit.

Fix 3: Google found the page but chose not to index it

Search Console uses specific wording for this, and each status means something different:

Status	What Google says it means
Discovered – currently not indexed	Google found the page but hasn't visited it yet. Typically it postponed the visit because it expected to overload your site.
Crawled – currently not indexed	Google visited the page and didn't add it. It "may or may not be indexed in the future," and there's no need to resubmit it.
Duplicate without user-selected canonical	Google sees the page as a copy of another page and shows that one instead.

A brand-new page sitting at "Discovered" for a week is usually just waiting its turn. If pages stay stuck for weeks, the fix is to make them worth Google's time:

• Give each page something only it has. One page per service, written for your customers, with real details: what the job involves, what it costs, which towns you cover, photos of your own work. Town pages that differ by a single word are a textbook example of duplicates.
• Link to the page from your menu, your homepage and related pages, so it doesn't look like an afterthought.
• Get mentioned somewhere else. On r/SEO, the most common answer to "Google won't index my new site" is that no other site links to it yet. Your Google Business Profile, local directories, suppliers, trade associations and your chamber of commerce are where most service businesses start.

Fix 4: Your site is indexed, just not seen

If a search for your business name finds you but "roof repair Hilo" doesn't, Google has your site. It just ranks other pages higher for that search. That's a different problem from indexing, and it's where most of the real work is:

1. Give every service its own page, with the service and your town in the page title and the main heading, like "Roof Repair in Hilo." One "Services" page listing everything rarely ranks for any of them.
2. Set up and verify your Google Business Profile. The map results at the top of local searches come from it, not from your website, and your reviews live there.
3. Look at what you already show up for. Search Console's Performance report lists the searches that already show your site. Improve the pages that appear on page two first.
4. Make it work well on a phone. Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking.
5. Give it time. Google says some changes take effect in a few hours, others can take several months, and you'll likely want to wait a few weeks before judging whether a change worked.

This is the work our local SEO service does for service businesses.

Less common causes worth ruling out

• A manual action: a penalty applied by a person at Google. Open the Manual actions report in Search Console. If it says no issues were detected, you can cross this off.
• A hacked site: check the Security issues report in Search Console.
• A site that's down or erroring: server errors show up in the Page indexing report. Ask your host.
• The wrong version is indexed: an old staging address, or a www version when you use the plain one. URL Inspection shows the address Google picked as the main version of the page.
• A redesign that changed your page addresses without redirecting the old ones. Our redesign guide has the checklist.

Not showing up on Google Maps? That's a different system

The map results come from your Google Business Profile, not your website. A perfectly indexed website won't put you on the map, and a business can appear on the map with no website at all. To show up there, you need a verified profile with the right category, your service area, your hours and real reviews. Verification alone can take several business days, as covered in how long a website takes.

How long until it shows up?

Situation	Typical wait
A brand-new site or page	A few days to a few weeks, per Google. Our own guides were indexed the same day they went up. Some of our service pages took longer.
After removing a noindex tag or a block	Until Google visits again. Request indexing to prompt it.
After requesting indexing	Often days, but Google doesn't guarantee it, and asking again doesn't speed it up.
Ranking higher after improving pages	A few weeks to several months.

The checklist

1. Search your exact business name on Google.
2. Search site: plus your web address.
3. Add the site to Google Search Console and inspect your homepage and main service pages.
4. Turn off any "discourage search engines," private, password or coming-soon setting.
5. Open your robots.txt and make sure it doesn't disallow the whole site.
6. Submit your sitemap and request indexing for your key pages.
7. Link to your site from your Google Business Profile and directory listings.
8. Give each service its own page with the service and town in its title.
9. Check the Manual actions and Security issues reports.
10. Wait a week, then inspect the same pages again.

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Where this comes from

Checked October 30, 2026.

• How Google finds and indexes pages: Google Search Central on how Search works, asking Google to recrawl, sitemaps, the site: operator and the SEO Starter Guide (how long changes take).
• Blocking and statuses: Google on noindex and robots.txt, Search Console Help on the Page indexing report and manual actions, and mobile-first indexing.
• Platform settings: WordPress.org on the Reading settings screen, Squarespace on hiding a site from search results and Wix on search engine indexing.
• Our own site: Google Search Console's URL Inspection results for primilink.com, October 30, 2026.
• Owners' experiences: r/SEO threads on a noindex tag left on after launch and a new site Google wouldn't index.