It is one of the most stressful moments for a site owner. You launch, you type your business name into Google, and there is nothing. Before you blame the developer or the algorithm, it helps to know that "not showing on Google" has about nine common causes, and most of them are boring and fixable. This guide goes through them in the order we check them when a client calls us with this exact problem.
The key points
- First, find out whether the page is missing from the index or just ranking badly. They are different problems.
- Use Google Search Console. It tells you what Google actually sees, which beats guessing.
- A leftover "noindex" tag or a robots.txt block is the most common cause on new sites.
- Thin, copied or hard-to-reach pages are the most common cause on older sites.
Step zero: is it really missing?
Search for site:yourdomain.com in Google. If you see results, your site is indexed, and the real issue is ranking, which is a longer job covered in our technical SEO checklist. If you see nothing at all, keep reading. Also search your exact business name in quotes. A new brand name can take a while to show even when the pages are indexed.
Set up Search Console first
Everything below is easier if you verify your site in Google Search Console. It is free. Add your domain, verify it, then paste a page into the URL Inspection bar at the top. It will tell you whether the page is in Google, when it was last crawled and why it might be excluded. Think of it as a direct line to what Google thinks of your pages.
The nine reasons
1. The site is brand new
Sometimes the answer is simply time. Google has to find your site, crawl it and decide it is worth keeping. Submit your sitemap in Search Console, get a couple of real links pointing at the site (your social profiles, a directory listing, a guest mention) and give it a week or two.
2. A noindex tag is telling Google to stay away
Developers often block indexing while a site is being built, and then forget to remove it. Open the page source and search for noindex. In WordPress, check Settings, Reading, and make sure "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unticked. In URL Inspection, the report will say "Excluded by noindex tag".
3. robots.txt is blocking crawlers
Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt. If you see Disallow: / under User-agent: *, you have shut the whole site. Remove or narrow the rule, then re-test in Search Console.
4. Google cannot find your pages
If a page has no links pointing to it from the rest of your site, Google may never discover it. Link important pages from your menu, homepage or related posts. Make sure links are normal links Google can follow, not buttons that only work after JavaScript runs.
5. The content is thin or repeated
This is the one behind most "Crawled, currently not indexed" messages. A page with a few lines of text, copied manufacturer descriptions or near-duplicates of other pages gives Google little reason to keep it. Add something only you can add: real examples, prices, photos, local detail, an honest opinion. Merge pages that say the same thing.
6. The site is slow or breaks on mobile
Google crawls with a mobile browser first. If your pages time out, throw errors or hide content on phones, indexing suffers. Check our guide to improving website speed and Core Web Vitals if your pages feel heavy.
7. The page points to a different "canonical" URL
A canonical tag tells Google which version of a page is the real one. If it points to another address, such as the old domain or the http version, Google may index that one instead of yours. Check the tag in the page source and make sure it matches the live URL.
8. Redirect loops and server errors
A page that returns a 404, a 500 error or redirects in circles cannot be indexed. Open the Pages report in Search Console and look at the reasons listed. Fix the status code first, then request indexing.
9. A manual action or security problem
This is rare, but if your site was hacked or spammed, Google can drop it. Check the Manual actions and Security issues reports in Search Console. If something is flagged, clean the site and file a review request.
A simple checklist you can run in ten minutes
- Search site:yourdomain.com.
- Verify the site in Search Console and submit your sitemap.
- Inspect the homepage URL and read the verdict.
- Look for noindex tags and a blocking robots.txt.
- Make sure at least one other page on your own site links to each important page.
- Click "Request indexing" for your top five pages.
- Check back in a week.
Requesting indexing nudges Google, but it does not force it. If a page stays out after a few weeks, the issue is usually quality or links, not a missing submission.
What to do while you wait
Use the time to make pages worth indexing. Write clear titles and descriptions. Add useful content that answers a real question. Link between related pages. If you run a blog, our Next.js SEO best practices post covers rendering and metadata for modern sites, and our guide to AI Overviews explains how search results are changing.
Still stuck?
If you have been through all nine and the site is still invisible, there is usually one technical detail hiding in plain sight, a stray header, a staging setting or a broken sitemap. Node-devs can run a proper crawl and tell you exactly what is blocking you. Send us the URL and we will take a look.
