My website doesn't appear on Google

There is a difference between not being indexed and not ranking, and it decides everything you do next. Ten minutes of checks tells you which one you have.

·7 min read·Leer en español

Two completely different problems get described the same way. Not indexed means Google does not have your pages at all — a technical fault, usually quick to fix. Not ranking means Google has them and is choosing to show someone else, which is a longer job. Find out which you have before spending anything.

The ten-second test

Search Google for site: followed by your domain, with no space — site:yourbusiness.es. If a list of your pages comes back, you are indexed and this is a ranking problem. If nothing comes back, Google does not have your site and nothing else matters yet.

If nothing came back

  1. Check for a noindex tag. It is the single most common cause: the site was built with indexing switched off and nobody switched it back on at launch. In WordPress it is one tick box under Settings → Reading.
  2. Check robots.txt at yourdomain.com/robots.txt. A line reading Disallow: / blocks the entire site.
  3. Check the site is reachable without www and with it, and that both resolve rather than one erroring.
  4. Set up Search Console and use the URL inspection tool. It tells you exactly what Google saw and why it did not keep it.
  5. Request indexing for your home page. It is not instant, but it starts the process rather than waiting to be found.

A site under a year old with few links can take weeks to be indexed fully even with everything correct. Search Console distinguishes "blocked" from "discovered but not yet crawled" — the second is patience, not a fault.

If your pages came back but nobody finds you

  • You are searching for something you have no page about. If nothing on your site says "plumber in Almoradí" in plain words, Google has nothing to match.
  • Your pages have no titles worth showing. A tab that says "Home" is a page Google cannot place.
  • The competition is older and better linked. Real, and only fixed with time and content.
  • Everything lives on one page. One page can rank for one thing. Five services need five pages.
  • The site is very slow on mobile, which is the version Google actually judges.

Searching your own name proves nothing

You are signed in, you are at your own address and you have visited your site a hundred times. Google shows you what it knows you want. Test in a private window, on mobile data, searching the service and the town — never the business name.

The two you cannot fix by working harder

Age is one. A domain registered a few months ago competes against sites with years of history, and there is no shortcut. The other is the map: for local searches Google puts three business listings above the normal results, so a complete Google Business Profile often reaches your customer before your website ever will. If both are new, the listing is where to start.

Common questions

Do I have to pay Google to appear?

No. Appearing in the normal results and on the map is free and always has been. Ads are a separate paid product and buying them does not improve your organic position.

I appear on my phone but my customer doesn't see me.

Location and search history. Your phone knows where you are and what you have looked at. Ask someone in another town to search the same words — that is the honest answer.

How long after publishing a new page?

Days to a few weeks to be indexed on an established site, longer on a new one. Requesting indexing in Search Console speeds it up. Appearing is not the same as ranking, and the second takes months.

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