7 Reasons Your Site Isn’t Showing Up on Google (and How to Fix It)

If you've recently created a webpage or requested it to be indexed by Google, it's important to note that indexing may take some time.

It is recommended to wait for at least a week after submitting your request or sitemap to Google before concluding that there is an issue with your site's ranking on Google.

Hence, in order to appear on Google's search results, three conditions must be met:

1. Google is aware of your website's existence and can locate and access all the crucial pages.
2. You possess a page that is pertinent and serves as a relevant result for the desired keyword.
3. You have demonstrated to Google that your page deserves to be ranked for the specific search query, surpassing other pages from different websites.

The majority of the issues addressed below are associated with one of these three factors.

Now let's dwell into the reasons why your site is not showing up on Google as it should have and list out the possible solutions!

1. Your Website is Recently Launched

If your website or page is relatively new, it's possible that Google hasn't had sufficient time to discover and index it.

Therefore, it's quite common for new websites to be missing from the search results.

To verify if Google has indexed your website or page, you can conduct a specific search using the following format: site:yourwebsite.com.

If you find at least one result when searching "site:yourwebsite.com," it indicates that Google is aware of your website's existence.

However, if there are no results, it suggests that Google hasn't indexed your site yet. Even if Google knows about your website, it may not be aware of the specific page you want to rank.

How to fix:

To confirm whether Google has indexed that particular page, search for "site:yourwebsite.com/a-page-you-want-to-show-up-in-google/".

Ideally, when conducting the mentioned searches, you should find at least one result.

However, if you find no results for either of these searches, it is advisable to create a sitemap for your website.

Submitting the sitemap through Google Search Console is a good practice to ensure proper indexing.

To do this, access your Google Search Console account, and navigate to:

Search Console > Sitemaps > Enter sitemap URL > Submit

Following these steps will help Google discover and index your website's pages effectively.

2. Controlling Page Visibility:

If you instruct Google not to display specific pages in search results by utilizing the "noindex" meta tag, those pages will remain unindexed.

This meta tag, represented by the following HTML code, plays a crucial role:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex"/>

Even if you have created a sitemap and submitted it through Google Search Console, pages containing this code will not be indexed.

It is possible that you might not remember adding this code to any of your pages, but that does not mean it isn't present.

For instance, WordPress automatically includes this code on every page if you inadvertently select the wrong option during your site setup process.

It is common for web developers to utilize this technique to prevent Google from indexing a site during the development phase. However, they may sometimes forget to remove these restrictions before publishing the site.

If Google has already crawled the pages listed in your sitemap, it will inform you about any pages marked as "noindexed" in the "Coverage" report within Google Search Console.

To identify this issue, look for the specific error message indicating the presence of "noindexed" pages.

One can look for this error

If you have recently submitted your sitemap to Google and they have not yet crawled the pages, you can perform a crawl using Ahrefs Site Audit.

This comprehensive audit scans every page on your website and identifies over 100 potential SEO issues, including the detection of "noindex" tags.

By running this audit, you can ensure that all pages on your site are thoroughly checked for any SEO-related problems.

3. Preventing Search Engine Crawling on Your Pages

One possible reason for your website not appearing on Google could be the obstruction of search engine crawling.

This occurs when something is preventing Google from accessing and crawling your site.

Most websites have a file called "robots.txt" that specifies which areas search

engines are not allowed to access.

If certain URLs are blocked in your "robots.txt" file, Google will be unable to crawl those specific pages or content.

Consequently, these blocked URLs will not be indexed or appear in Google's search results.

How to fix:

Within the "Coverage" report, look for any specific errors related to the robots.txt file. These errors will indicate if there are problems preventing search engines from properly crawling your website.

Step 1: Review Robots.txt File Open your website's robots.txt file and carefully review its content. Pay attention to any rules or directives that might be causing the issue.

Step 2: Fix Robots.txt File Errors Make the necessary changes to your robots.txt file to resolve the crawling issue. Ensure that the file allows search engines to crawl the desired pages by removing any incorrect rules or directives. Be cautious and double-check the syntax to avoid introducing new errors.

Step 3: Verify Robots.txt Changes After making the necessary adjustments to your robots.txt file, save the changes and verify that the updated file is correctly accessible on your website.

Step 4: Submit Updated Robots.txt to Google In Google Search Console, go to the "Coverage" report and click on the specific error related to the robots.txt file. Click on the "Validate Fix" button or use the "Validate Fix" option from the context menu. This will prompt Google to re-crawl and re-evaluate your robots.txt file.

Step 5: Monitor Google Search Console Regularly monitor the "Coverage" report in Google Search Console to ensure that the crawling issue related to the robots.txt file is resolved. Check for any new errors or issues and address them promptly if they arise.

4. Low Quality Content:

Google values high-quality, informative, and engaging content that provides value to users.

Your website may not rank well if it has thin, duplicate, or poorly written content.

How to fix:

To fix this, focus on creating original and valuable content that answers users' queries, offers unique insights, and is well-structured.

Ensure that your content is error-free, easy to read, and includes relevant multimedia elements such as images or videos.

Refine your keyword list by selecting the most relevant and high-value keywords. Group related keywords into clusters or categories based on topic or intent.

This helps with organizing your content strategy and optimizing individual pages.

5. Mobile-Friendliness:

With the increasing use of mobile devices, Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in its search results.

If your site isn't optimized for mobile, it may not appear prominently.

How to fix:

To fix this, adopt a responsive design approach that adapts your website's layout and content to different screen sizes.

Test your site on various mobile devices to ensure it loads quickly, and displays correctly, and offers a smooth user experience.

There are several tools available to test the mobile-friendliness of your website. Here are a few popular ones: 

1. Google Search Console: Search Console notifies you of significant site errors, including the identification of hacked content, and assists you in controlling the appearance of your content within search results.

2. PageSpeed Insights: Google's PageSpeed Insights not only measures the performance of your website but also evaluates its mobile friendliness. It provides suggestions to improve mobile performance and user experience.

3. TestMySite: Powered by Think with Google, TestMySite allows you to enter your website URL and generates a comprehensive report on mobile friendliness, mobile speed, and desktop speed. It provides actionable recommendations to optimize your site for mobile users.

4. LambdaTest: LambdaTest's Mobile Test Automation Tool, equipped with over 3000 real devices, provides an app testing cloud that enables seamless automated testing.

6. Page Speed:

Slow-loading websites tend to have higher bounce rates and lower search rankings. Optimizing your website's speed is crucial for better visibility.

How to fix:

• Compress images, minify CSS and JavaScript files, leverage browser caching, and use a content delivery network (CDN) to enhance your website's loading speed.
• Regularly monitor and analyze your site's performance to identify and address any speed-related issues.
• Enable Gzip compression on your server to reduce the file size of your website's resources during transmission. This compression method significantly reduces the amount of data that needs to be transferred, resulting in faster page load times. You can enable Gzip compression through server configuration or with the help of plugins.
• Identify and remove or defer render-blocking JavaScript that prevents the browser from parsing and rendering the page until the script is fully loaded. Utilize async or defer attributes in script tags to optimize the loading of JavaScript files without blocking page rendering.:

7. Low Quality Backlinks and Authority

Google considers the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your website as a signal of its authority and relevance. If your site lacks authoritative backlinks, it may struggle to rank well.

How to fix:

Focus on building high-quality backlinks from reputable and relevant websites within your industry.

Engage in content marketing, guest blogging, and outreach campaigns to earn valuable backlinks that can improve your site's visibility and rankings.

By addressing these seven reasons and implementing the corresponding fixes, you can greatly increase your website's chances of showing up on Google's search results and improve its overall visibility and organic traffic.

Remember that search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process, so continuous monitoring, analysis, and optimization are essential to maintain and improve your site's visibility over time.