Why Your Website Is Not Showing Up on Google

Eight causes, in the order to check them

1. The site or the page is new

   Google has to find a page before it can list it. It says it can take a week or so to start crawling and indexing a new page or site. If yours went live in the last couple of weeks, follow the steps under how to get Google to index your site, below, and wait.

2. A setting tells Google to leave the site out (noindex)

   A noindex tag is a line in a page's code that tells search engines not to list the page. It keeps an unfinished site out of search, and it can stay on after launch. Google says a page with this tag is dropped from its results entirely. Inspect your home page in Search Console: a reason that mentions noindex confirms it. Your website platform may have a search engine settings page. Turn the block off there, then request indexing.

3. A file blocks Google from fetching the site (robots.txt)

   Robots.txt is a small text file, found by adding robots.txt after your domain name, that tells crawlers which parts of a site they may fetch. A rule that reads Disallow: / under User-agent: * tells every crawler to stay out of the whole site. One sign of this block: Google says a blocked address can still appear in results, but with no description. Remove the rule, or ask your developer to. Robots.txt vs noindex explains when to use each.

4. The page needs a login, or the server turns Google away

   Google only indexes pages that are open to the public and that load successfully. A password screen, or a security tool that refuses Google's crawler, keeps a page out. In the URL Inspection tool, choose Test live URL. A "Server error (5xx)", or a response saying access is unauthorized or forbidden, points here. If you use a firewall, read whether a CDN or firewall can hurt SEO.

5. The address changed, or the page is gone

   If the site was rebuilt, old addresses may now show an error page. Search Console lists these as "Not found (404)". Google's advice for a page that has moved is a permanent (301) redirect from the old address to the new one. Our guide to redesigning a website without losing SEO covers the whole job.

6. Google read the page and chose not to list it

   Google says not every page it processes will be indexed. Search Console shows this as "Crawled - currently not indexed", or as "Discovered - currently not indexed" when Google knows the address but has not fetched it yet. Google names low-quality content as a common reason. A page that repeats another one can be folded into it, shown as "Duplicate without user-selected canonical". Make the page clearly useful and different from your others, and link to it from pages that are already listed.

7. The content only appears after scripts run

   Some sites build each page in the visitor's browser with JavaScript. Google does run scripts, and says that without that step it might not see the content. Run Test live URL and open the screenshot. If it is blank, or is missing text you can see in your own browser, Google is not receiving your content, and the fix belongs to a developer. Headless CMS and SEO goes deeper.

8. A penalty from Google (a manual action) or a security problem

   Open the Manual actions and Security issues reports in Search Console. A manual action means a reviewer at Google found that pages break its spam policies, and Google says some or all of the site will then not be shown in results. A site with a security problem can be shown with a warning. Check this early if you bought the domain from someone else: Google lists inherited manual actions as a cause.