Why my website is not showing up on Google

Step 1: check that Google knows your site

Before you touch anything, type site:yourdomain.com into Google (no space after the colon). It is the test Google itself recommends in its starter guide: if results pointing to your site appear, you are in the index. The problem is then not being known, but being chosen.

If nothing appears, open Google Search Console (free), add your domain and look at the “Page indexing” report. It lists every address Google knows and the reason it is, or is not, indexed. For a specific page, the URL Inspection tool gives the verdict page by page.

• “Discovered, currently not indexed”: Google knows the address but has not crawled it yet. According to Google, the crawl was usually postponed because it risked overloading your site.
• “Crawled, currently not indexed”: Google has read the page and has not kept it for now. It may be indexed later and there is no need to resubmit it. In practice, it is the signal to make the page more useful or more distinct from the others.
• “Blocked by robots.txt” or “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag”: you (or your website builder) told Google not to come or not to index.
• “Alternate page with proper canonical tag” or “Duplicate”: Google chose another address as the main version. That is not an error if it is intentional.

In their French wording, “explorée actuellement non indexée” and “détectée actuellement non indexée” (crawled and discovered, currently not indexed), are searched 40 and 30 times a month in France: they are the two statuses that worry people most, and they are rarely faults.

Step 2: look for what keeps Google out

Two settings block Google for sure. The first is the robots.txt file, at yourdomain.com/robots.txt: a “Disallow: /” line under “User-agent: *” closes the whole site to crawlers. In our study, 1% of sites are in this situation. That is few, but it is fatal, and it often happens after a redesign where the staging site was closed and then put live as it was.

The second is the noindex tag, a line in the page code (or a “discourage search engines from indexing this site” box in WordPress and most tools). Google points out that robots.txt is not a way to remove a page from its results: for that you need noindex. And for noindex to work, the page must not be blocked by robots.txt, or Google never sees the instruction.

Check the basics too: the site must respond over HTTPS (4% of the sites analysed do not) and display properly on mobile, since Google crawls the mobile version first (5% of sites lack the viewport tag that declares it).

Step 3: a new site needs to be discovered

Google finds pages mostly by following links from pages it already knows. A new site that nobody mentions can stay invisible for several weeks. Google itself says a change can take effect in a few hours or in several months, and advises waiting a few weeks before judging a piece of work.

The sitemap (sitemap.xml) speeds up discovery: Google recommends it in particular for new sites with few external links. 18% of the sites in our study publish none. Submit it in Search Console and in Bing Webmaster Tools, then request indexing of the home page with the URL Inspection tool.

Finally, make the site exist elsewhere: a Google Business Profile with the link to the site, professional directories for your trade, your chamber of trade or commerce, suppliers and partners. Every real link is a way in for the crawler.

Step 4: does the page answer the search?

If the site is indexed but does not appear for “électricien Toulouse” (electrician Toulouse) or “comptable Nantes” (accountant Nantes), the question becomes: does your page clearly say it is the right answer? Google reads the page title first, then the main heading (H1) and the text. If none of the three contains your trade and your town, Google has to guess.

1. 1
   Rewrite the home page title: trade, town or area, business name, between 25 and 65 characters.
2. 2
   One single H1 that says what you do and where, not just your name or “Welcome”.
3. 3
   Text that answers customers’ real questions: services, area, lead times, indicative prices if you use them, proof.
4. 4
   A dedicated page for each important service, linked from the home page.

Step 5: competition, directories and the Google map

On trade searches with a town, the first thing customers see is often the map: of the 25 trade searches we recorded on Google, 24 showed a block of Google Maps listings before the classic results. Those listings do not rank like websites: they depend on your Business Profile, on distance and on reviews.

In the classic results, directories and platforms often hold the top spots in big cities. Targeting “plombier Paris” (plumber Paris) with a single home page is a lost cause. Aim first at the precise searches you can win: a service, a neighbourhood or a nearby town you genuinely cover, a question your customers ask.

If you only appear for your own name, Google knows you but does not yet consider you relevant enough for the trade: back to step 4.

The full diagnosis, in order

Our free audit runs the technical and editorial checks on this list against your home page in 30 seconds. It does not replace Search Console, which alone shows what Google has actually indexed: the two work together.

1. 1
   Search site:yourdomain.com: any results? You are indexed.
2. 2
   Search Console, Page indexing report: read the exact reason for each page that is not indexed.
3. 3
   robots.txt and noindex: no block on the pages that should appear.
4. 4
   HTTPS, mobile display, sitemap submitted.
5. 5
   Title, H1 and text: the trade and the town, on the page that should rank.
6. 6
   A complete Google Business Profile linked to the site, for the map.
7. 7
   Measured patience: a few weeks before judging, while following Search Console.