Free website check

Why isn’t my website showing on Google?

Most of the time it’s one setting, or just a wait. The free check reads your site for common search and sharing problems and shows what it finds, with steps for your website builder.

Check these first, most likely first

Start at the top. The pages for each builder below show where to find these settings.

1. The site is new

   Google says it can take anywhere from a day or two to a few weeks for a new site to appear. If yours is only a few days old, waiting and submitting a sitemap may be the whole fix.

2. Something tells search engines to stay out

   A noindex tag, a robots.txt rule or a password stops pages being listed. Builders often have one switch for this, and it is easy to leave on while a site is being built.

   The free check reads the noindex tag and your robots.txt.

3. Google doesn’t know your pages exist

   Pages nothing links to, and sites with no sitemap, are hard for Google to find. Publish a sitemap and add the site to Google Search Console.

   The free check looks for your sitemap and tells you if it is missing or points elsewhere.

4. A redirect, or a main address that points elsewhere

   A redirect, a domain move without proper redirects, or a canonical tag naming another address can send Google to a different page than the one you expect.

   The free check flags a main address that points to another site.

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

   A page that is very thin, or nearly the same as another, may be read and still left out. The Page indexing report in Google Search Console says which pages and why.

6. A penalty or a security problem

   Search Console has Manual actions and Security issues reports. If either lists a problem on your site, deal with that first.

See whether Google has listed you yet

1. Search Google for site:yourdomain.com, using your own address. Pages in the results are on Google. No results does not prove the site is absent: this search can omit indexed pages. Use URL Inspection below to check a specific page.
2. To check one page, open Google Search Console (free), paste the page’s address into the box at the top and read the answer: “URL is on Google” or “URL is not on Google”. Open “Page indexing” to see why.
3. If the page isn’t on Google and nothing is blocking it, press “Request indexing”. Google says this usually takes a day or so, can take much longer, and isn’t guaranteed.

A new site can take a while: Google says anywhere from a day or two to a few weeks, and suggests allowing at least a week after you submit a sitemap.

Google: check a page with URL Inspection Google: why a page might be missing from search

What the free check looks at

• Whether the page asks search engines not to list it (a noindex tag or header).
• Whether robots.txt shuts search engines out.
• Whether the site publishes a sitemap, and whether it points at your own pages.
• Whether the page names another address as its main one.
• Whether the www and non-www addresses both work.
• The search settings of up to 10 other pages.

It only reads public pages. It never signs in, and nothing on your site changes. It can’t see Google’s own list, which is why the steps above matter. How the check works.

A noindex switch that someone turns back on is an easy way for a site to drop out quietly. DeployPost Watch runs this check on your page every day and emails you when something looks different. See DeployPost Watch.

Pick your website builder

• Shopify: store not showing on Google
• Wix: site not showing on Google
• Squarespace: site not showing on Google
• WordPress: site not showing on Google
• Webflow: site not showing on Google
• Framer: site not showing on Google

Built from code, or with something else? The causes above apply to any website, and the check explains the rest.