Why isn't my website showing on Google?

You have paid for a website, or spent weekends building one, and when you search for your business it is nowhere. It is one of the most common questions we get from small businesses in Luton and Bedfordshire, and the good news is that it is nearly always fixable for free. The trick is working out which problem you have first, because "not on Google" covers several very different things.

First, work out which problem you have

Open Google and try these three searches, in this order. Use a private or incognito window so your own browsing history does not skew the results.

1. site:yourdomain.co.uk with your own address and no spaces. This lists the pages Google has indexed from your site. Google notes the list is not always complete, but if it returns nothing at all, you are not indexed.
2. Your exact business name. If you are indexed, this usually brings your site up unless your name is very common.
3. What you sell plus your town, for example "electrician Luton". This is the search customers actually type, and the hardest one to win.

Seven reasons a website is not on Google

1. It is too new, or nothing links to it

Google finds new pages mostly by following links from pages it already knows. A new site with no links pointing to it can sit unnoticed for weeks. Google itself says crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Submitting your sitemap in Search Console tells Google the site exists without waiting to stumble across it.

2. A setting is telling Google to stay away

This is the most common cause we find, and the most annoying, because it is one checkbox. Web designers switch search engines off while a site is being built and forget to switch them back on.

• WordPress: go to Settings, then Reading, and make sure "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unticked.
• Wix and Squarespace: check the SEO settings for the whole site and for each page. Both let you hide a site or page from search engines.
• Any site: right click a page, choose View Page Source, and search for noindex. If it appears in a robots meta tag, Google has been told not to index that page.
• robots.txt: open yourdomain.co.uk/robots.txt. A line reading Disallow: / under User-agent: * blocks every page from being crawled.

3. It is unpublished, password protected or still on a test address

If the site sits behind a login, a "coming soon" page or a temporary address your designer used for previews, Google cannot see the real thing. Open your domain in an incognito window. What you see there is roughly what Google sees.

4. Google downloads a blank page

Some modern websites send the browser an almost empty page and build the content afterwards with JavaScript. Google can often render that, but not always reliably or quickly, and most AI search tools do not run JavaScript at all. To test it, View Page Source on your homepage and search for a sentence you can see on screen. If it is not in the source, crawlers may be seeing very little.

5. Google crawled it and decided not to index it

In Search Console you may see pages marked "Crawled, currently not indexed" or "Discovered, currently not indexed". That means Google knows the page exists but did not think it was worth adding. The usual reason on small business sites is thin or repeated content, such as ten "areas we cover" pages with the same text and a different town name swapped in. Fewer, genuinely useful pages beat many near copies.

6. The address changed and nothing was redirected

If you moved from an old domain, or switched between www and non www, without setting up permanent (301) redirects, Google may still be holding the old addresses and treating the new ones as a fresh, unknown site. Every old page should point to its new equivalent.

7. A manual action (rare)

Very occasionally Google penalises a site by hand, usually for bought links or spammy content. It is rare for an ordinary small business, and Search Console tells you plainly under Security and Manual Actions if it has happened.

How to check and fix it in Google Search Console

Search Console is Google’s free tool for site owners. It is the only place Google tells you directly whether a page is indexed and, if not, why. Setting it up takes about ten minutes.

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and add your site as a Domain property. Google gives you a TXT record to add at whoever manages your domain, which proves you own it.
2. Open Sitemaps and submit your sitemap address. It is usually /sitemap.xml. WordPress creates one at /wp-sitemap.xml, and Wix and Squarespace create one automatically.
3. Paste your homepage address into the URL Inspection bar at the top. It will say either "URL is on Google" or give a reason it is not.
4. If the page is not indexed and the reason is fixable, fix it, then click Request indexing. There is a daily limit, so use it on your most important pages rather than every page.
5. Open Indexing, then Pages to see every page Google knows about, grouped by the reason it is or is not indexed.
6. Give it a week, then check again. Indexing is not instant, even after a request.

Not on Google Maps? That is a different fix

The map results that appear for searches like "plumber near me" do not come from your website. They come from Google Business Profile, a free listing you create and verify at business.google.com. A website alone will not put you on the map, however good it is.

• Create and verify the profile. Google chooses the verification method, which can be a postcard, a phone call or a short video. Verification can take a while, so start early.
• Hide your address if you work from home. Trades and mobile businesses can list as a service area business and show the towns they cover instead.
• Link the profile to your website, and use exactly the same business name, address and phone number on both.
• Ask happy customers for reviews. Reviews are one of the strongest signals for map rankings.

Do you still need a website if you have a profile? For most businesses that rely on enquiries, yes. The profile gets you found. The website is where people decide to call you, see your work, and fill in a quote form.

On Google, but not for what you sell

If the site: search works but "your service plus your town" does not show you, Google knows your site and simply ranks other pages higher. For a small local business the causes are usually simple:

• No page about that service in that town. A single homepage cannot rank for everything. A page about each main service, with the town you serve in its title and heading, gives Google something specific to rank.
• Page titles that say "Home". The title tag is one of the first things Google reads. It should say what you do and where.
• No links from other websites. Local directories, suppliers, trade bodies and local press all count. Google warns against buying links, so earn them.
• Few reviews and an unverified profile. Local results lean heavily on Google Business Profile.

None of this happens overnight. Expect weeks to months, not days, for a new page to settle into its position.

When to ask for help

If Search Console says your pages are indexable, nothing is blocking them, and a month later you still cannot find yourself, it is worth a second pair of eyes. Send us your web address and we will tell you honestly what is stopping it, free, whether or not you end up working with us. Every website we build ships with search engines switched on, a sitemap submitted and server rendered pages, and our website care plans keep an eye on it after launch. If you are pricing up a new site, our guide to what a website costs in the UK and our pay monthly websites page have the numbers.