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Why is my website
not showing in Google?
You search for your own business and you are nowhere to be found. Annoying, but almost always explainable. In nine out of ten cases we look at, it comes down to one of seven causes. All seven are below, each with a check you can run yourself in a few minutes.
Check in 30 seconds whether you are indexed at all
Type this into Google: site:yourdomain.be No quotes, no space after the colon.
If you see a list of your pages, your site is in Google and you have a ranking problem. If you get zero results, your site is not indexed and you have a technical problem. That difference decides everything that follows, so run this check before you read on.
Your site is not in Google at all
Four causes, ordered by how often we run into them.
1. The site is still set to noindex
During the build, almost every developer ticks the "discourage search engines" box in WordPress. If it is forgotten at launch, your site stays invisible to Google. Check: Settings, Reading, and make sure that box is unticked.
2. Your site is too new
A new site usually needs a few days to a few weeks before Google picks it up. You speed that up by adding the site to Google Search Console and submitting your sitemap. Without Search Console you are waiting without knowing what for.
3. Robots.txt is blocking everything
Visit yourdomain.be/robots.txt. If it says Disallow: / you are shutting out search engines across the whole site. This often happens after a move from staging to live.
4. No link points to you
Google finds sites through links. If you are listed nowhere, no Google Business Profile, no industry directory, no partner page, you barely exist to a crawler. Creating a Business Profile is free and largely solves this for a local business.
You are in there, but nobody sees you
This is the case on most SME sites we review. The pages are in Google, just on page three or lower.
5. Your pages target nothing
Titles like "Home", "Services" and "Welcome" contain no word anyone actually types. Google then has no idea what you should rank for. Put what you do and where you do it in every page title.
6. Competitors have more content
Three pages of two hundred words lose to a competitor with twenty pages that each answer one question. Not because longer is better, but because they show up for twenty search terms and you show up for none.
7. The site is too slow on mobile
Most local searches happen on a phone. If your page loads slowly, the visitor leaves and that signal counts. Test your page with PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile score first.
Getting found is not a mystery, it is a checklist.
Everything above you can check yourself without paying anything and without calling anyone. If you get stuck on one of the seven points, we will take a look. It often turns out to be one checkbox or one missing page.
Your checklist for tonight
| Check | Where | What you want to see |
|---|---|---|
| Are you indexed | Google: site:yourdomain.be | Your pages in the results |
| Noindex setting | WordPress, Settings, Reading | Box unticked |
| Robots.txt | yourdomain.be/robots.txt | No Disallow: / |
| Sitemap submitted | Google Search Console | Status: success |
| Business Profile | Google Business Profile | Verified and complete |
| Mobile speed | PageSpeed Insights | Green on mobile |
If you cannot work it out, our free tools will get you a step further, or we can look at it with you through the scan. You get the findings in writing, even if you do nothing with us afterwards.
Website not in Google
How long before a new website shows up in Google?
Usually a few days to a few weeks. With Google Search Console and a submitted sitemap it goes faster, often within the week. Without Search Console it can take months without you knowing why.
I show up for my business name but not for my services. Why?
Ranking for your own name is easy because there is no competition. Ranking for service terms needs pages about those services. One page per service, with that term in the title, is the first step.
Do I have to pay to appear in Google?
No. Appearing in the organic results costs nothing to Google. Google Ads is separate: you buy placement at the top and it stops the moment you stop paying. For most SMEs the two work best side by side.
Would rebuilding my site help?
Rarely the first step. A site that is not found usually has an indexing or content problem rather than a design problem. Work through the seven points above first. If the site is technically outdated or unfixably slow, rebuilding is defensible.
Let us take a look
30 minutes. We run the seven points against your site and tell you what we would fix, in that order.
Read more: Google Ads agency · Results by sector · Free tools