Website not showing on Google – how to find the cause and fix it

Why a website does not show on Google: four main causes

"Not showing up" can mean very different things, and each one has its own fix. Start by working out which of these describes your site.

• Not indexed yet: Google has not found or stored your pages, so they cannot appear at all. Common with brand-new sites and sites nothing links to
• Blocked by a setting: a noindex tag, robots.txt, or a password is telling Google to stay away
• New domain, little trust yet: the pages are indexed, but the site is young and has not built enough signals to rank
• Content and search terms do not match: everything is technically fine, but the words on your pages differ from what people type, or the pages are too thin

The first two are technical and usually quick to fix once found. The last two take time and better content. The next section shows how to tell which one applies in a few minutes.

Three quick checks to see where you stand

You do not need paid tools. These three checks, in this order, tell you most of what you need.

• A "site:" search: type "site:yourdomain.com" into Google. No results at all means the site is either not indexed or blocked
• A search for your company name: if site: works but your name does not, a similarly named company or a directory may be outranking you, or your official name is not clearly written on the page
• URL Inspection in Google Search Console: paste a page URL to see whether it is indexed and, if not, why – for example "Excluded by noindex tag" or "Blocked by robots.txt"

If you have not set up Search Console yet, start there – our guide to getting pages indexed on Google covers the steps. If URL Inspection shows "Crawled – currently not indexed", see how to fix crawled but not indexed pages.

When a setting keeps your site out of search

If site: returns nothing or URL Inspection names an exclusion reason, check the settings first. A setting added during development and left on after launch is the most common culprit.

• noindex tag: an instruction in the page telling search engines not to list it, often left over from a test site
• WordPress visibility setting: under Settings → Reading, the box "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" hides the whole site when ticked
• robots.txt: a line such as "Disallow: /" stops Google from reading any page
• Password protection: basic authentication or a store password left on in Shopify or BASE keeps Google out as well
• Wrong canonical or redirect: the canonical URL points to another page or the old site, or redirects loop
• Manual action: rare, but if Google finds a guideline violation, Search Console shows it under "Manual actions"

Each of these is simple to correct. After the fix, request indexing through URL Inspection and give it a few days to a few weeks. Slow responses and server errors can also get in the way of indexing, so check those at the same time.

If the site or domain is brand new

A site on a new domain needs time to be discovered, indexed and ranked. Sometimes that takes days, sometimes weeks – there is no fixed timeline. You can help Google find it while you wait:

• Add the site to Search Console and submit an XML sitemap
• Request indexing for key pages such as the home page
• Link to the site from your Google Business Profile, Instagram and other social accounts, and ask partners or associations to link to it
• If you moved from an old site, set up 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones and keep the old domain for a while
• Put your official company or shop name in the page title and describe your location and business in text on the home page

When a renewal also changes the domain, missing redirects mean the old site's search history is not passed on. If your name still does not show after about a month, go back and recheck the settings in the previous section.

Indexed but hard to find: content and keyword gaps

Your pages appear for site: but not for searches like "dentist Shibuya" or "packaging supplies wholesale". The technical side is fine; the content does not yet answer what people search for. Review these points:

• Titles and headings: do they use the words your customers actually type?
• One page per service: if several services share a single page, give each its own page so it can be found for its own terms
• Useful detail: price guidance, service area, process and FAQs – the things people compare before they contact anyone
• Text, not images: key information shown only inside images is much harder for Google to read than page text
• Local details: for a shop or office, write the address and service area on the page and keep it consistent with your Google Business Profile

You are competing with other sites for the same searches, so rankings build over time. Our guide to website SEO basics covers how to strengthen your content step by step.

UNANOBO's free check: the cause and the fix, shown in a demo

Send us your site address and UNANOBO checks it in the order above, then tells you what is keeping it out of search. If it is a setting, you get the exact place and how to fix it. If it is the content, we build a free demo of the improved page – with reworked titles and structure – that you can open on your computer and phone.

The process is simple: free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, so you never have to explain your situation twice. Everything runs by message, in Japanese or English, and your Search Console and other accounts stay in your name.