Why Your Website Doesn't Show Up on Google

"My website doesn't show up on Google" describes at least four completely different problems with completely different fixes. Before spending money on SEO, find out which one you have. The whole diagnosis takes about fifteen minutes.

Work through these in order. Stop at the first one that's true.

Step 1: Is your site on Google at all?

Type this into Google, using your own domain:

site:yourbusiness.co.nz

That asks Google to list every page it knows about on your site.

• Results appear → you're indexed. Skip to Step 3.
• Nothing at all → Google doesn't have your site. Continue to Step 2.
• Some pages, but not the important ones → partial indexing. Step 2 still applies to the missing pages.

This one search separates "invisible" from "ranking badly", and those are not remotely the same problem. Most people who think they have an SEO problem are actually at Step 3.

Step 2: Are you accidentally blocking Google?

If nothing came back, something is usually telling search engines to stay away — and more often than not it was switched on deliberately during the build and never switched off.

Check the robots file. Visit:

yourbusiness.co.nz/robots.txt

If you see this, you are blocking everything:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Check for a noindex tag. Open your homepage, view source, and search for `noindex`. This tag removes a page from search results even when everything else is correct:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

On WordPress, look in Settings → Reading for a checkbox about discouraging search engines. It gets ticked on staging sites and forgotten at launch. It is responsible for a genuinely embarrassing number of invisible business websites.

If the site is brand new, none of the above may apply — Google may simply not have got to you yet. Set up Google Search Console, submit your sitemap, and expect days to weeks rather than hours.

Step 3: You're indexed, but ranking too low to see

This is where most businesses actually are, and it's a different problem entirely — not invisibility, but position.

Test: search for your exact business name. If you appear, you rank. You just don't rank for the things people search when they don't already know you exist.

That distinction is everything. Nobody who needs a plumber searches your company name. They search "emergency plumber [suburb]". Ranking first for your own name and nowhere for your service is the default state of a new website, not a fault.

Confirm it in Search Console (Performance → Search results, add the "Position" column). You'll typically find you're on page three or beyond for the queries that matter — visible in principle, invisible in practice.

Step 4: Nothing on your site targets what people search

Now the diagnosis gets useful.

Most small business sites have a homepage, an About page, a Services page listing eight services in a paragraph each, and a Contact page. Then the owner wonders why they don't rank for any of those eight services.

Google ranks pages, not businesses. A service mentioned in one sentence on a shared page is competing against sites with a full, dedicated page for that exact service. It loses, reliably.

The fix: one page per service you actually want customers for, each written around the phrase a customer would type. Not "Commercial Solutions" but "Commercial Electrical Wiring in Auckland".

Find the phrases for free: type your service into Google and read the autocomplete suggestions, the "People also ask" box, and the related searches at the bottom of the page. That's Google showing you its own query data at no cost.

Step 5: You're competing with the wrong sites

Search the phrase you want to rank for and look honestly at who holds page one.

If it's national directories, franchises, and businesses ten times your size, that phrase isn't available to you yet — not because your site is bad, but because ranking there requires years of accumulated authority.

What works instead: go longer and more specific. "Electrician" is unwinnable. "Emergency electrician Papakura" might be sitting there with nobody competing for it properly. Fewer people search it — but the ones who do are ready to call, and you can actually rank.

This is the single most useful adjustment a small business can make, and it's counterintuitive enough that most never make it.

Step 6: For local businesses, the map results are a separate system

If customers come to your premises or you serve a local area, the map pack at the top of local searches is a different ranking system from the ordinary blue links.

It's driven mostly by your Google Business Profile: complete information, correct category, consistent name/address/phone everywhere online, real photographs, and a steady flow of reviews.

A local business can be invisible in the map pack while ranking respectably in normal results, and vice versa. If your customers are local, this is often worth more than everything above — and it's free.

Step 7: Slow sites rank worse

Once the fundamentals are right, speed becomes a genuine differentiator. Google's page experience signals measure loading, responsiveness and visual stability from real visitor data — LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds, and CLS under 0.1.

It isn't the strongest factor — content and authority still matter more — but between two comparable pages it can decide which one wins.

Two practical points people get wrong: the scoring uses field data from real Chrome users at the 75th percentile, so a perfect score in your own browser tools proves nothing if a quarter of real visitors on mid-range phones are slow. And that data updates on a rolling 28-day window, so allow several weeks after a fix before judging whether it worked. If speed turns out to be your problem, start here.

Step 8: Patience, and what's normal

SEO does not work on the timescale anyone wants.

For a new site, expect roughly three months before meaningful movement and around six before it compounds. That isn't a dodge — it's how long it takes to accumulate enough signals. Judging results after four weeks is the most common reason businesses abandon an approach that was working.

Quick reference

Run this before hiring anyone for SEO. If your problem is a leftover noindex tag, that's a five-minute fix, and it's worth knowing that before you sign up for a monthly retainer.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my website not showing on Google?

There are four distinct causes and they need different fixes: the site isn't indexed at all, it's actively blocked by a robots.txt rule or a noindex tag, it's indexed but ranking too low to see, or nothing on it targets the phrases people actually search. Run a `site:yourdomain.com` search first — that single test tells you which of the four you have.

How do I check if my website is indexed by Google?

Search `site:yourdomain.com` in Google. If pages come back, you're indexed and your problem is ranking position rather than visibility. If nothing comes back, Google either doesn't know about the site yet or is being told to stay away — check robots.txt and your homepage source for a noindex tag.

How long does it take for a new website to appear on Google?

Indexing can happen within days of submitting a sitemap in Search Console. Ranking is slower: expect around three months before meaningful movement and six before it compounds. Judging results after four weeks is the most common reason people abandon an approach that was working.

Why does my business name rank but not my services?

Because Google ranks pages, not businesses. Your homepage is the obvious answer for your own name, but a service that gets one sentence on a shared services page is competing against sites with a full dedicated page for that exact service — and it loses reliably. One page per service you want customers for is the fix.

Where to start

Run the `site:` search on your own domain right now. Whichever of the four problems it points to, you'll know within a minute which one you're solving — and that's the difference between fixing it and paying a retainer to find out.

Two related reads. If the site is being found but nothing comes of it, ten signs it's losing customers covers what happens after the click. And if you've got the diagnosis but aren't sure it warrants paying anyone, that line is drawn here.

If you'd like help reading the results, book a free 30-minute call, or see how I build sites that get found in the first place on the services page.