Website Not Showing on Google? How to Find and Fix Indexing Problems

Last updated: November 2026 · Written by Adrian Prokopiec, 20 Minute Marketing · 10 min read

This guide is for small business owners who type their business name or a page title into Google and get nothing back. Not page 3. Not "somewhere below the competitors". Nothing.

That's a different problem from ranking poorly, and it needs a different fix. If your pages do appear but sit too low, you want the 12 most common reasons a website isn't ranking instead. This page is only about the step before ranking: getting Google to crawl and index your pages in the first place. By the end you'll know how to work out which of the five usual culprits is blocking you, how to fix it, and how to prove to yourself (and Google) that it's fixed.

Is your site invisible, or just not ranking?

Before you change anything, spend two minutes working out which problem you actually have. Google's process runs in three stages: it discovers a URL, crawls it (downloads the page), then decides whether to index it (store it so it can be shown in results). Ranking only happens after all three.

The site: search is a rough check, not a full count. Google doesn't promise it shows every indexed page. For the real answer you need Google Search Console, which is free and takes about 10 minutes to set up. If you haven't done it yet, follow our Google Search Console setup guide for small business first, then come back.

The five things that stop Google indexing a page

Almost every "my site isn't on Google" case we look at comes down to one of these. Work through them in order, because the first two can block an entire site with a single line of code.

1. A noindex tag left switched on

A noindex instruction tells Google: you can look at this page, but don't put it in search results. It can sit in the page's HTML as <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> or be sent by the server as an X-Robots-Tag header. Google explains both methods in its guide to blocking indexing with noindex.

The usual way this happens is innocent. A web designer ticks "hide from search engines" while building the site and nobody unticks it at launch. In WordPress it's the "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" box under Settings, then Reading. Most website builders, Kajabi included, have a similar per-page or site-wide SEO visibility setting. An SEO plugin can also apply noindex to whole categories of pages, such as tags or service area pages, without you realising.

How to check: open the page, right-click, choose View Page Source, and search for "noindex". Or run the page through our free SEO Lens Chrome extension, which flags a noindex tag at the top of its report.

2. robots.txt blocking Google from crawling

Your robots.txt file lives at yourdomain.com.au/robots.txt and tells crawlers which parts of the site they can visit. A line reading Disallow: / under User-agent: * tells every crawler, including Googlebot, to stay out of the whole site.

Here's the part that trips people up. Google's own introduction to robots.txt says it "is not a mechanism for keeping a web page out of Google". It controls crawling, not indexing. So if you block a page in robots.txt and also add noindex to it, Google can't crawl the page to see the noindex. Pick the right tool: robots.txt to stop crawling of things like admin areas, noindex to keep a page out of results.

3. No sitemap, or a sitemap full of the wrong URLs

A sitemap is a file listing the URLs you want Google to know about. Most modern website platforms generate one automatically, often at /sitemap.xml. Google's help page on how to build and submit a sitemap covers the formats.

A sitemap won't force anything into the index, but it helps Google discover pages that aren't well linked. The common problems are a sitemap that was never submitted in Search Console, one that lists old URLs that now redirect or return 404, or one that includes pages you've marked noindex. That last one sends Google mixed signals: "here's a page I want you to find, but please don't index it."

4. Canonical tags pointing somewhere else

A canonical tag tells Google which version of a page is the main one. It's useful when the same content lives at several URLs, such as with and without tracking parameters. It becomes a problem when every page points its canonical at the home page, or when a staging domain is still set as canonical after launch. Google then treats your real page as a duplicate and indexes the other URL instead.

Google's guide on how to specify a canonical URL is clear that canonical tags are a strong hint, not a directive. Google can and does choose a different canonical if your signals disagree with each other (for example, internal links all pointing to one version while the canonical points to another).

5. Pages Google found but chose not to index

Sometimes nothing is technically blocked. Google crawls the page, then decides it isn't worth storing. In Search Console this shows as "Crawled - currently not indexed" or "Discovered - currently not indexed". The usual reasons are thin content, near-duplicates of other pages on your own site, and pages with no internal links pointing to them (orphan pages).

That's a quality and site structure issue, not a code issue. If this is where you land, our guide to the content mistakes that keep pages buried covers how to make a page worth indexing, and the technical SEO guide for small business covers site structure and internal linking in more depth.

How to read the Page indexing report

In Search Console, go to Indexing, then Pages. The Page indexing report splits your known URLs into Indexed and Not indexed, and lists the reason for every not-indexed group. This is the single most useful screen for an invisible site, because Google is telling you in its own words why it left pages out.

Here's what the reasons you'll see most often actually mean, and what to do about each.

Don't panic at a big "Not indexed" number. Plenty of URLs should be excluded: redirects, filtered versions of pages, admin pages. What matters is whether pages you care about (your services, location pages and best blog posts) are in that list. For more on the reports people misread, see the four Search Console mistakes small businesses make.

Use URL Inspection to confirm the fix

Once you think you've fixed something, test it page by page with the URL Inspection tool. Paste a full URL into the search bar at the top of Search Console. It tells you whether the page is indexed, which canonical Google chose, when it last crawled, and whether indexing is allowed.

The two buttons that matter:

• Test live URL checks the page as it is right now, so you can confirm a noindex or robots.txt fix has actually gone live (caching plugins sometimes serve the old version for a while).
• Request indexing asks Google to recrawl the page. Use it for your most important pages after a fix. It's a request, not a guarantee, and there's a daily limit, so don't waste it on every URL. Resubmitting your sitemap is the better route for large batches.

After a site-wide fix, such as removing a sitewide noindex, it can take days to a few weeks for the Page indexing report to catch up. Check back weekly rather than daily.

Fix it in 20 minutes: the invisible site checklist

Set a timer. This is the order to work in, and most invisible sites are found and fixed within the first three steps.

1. Minutes 0 to 3: Search Google for site:yourdomain.com.au. Note roughly how many results appear compared with how many pages you have.
2. Minutes 3 to 6: Open yourdomain.com.au/robots.txt. If you see Disallow: / under User-agent: *, that's your problem. Remove it (or ask your web developer to) and save.
3. Minutes 6 to 10: Open your home page and one key service page. View the source and search for "noindex". Check your website platform's SEO or search engine visibility settings too.
4. Minutes 10 to 14: In Search Console, open Indexing, then Pages. Write down the top three "Why pages aren't indexed" reasons and how many URLs each affects.
5. Minutes 14 to 17: Open Indexing, then Sitemaps. Confirm your sitemap is submitted, shows "Success", and that the discovered URL count looks sensible.
6. Minutes 17 to 20: Run your three most important pages through URL Inspection. Use Test live URL, then Request indexing on any that pass the test but aren't yet indexed.

If you'd rather check one page at a time without logging in to anything, SEO Lens sorts what it finds into Fix first, Worth doing and Nice to have, in plain English. Once the blockers are gone, run every new page through our post-publishing SEO checklist so the problem doesn't creep back.

Other technical issues worth fixing (after indexing)

Once Google can see your site, the full-site audit tools are worth a look. Semrush, Ahrefs and Screaming Frog will crawl every page and list issues by severity. Treat their "health score" as a to-do list, not a grade. Many flagged items don't stop a page being indexed.

In rough priority order after indexing:

• Orphan pages. Pages with no internal links pointing to them are hard for Google to find and look unimportant. Link to each one from at least two relevant pages.
• Broken links. Fix the link, or 301 redirect the old URL to the closest live page.
• HTTPS. Every page should load securely, and the http version should redirect to https.
• Titles and headings. One clear H1 per page and a unique title tag. You can paste your page copy into ChatGPT to draft title options, then edit them so they sound like you.
• Speed and Core Web Vitals. Important for users, rarely the reason a page isn't indexed. Our free site-speed fixes cover the quick wins.

Indexing matters beyond the main results too. If Google can't properly crawl your site, it has less to go on when it shows your business in local results and Google Maps. For the local side, start with our complete guide to SEO for Australian small business.

Want to go further than this checklist? The 20 Minute Marketing SEO course walks you through Search Console, indexing and on-page fixes step by step. If you want SEO alongside social, email and ads, the Essentials course covers all of it, or you can compare every course and learn more about 20 Minute Marketing.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my website not showing up on Google at all?

Usually because something tells Google not to index it (a noindex tag or a robots.txt block), or because the site is new and Google hasn't discovered it yet. Set up Google Search Console, submit your sitemap and check the Page indexing report for the exact reason.

How long does it take Google to index a new website?

Google doesn't publish a fixed timeframe. Many new pages are picked up within days, but some take several weeks. Submitting a sitemap, linking to new pages from existing ones and using Request indexing in URL Inspection can help Google find them sooner.

What does "Crawled - currently not indexed" mean?

Google visited the page and decided not to add it to the index for now. Nothing is technically blocking it. The usual causes are thin or duplicate content and weak internal linking, so improve the page and link to it from related pages before requesting indexing again.

Does submitting a sitemap guarantee my pages get indexed?

No. A sitemap helps Google discover your URLs, but Google still decides which pages to index based on quality and duplication. Keep your sitemap limited to live, indexable pages you actually want in results.

Should I use robots.txt or noindex to hide a page from Google?

Use noindex to keep a page out of search results. Google says robots.txt is not a mechanism for keeping a page out of Google, because a blocked page can still be indexed if other sites link to it, and Google can't see a noindex tag on a page it isn't allowed to crawl.

Keep reading

• Technical SEO explained for small business owners
• Indexed but not ranking? 12 reasons and fixes
• How to find hidden traffic in Google Search Console
• The business reasons small businesses fail on Google
• Real-world digital marketing tactics for small business