Few things are more frustrating than launching a beautiful website and then finding it nowhere on Google. The good news: the cause is usually one of a handful of well-known issues, and most can be fixed. Here are the ten we see most often in our audits.

1. Your Pages Are Not Indexed

Search for site:yourdomain.com on Google. If few or no pages appear, Google may not have indexed them. Check the Page Indexing report in Google Search Console and use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing for important pages.

2. A Noindex Tag or Blocked Crawling

A leftover noindex tag from development, or the WordPress setting “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”, can hide an entire website. Also confirm your robots.txt is not blocking important pages, CSS or JavaScript.

3. The Website Is Very New

New domains need time for Google to discover and evaluate them. Submit your XML sitemap, link to your site from your social profiles and Google Business Profile, and keep publishing helpful content.

4. You Are Targeting the Wrong Keywords

Broad terms like “travel” or “marketing” are dominated by huge brands. Target specific, achievable searches that match what you offer — for example a service plus a location, or a precise problem you solve.

5. Thin or Duplicate Content

Pages with a few lines of text, or content copied from other sites or repeated across many pages with only the city name changed, rarely rank. Google's spam policies specifically warn against doorway pages and scaled low-value content. Write original, useful content for each page.

6. Weak Titles and Headings

Every page needs a unique, descriptive title tag, a clear H1 and a logical heading structure. Generic titles like “Home” or “Services” give Google and searchers little to go on.

7. Slow, Unstable Mobile Pages

Google uses mobile-first indexing, and page experience matters. Aim for good Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift below 0.1. Compress images, remove unused scripts and use caching.

If important pages are buried and rarely linked from elsewhere on your site, Google may treat them as less important. Link from your homepage and related articles using descriptive anchor text.

9. Little Authority or Reputation

Competing pages may have years of mentions, reviews and links. Build reputation through genuine partnerships, PR, directory listings, case studies and great customer service that earns reviews.

10. A Redesign Broke Your URLs

If rankings dropped after a new website launched, old URLs may now return 404 errors. Map every important old URL to its new equivalent with a 301 redirect.

What to Do Next

Start with Google Search Console — it reveals indexing problems, manual actions and the searches you already appear for. If the cause is not obvious, a technical SEO audit will pinpoint the issues and prioritise fixes, and our SEO services can take care of the rest.

Quick Answers

How do I check if Google has indexed my site?

Use the site: search operator and the Page Indexing report in Google Search Console.

Can I pay Google to rank higher organically?

No. Organic rankings cannot be bought; only ads are paid placements.