3 Big Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Appearing On Google

1. Your website isn’t indexed

If your website isn’t indexed, this means that Google cannot display any of your pages on search results. This generally happens on a page-by-page basis, as opposed to the entire website.

The quickest way to check if your website is indexed is by typing “site:[yourdomain]” into Google (e.g. “site:breendigital.co.uk“). Google will then list any results it can find of that particular domain name. If no results are found, then this means your website is not indexed.

You can also check if your website is indexed with Google Search Console by clicking on the ‘Pages’ tab on the left hand side. This will display all of your website’s indexed pages. If no pages are listed, then this means your entire website is not appearing on Google.

Why is my website not indexed?

i) Google hasn’t had time to index your pages

Google isn’t instantly aware of any changes you make to your website. This is because Google periodically crawls the web, so it takes time for it to process new pages or updates.

Fix: Submitting individual pages or your site map to Google Search Console can speed up the indexing process. You can use the ‘URL Inspection tool’ for single pages, or submit your sitemap to the ‘Sitemaps’ tool for larger website changes.

ii) Your website is hiding pages from Google

There are several ways that a website can block Google from indexing pages. It’s common to ‘no-index’ certain pages of a website, particularly archive and checkout pages, as they serve zero purpose for SEO.

Fix: You can check which pages are being blocked by your website’s robots.txt file by typing “[yourdomain]/robots.txt’ into the search bar. Also, certain website builders like WordPress and Wix allow you to no-index pages in their settings, so ensure that these are all disabled.

iii) Google is struggling to crawl your website

Depending on the complexity of your website, Google may struggle to crawl it. This can result in Google being unable to index all of your intended pages.

Fix: Ensure that your website pages are linked from other pages, making use of the navigation bar, footer, and internal linking on the page. You should also set up redirects for pages where you have changed URLs, as this can inhibit Google’s ability to crawl your website.

2. Your website isn’t ranking for any keywords

The most important part of SEO is ensuring your website appears in the top spots on Google. Failing to do so means that your website is essentially invisible to your target audience.

This is largely weighted towards the keywords you target. For example, a tutoring business will want to target general keywords like ‘tutor’ and ‘private teacher’, alongside more specific keywords like ‘maths tutor near me’ and ‘gsce science tutor london’ where appropriate. If your website has zero mentions of any keywords in your topic, then it will likely not appear at all.

Why is my website not ranking for any keywords?

i) Your website’s authority is too low to compete for your chosen keywords

New websites generally struggle to rank for competitive keywords as they have not yet generated enough domain authority. Whilst domain authority is generally considered a third-party metric to value the authoritativeness of a given website, the algorithm leak from 2024 revealed that Google does in fact record site authority.

Fix: You can build your domain authority by building backlinks to your website. This is hard to do however without existing content. Therefore, to start ranking for your topic, target long-tail keywords with less competition, especially informational keywords in the form of questions.

ii) Your content doesn’t match search intent

When choosing your keywords, understanding the intent behind them is just as important. Just because you build a page targeting a specific keyword doesn’t mean you will rank for it, as this is dependent on your authority and the intent of the user.

For example, the keyword ‘best running shoes’ should feature pages comparing different types of shoes. However, building a page that only posits yourself as having the best running shoes is disingenuous and doesn’t align with what Google considers the correct search intent, nor does it answer the user’s query.

Fix: Consider the intent behind a keyword before building content around it. Search for your chosen keyword beforehand and see how the top ranking pages approach it. Typically, search intent falls into one of three categories: informational, navigational, and transactional. For small businesses, informational and transactional are the most common, so ask yourself if this page is for answering questions or gaining customers.

iii) Your content is thin or low quality

Google doesn’t inherently rate content as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but rather assesses content on if it actually provides value to the user. Depending on the keyword or topic, this can vastly differ, but it matters the most to websites that directly target health and finance (or, Your Money or Your Life – YMOL).

We also know that Google employs Quality Raters that manually assess websites, who follow guidelines to determine if a website is useful for its given topic. Therefore, it is important that all the information you give on your website is both accurate and helpful for the user in answering their query.

Fix: Ensure all the content on your website is built for the user, not just for Google. Avoid keyword stuffing, duplicating content across pages unnecessarily, and not providing enough content for the user to make an informed decision.

iv) Your website has been penalised by Google

If your website is indexed but not ranking for any keywords, even low-competition ones, it’s possible that your site has been penalised by Google. Penalties can significantly reduce or completely remove your visibility in search results, even if your content and on-page SEO are solid.

This can occur in two ways:

• Manual penalties – Google may suppress your website if you’ve violated their Search Essentials. This can be as a result of many things, including buying backlinks, showing different content to users and Google, or hiding text from users in an effort to benefit SEO (such as changing text colour to match the background).
• Algorithmic penalties – When Google updates its search algorithm, metrics can change drastically, meaning things that once benefitted your website are now harming it. The best example of this is Google’s Helpful Content Update, which resulted in many websites losing large amounts of traffic.

Fix: Building your website for the user is a future-proof way of minimising the chance of a penalty. Prioritise helpful content in your niche that enables the user to find what they’re looking for.

3. Your website is ranking poorly on Google

If Google Search Console or Google Analytics records that you’re in fact receiving organic traffic, albeit low, then you’re likely just ranking low for your keywords. Google Search Console allows you to track the average position of your pages and keywords via the ‘Performance’ tool, showing you how often your website has appeared and on which page.

However, it is often good news that your website is at the very least appearing on Google, as this means there are no other wider issues at play. This is typically the position many small businesses find themselves in, as they want to push up to the top spots amongst larger companies, but cannot get their websites to appear anywhere near page one.

Why is my website’s ranking not improving?

i) Your website needs higher authority

To compete with  larger websites, your site needs to improve its domain authority, especially in sensitive areas related to money or finance (YMOL). This is not an instant fix and takes time, resources, and a well-thought out SEO strategy to accomplish.

Fix: Start building backlinks naturally to your website. Build content that users will naturally link to, reach out to third party websites with digital PR, and generate links from directories – both local and national.

ii) Your pages can be optimised further for SEO

Whilst you may have the best content for your niche, there are still some SEO factors to consider. For low authority websites, it’s important to get these basics right. On their own they don’t do much, but stacked together they can have a large impact.

Fix: Ensure your page titles are optimised for your chosen keyword. Internal linking should also be clear for Google to crawl correctly, as it can correlate the usefulness of one page to another. Lastly, whilst meta descriptions do not directly affect SEO, an enticing description can result in a higher click through rate, thus improving organic traffic.

iii) Your website is too slow or not responsive for mobile

User experience is a priority for Google. Websites that are slow or fail to load correctly are often penalised and less likely to rank.

Moreover, mobile view is as important as ever, and websites that fail to display correctly for users with small screen devices can meet the same result.

Fix: Build your website with mobile view in mind, ensuring that it looks suitable for users on smaller devices. Avoid over-complicated designs where possible, especially pages with excessive animation and coding. Tools like PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals are great ways of testing the speed and responsiveness of your website.

iv) Your website is still gaining trust and traction

SEO is a long game and inevitably requires patience and consistency. It’s very normal for websites to take months, even years, to generate a healthy stream of organic traffic.

Fix: Be patient and consistent. If you stick at it, you should expect to see results over time.