Why your website is not on Google

If your website is not showing up on Google, the cause is almost always one of two things: Google hasn't indexed it (it doesn't know the pages exist or has been told to ignore them), or it is indexed but ranks too low to be seen for the searches you care about. The first is usually a technical problem you can fix in an afternoon. The second takes content, local signals and time.

The first step is to find out which of the two you're dealing with. Below is a 15-minute check you can do without any paid tools, followed by the ten causes I find most often when Canadian business owners ask me why their site has disappeared.

The 15-minute check

1. Search site:yourdomain.ca in Google. If nothing comes up, the site isn't indexed. If only a few pages show, part of it is missing.
2. Search your exact business name. If your site doesn't appear for its own name, there's a serious indexing or trust problem. If it does, Google knows you exist.
3. Search the service you sell plus your city, for example "roof repair Lethbridge", in a private window. Note what page you appear on, if any.
4. Open Google Search Console (free, from Google). Look at the Pages report for "not indexed" reasons and use URL Inspection on your homepage and one service page. If you don't have Search Console, set it up first; my Search Console guide for beginners takes you through it.

If step 1 fails, read causes 1 to 5. If steps 1 and 2 pass but step 3 fails, jump to causes 6 to 10.

Indexing problems: Google can't or won't see you

1. The site is brand new

Google can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks to discover and index a new site, especially if nothing links to it. Submit a sitemap in Search Console, request indexing for your key pages, and make sure your Google Business Profile and a few directories link to it.

2. A "noindex" tag left over from development

Designers often block search engines while building a site and forget to remove the block at launch. In WordPress there's a setting that discourages search engines; in other systems it's a meta tag. URL Inspection will say "Excluded by noindex tag". This one costs nothing to fix and I find it more often than you'd think.

3. robots.txt blocks the site

A single line in the robots.txt file (Disallow: /) can tell Google to stay away from the whole site. Open yourdomain.ca/robots.txt and check.

4. You moved or rebuilt without redirects

If you switched domains, moved from http to https, or rebuilt the site with new page addresses and didn't redirect the old ones, Google may still be holding onto old URLs that now return errors. Rankings built over years can drop within weeks. See moving a website without losing traffic.

5. The content isn't readable

Some page builders and heavy JavaScript setups load text in ways search engines struggle with, or put the important words inside images. If URL Inspection's rendered view shows an empty page, Google sees an empty page. This is one reason I build sites hand-coded or on a custom CMS: the text is in the HTML, where Google expects it.

Ranking problems: indexed but invisible

6. You're targeting searches you can't win yet

A new site won't rank for "lawyer Toronto" in month two. Start with more specific searches: the service plus a neighbourhood, a specific problem, a specific product. Those bring fewer but warmer visitors and build the authority you need for the big terms. Read keyword research for a local business for how to pick them.

7. Your pages are thin

A services page with a bulleted list of eight services and no detail can't rank for any of them. Each main service needs its own page explaining what it is, who it's for, typical prices or ranges, the process, the area you serve and photos of your work.

8. No local signals

For local searches, Google leans heavily on your Google Business Profile, reviews and consistent directory listings. A website without a profile is fighting with one hand. Start with the local SEO guide for Canada.

9. Duplicate or competing pages

Two or three pages on your site targeting the same thing (for example, five near-identical city pages) can confuse Google about which to show, and sometimes it shows none. Merge them or make each genuinely different.

10. A manual action or a hacked site

Rarer, but serious. Search Console has a "Manual actions" report and a "Security issues" report. Spammy links bought by a previous SEO provider or injected pages after a hack can push a site out of results. Both need cleanup before anything else helps.

What you can fix yourself, and what usually needs help

When it's the site itself

Sometimes the honest conclusion is that the website can't be saved cheaply: it's slow, built on an abandoned theme, missing basic structure and nobody has the admin login anymore. I don't patch other people's sites. In that case I build a new one, keep your domain and carry over any content and addresses that still bring visitors, with redirects mapped page by page. That is often cheaper than months of fixes on a foundation that will keep breaking.

If the site itself is sound, the remaining work is ongoing SEO: my SEO service covers the technical checks, content and local work from $1,000/month, with Search Console and analytics set up under your own account.