If you’re like most people, you probably rely on Google to help you find information on the internet.
So, it’s frustrating when you type a website’s address into the Google search bar and the site doesn’t show up in the results. There could be a number of reasons why your website isn’t appearing in Google search.
It could be because your website is brand new and hasn’t been indexed yet. Or, it could be because your site isn’t being properly optimised for search engines. If you’re not sure why your website isn’t showing up in Google, please read on for some resolutions.
Firstly, you’ll need to create a Google Search Console account
If you’re looking to get your website onto Google, one of the first steps you need to take is to create a Google Search Console account.
This easy-to-use platform provides valuable insights into how Google sees your site, and can help you to identify and fix any potential problems that could be holding you back from ranking well.
One of the most important things you can do with Search Console is to submit your website’s sitemap. This is a file that tells Google exactly what pages are on your site and how they’re linked together.
By submitting your sitemap, you’re giving Google a road map to your website, which will help it to index your pages more effectively and ensure that your site is being seen in search results.
Creating a Google Search Console account and submitting your sitemap is a quick and easy way to get started on the path to better search engine visibility. If you’re serious about getting your website seen by more people, these two simple steps are a great place to start.
Create a sitemap
Creating a sitemap is a great way to help search engines find and index all of the pages on your website.
There are a few different ways to create a sitemap, but we recommend using either RankMath or Yoast. RankMath is a WordPress plugin that automatically generates a sitemap for your website and submits it to Google and Bing. Yoast is another WordPress plugin that can create a sitemap for your website.
Both RankMath and Yoast are easy to use and will help you improve your website’s SEO. If you’re not sure which plugin to use, we recommend trying both and seeing which one you prefer.
Once you’ve chosen a plugin, you can submit your sitemap via the Google Search Console dashboard.
Check your WordPress website is set to visible
First, check to see if your WordPress site is set to private. To do this, log in to your WordPress admin panel and go to Settings > Reading. Under the Search Engine Visibility setting, make sure the box next to discourage search engines from indexing this site is unchecked.
If the box is checked, this will block search engine bots from accessing and indexing your website.
Penalties can block a website altogether
There is a danger that your website won’t show up on Google at all if it has been penalised.
Penalties can be incurred for a number of reasons, including using black hat SEO techniques, publishing duplicate content, or engaging in link buying.
If Google suspects that you have been using any of these methods, they may well penalise your site by removing it from their search results altogether. Of course, being penalised by Google is not the end of the world, and there are ways to recover from it.
However, it is undoubtedly a setback, and it can take a lot of time and effort to get your website ranking highly again. If you want to avoid being penalised, it’s important to make sure that you are using white hat SEO techniques and publishing original, high-quality content.
If you’re still having trouble ranking your website website on Google, please feel free to get in touch, or take our Free Search Engine Optimisation Audit to see where your website can be improved.
