Your website isn’t appearing in Google search? Check for technical errors, blocked content, and SEO mistakes that may prevent indexing. Follow our expert guide to get your site back on track!
I used to be a Lead Web Developer at Polish company specializing in automating customer communication. After 8 years, I decided to focus on what I truly enjoy the most - SEO and web analytics and now I am SEO consultant for SaaS and B2B in general.
Now, I optimize platforms like Flotiq, leveraging my strong technical background. Working on Flotiq’s headless CMS to make it more SEO-friendly, adding features that help SEO specialists and content writers, is an absolute pleasure. Got any questions? Check out my site - SEO Dude, and drop me a message!
So, you have created a new website or published a blog article, filled it with content, yet you still don't see any organic traffic? You have probably also read our article on how to index your site in Google and followed the steps, but you still don’t see results?
If your website or a specific subpage does not appear in Google search results, it means Google has not indexed it. This can be caused by various technical, content-related, or policy-related reasons that prevent search engines from properly crawling and processing your website. These problems can include simple technical errors or more complex algorithmic decisions by Google that affect how your site is ranked and displayed.
Some of the issues discussed here are technical. If you do not have access to the HTML code of your website or the ability to edit files on the server, share this article with your IT specialist. By following these simple steps, they should be able to fix the problem.
Google Search Console (GSC) is the best tool for diagnosing indexing problems with search engines because it provides detailed reports on errors and exclusions that may prevent Google from including your pages in search results. It also allows you to take corrective actions and resubmit your pages for indexing.
For each of these problems, necessary steps must be taken to remove restrictions and improve the content so that Google deems it worthy of indexing.
I need to mention here that, in Flotiq - a flexible headless CMS, we do have a native Google Search Console plugin, which helps building your content with GSC indexing, it looks like on below image:
Try Flotiq for free, because it’s worth it!
Technical misconfigurations can prevent Google from indexing your site in search results, such as incorrectly set meta tags, deindexing rules in robots.txt, or server directives that block search engine bots from accessing and processing your pages.
If the page contains the tag:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
Google will not index it. This is a direct instruction to search engine bots that the page should not be indexed.
This problem often occurs when:
a) Your CMS applies the noindex tag by default.
b) A test site accidentally carries over noindex settings to the live site.
A misconfigured robots.txt file can accidentally block Google from crawling your site.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Some servers send an X-Robots-Tag: noindex directive in HTTP headers, preventing Google from indexing the page.
Use the following command to check HTTP headers:
curl -I https://yourdomain.com
An improperly implemented canonical tag can mislead Google about which version of the page should be indexed.
Ensure that your pages have the correct canonical tag format:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://yourdomain.com/your-page"/>
Make sure it points to the preferred version of the page.
Ensure there are no long redirect chains or loops (where one page redirects to another, and that one redirects back).
Avoid excessive JavaScript that hides important content in the HTML document and loads it only later for the user.
Check if your site is accessible to users without requiring login, as Google will not log in to crawl your site.
Google struggles with duplicate content and may not index all versions of a page. Duplicate content occurs when:
If your content lacks valuable information, Google may not index it. Crawlers are designed to show users only meaningful content that answers their queries and can help them.
AI-generated content or spam is a problem in SEO because it often lacks originality and value, which Google actively discourages. According to Google's guidelines, content created primarily for search engines rather than users may be penalized.
Google's algorithms, including SpamBrain and the Helpful Content Update, detect low-quality AI-generated text by analyzing readability, duplication, engagement metrics, and whether the content provides unique insights.
After all, content generated by tools like ChatGPT is nothing more than a rewording of existing information. AI simply "rewrites" it and presents it as a response. If that's the case, it means you're not creating anything groundbreaking, just rehashing a topic that someone else has already covered.
However, this does not mean you shouldn't use AI - on the contrary, I use it every day, but the key is to use it wisely. AI should be used as an assistant, not a full content generator. Every AI-generated piece must be reviewed and edited by a human to ensure accuracy, add expert insights, and make it genuinely useful.
Avoid excessive keyword stuffing, write naturally, and prioritize user intent over SEO tricks. Adding personal experiences, expert references, and proper citations helps establish credibility.
Google is not against AI, but it expects content to be high quality, valuable, and written with users in mind, rather than solely for search rankings.
Lack of relevance to search intent is a serious issue that can prevent your page from being indexed or ranking well in Google. Search intent refers to the reason behind a user's query - whether they are looking for information, comparing products, or making a purchase. If your content does not match what users expect when searching for a given keyword, Google may consider it unhelpful and exclude it from indexing.
Google’s algorithms analyze user behavior, such as how long they stay on a page, whether they quickly return to search results (pogo-sticking), and how well your content aligns with typical user queries. If visitors frequently leave your page because they don’t find what they were looking for, Google may determine that your site is irrelevant and lower its ranking or remove it from the index.
Google knows a lot about us - and even more about our websites. It tracks session duration, scroll depth, and post-click behavior, such as whether users continue searching for answers after leaving your page. These and many other factors help it determine whether a user has found the answer to their query.
Make sure your content aligns with the intent behind your target keywords. Study search intent by analyzing top-ranking pages for your keywords (you can use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush for this). If those pages contain detailed guides, your page should also provide in-depth information rather than just a short summary.
Aligning with search intent not only increases your chances of being indexed but also improves engagement and conversions.
A slow and heavy website can negatively affect Google’s indexing because Googlebot has a crawl budget - a limited number of pages it can crawl on a site within a given timeframe. If your site loads too slowly, Google may crawl fewer pages, delaying or even preventing the indexing of some of them.
Additionally, slow-loading pages provide a poor user experience, leading to a high bounce rate and lower engagement. This signals to Google that the page may not be valuable. Since Google prioritizes the best possible experience for its users and also considers environmental impact! Therefore, it favors websites that load quickly and are lightweight (low resource consumption).
Google evaluates site speed using metrics from Core Web Vitals, including:
Websites that perform poorly in these metrics may face indexing and ranking issues.
Google also follows a mobile-first indexing approach, meaning that if your mobile version is slow (even if the desktop version is fast), indexing issues may still occur.
To fix the issue described in this section, optimize your website speed by:
Running tests on Google PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse can help identify bottlenecks. However, don’t treat these tools as the ultimate source of truth - they can be manipulated, but that’s not the point.
Your main goal should be to genuinely improve your site’s speed and efficiency, as this enhances both Google’s crawling process and user experience, increasing the likelihood of indexing and securing higher rankings in search results.
There are many ways to optimize your website’s performance and lightness. One effective approach is to separate the backend from the frontend, allowing you to choose the most lightweight and optimized setup for your needs.
In this case, I recommend using Flotiq as a headless CMS for content creation. This will not only make your website lightning-fast but also help you maintain structured content, leverage SEO-friendly plugins, and streamline the content-writing process.
Try Flotiq for free - no credit card required.
If your website is not appearing in Google, despite being submitted for indexing following the steps in our guide, start by diagnosing the issue using Google Search Console. Ensure that your site follows SEO best practices, loads quickly, contains high-quality content and avoids technical indexing blocks.
Consistently resolving these issues increases the likelihood that Google will index your content and display it in search results.
Use tools that notify you of indexing problems and perform ongoing technical audits for your site. Google Search Console can send you email alerts about detected errors, while tools like Ahrefs or Semrush can conduct regular audits, providing a list of improvements.
SEO
