How to Get Google to Index Your Site (and Why It's Not Showing Up)

By the Mayab Media Team · Level: Beginner · Time: 45 minutes

You launched the site, waited a few days and searched for your business name, and nothing came up. Or maybe only the homepage shows up and the service pages are nowhere. This is the most common question we hear from new site owners, and the cause is usually simple once you know where to look.

Google doesn't index a site because it exists. It has to find the URLs, crawl them, decide they're worth keeping and then store them. Any break in that chain keeps pages out of search, and a new domain with no links pointing at it can sit unnoticed for weeks.

The fix is mostly setup work: you prove you own the site in Google Search Console, hand Google a sitemap, check that nothing blocks crawling, and request indexing for your most important pages, then you wait and watch the reports. This guide walks through each step in order.

Quick answer

1. Add your site to Google Search Console as a Domain property and verify it with a DNS TXT record.
2. Find your sitemap URL (often /sitemap.xml) and submit it under Indexing > Sitemaps.
3. Inspect your homepage with URL inspection, run Test live URL, then click Request indexing.
4. Make sure no noindex tag, robots.txt rule or password page blocks Google.
5. Link your key pages from the homepage and menu, then check the Pages report after one to two weeks.

Before you start

You need a few things in place before the steps work.

• A Google account that you'll keep. Use a business account you'll keep, not a personal one you might lose.
• Access to your domain's DNS, which lives where you bought the domain or where you point its nameservers (your registrar, Cloudflare, your host), because you'll add one TXT record there.
• Admin access to your website platform (WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix or a custom build) so you can check privacy and SEO settings.
• About 45 minutes, plus waiting time for DNS and for Google.

There is little to back up, since you're only adding a DNS record and changing settings, not editing content. Still, take a screenshot of your DNS records before you touch them, so you can undo a mistake.

Step 1: Add your site to Search Console

Go to Search Console and open the property selector at the top left. Choose Add property and you'll see two property types side by side.

• Domain covers every version of your site: http, https, www, non-www and any subdomain, but it needs DNS verification.
• URL prefix covers only the exact address you type, such as https://www.example.com/, and it offers more verification methods.

Pick Domain if you can reach your DNS. It saves you from tracking four separate properties later, and some reports (like the robots.txt report and Crawl stats) work best at the root level.

Figure 1. Type the bare domain in the Domain box. No https, no www, no slash. Illustration of the screen. Labels can differ slightly in your account.

1. Enter only the bare domain, like example.com.
2. Click Continue to get your verification record.

Step 2: Verify ownership with a DNS TXT record

Search Console now shows a TXT record that starts with google-site-verification=, so copy it. If your DNS provider appears in the list, you may see a Start verification button that adds the record for you; otherwise, add it by hand.

In your DNS provider, create a new record:

Type:  TXT
Name:  @   (or leave blank, depending on the provider)
Value: google-site-verification=AbC123exampleTokenXyZ
TTL:   Default / Auto

Save it, go back to Search Console and click Verify. If it fails, don't panic, because DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of days to show up. Wait a few hours, confirm the record with a public DNS lookup tool, and click Verify again.

Figure 2. Copy the full value, add it as a TXT record at your DNS host, then click Verify. Illustration of the screen. Labels can differ slightly in your account.

1. The full string, including google-site-verification=, goes in the record's value.
2. Click Verify only after you've saved the record at your DNS host.

Keep the TXT record in place for good, because if you delete it, Search Console can drop your verification.

No DNS access? Use a URL prefix property instead, which you can verify with an HTML file upload, an HTML meta tag in your homepage <head>, your Google Analytics tag or your Google Tag Manager container. Make sure you type the exact version your site resolves to (with or without www).

Step 3: Find and submit your sitemap

A sitemap is a file that lists the URLs you want indexed, and most platforms create one for you.

Platform	Typical sitemap URL
WordPress (core)	/wp-sitemap.xml
WordPress with Yoast or Rank Math	/sitemap_index.xml
Shopify	/sitemap.xml
Squarespace	/sitemap.xml
Wix	/sitemap.xml

Open the URL in your browser first, and you should see a list of links or an index of smaller sitemaps. If you get a 404, check your SEO plugin or platform settings to see whether the sitemap is switched off or lives at a different address.

You can also find it in example.com/robots.txt, which often has a line like Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml.

In Search Console, go to Indexing > Sitemaps. In Add a new sitemap, type the path after your domain and click Submit.

Figure 3. Submit once. Google rereads the sitemap on its own after that. Illustration of the screen. Labels can differ slightly in your account.

1. Type only the path, such as sitemap.xml, because Search Console fills in the domain.
2. A Success status means Google fetched and parsed the file. Couldn't fetch means Google couldn't read the file at all.

You only submit once, since Google rereads the sitemap periodically on its own. Submitting it again every day does nothing.

Step 4: Inspect your homepage and request indexing

Paste your homepage URL in the search bar at the top of Search Console to run URL inspection. On a new site, you'll likely see URL is not on Google.

Click Test live URL and Google fetches the page right now and tells you whether it could be indexed, where the verdict you want is URL is available to Google. Expand the results and check these fields:

• Crawl allowed? should say Yes.
• Page fetch should say Successful.
• Indexing allowed? should say Yes.

If all three pass, click Request indexing. A short check runs, then you'll get a confirmation that the URL was added to a priority crawl queue.

Figure 4. Run the live test first. Request indexing only after crawl, fetch and indexing all pass. Illustration of the screen. Labels can differ slightly in your account.

1. These three fields together tell you whether anything technical blocks the page.
2. Request indexing queues the page for crawling, but it doesn't guarantee indexing.

Repeat for your five to ten most important pages: services, contact, key products. There's a daily limit per property, so don't try to submit every URL by hand. For anything beyond a handful, the sitemap does the job.

Requesting the same URL over and over won't speed things up, and Google's own documentation says so.

Step 5: Remove anything that blocks Google

Most "my site isn't on Google" cases come down to a setting someone forgot to switch off, so check each of these.

Platform privacy settings

• WordPress: Settings > Reading. Make sure Discourage search engines from indexing this site is unchecked, since developers often tick it during the build.
• Shopify: a store with a password page can't be crawled. Remove the password under Online Store > Preferences when you launch.
• Squarespace: check that the site isn't private or password-protected, and that key pages don't have Hide page from search results turned on in the page's SEO settings.
• Wix: check the SEO settings for the site and each page to confirm indexing is allowed.

Labels move around between platform updates, so search your platform's help if you can't find the option.

The noindex tag

View your page source (right-click > View page source) and search for noindex. If you find this, Google won't index the page:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

Remove it in your SEO plugin or page settings, then run the live test again to confirm Google no longer sees it. Our guide on fixing robots.txt and noindex blocks covers this in detail.

robots.txt

Open example.com/robots.txt in a browser. This pair of lines blocks your whole site:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

A safe default for most small sites looks like this:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Step 6: Give Google reasons to crawl your pages

Technical access is only half of it. Google also decides, page by page, how much attention a site deserves. A brand-new domain with five thin pages and no links gets little.

Do these to help:

• Link every important page from your homepage or main menu. Pages with no internal links (orphans) are hard for Google to find and look unimportant when it does.
• Write real, specific content. A service page with two sentences and a stock photo gives Google little reason to index it. Explain what you do, for whom, and how.
• Get a few real links from elsewhere. Your Google Business Profile, social profiles, industry directories and partner sites all help Google discover you.
• Pick one version of your domain and stick with it. Redirect http to https and non-www to www (or the reverse) so Google sees one site, not four.

Still not working? Common causes

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Verification fails every time	TXT record not live yet, added to the wrong domain, or value copied with spaces	Wait 24 to 48 hours, check the record with a DNS lookup tool, re-copy the value
Sitemap shows Couldn't fetch	Wrong URL, sitemap blocked by robots.txt, or server error	Open the sitemap in a browser, then run a live URL inspection on it
Sitemap is Success but 0 pages indexed	Google hasn't crawled yet, or pages are low value	Wait two weeks, improve content, add internal links
Request indexing is greyed out or errors	Live test shows the page isn't indexable, or you hit the daily limit	Fix the error the live test reports, try again tomorrow
Live test says Indexing allowed? No	A noindex tag or X-Robots-Tag header	Remove it in your platform or server config
Live test says Crawl allowed? No	robots.txt disallows the URL	Edit robots.txt, then recheck
Only the homepage is indexed	Inner pages are orphans or thin	Link them from the menu, expand content
Pages show Crawled - currently not indexed	Google saw the page and passed on it	See Fix "Crawled – currently not indexed"
Pages show Discovered - currently not indexed	Google knows the URL but hasn't crawled it	See Fix "Discovered – currently not indexed"
site: search shows the old domain	Site moved without redirects	Add 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones

You verified the wrong version

With a URL-prefix property, https://example.com/ and https://www.example.com/ are different properties. If your site redirects to www and you verified the non-www version, most reports will look empty. Add the version your site actually loads on, or switch to a Domain property.

The site is behind a staging or coming-soon page

Coming-soon plugins and maintenance modes often return the same placeholder for every URL, sometimes with a noindex. As a result, Google indexes the placeholder or nothing at all. Turn the mode off and request indexing again.

How to confirm it's fixed

1. Search site:example.com in Google. This rough check shows pages Google has indexed. Counts are approximate, so don't treat them as exact.
2. Run URL inspection on your homepage again. The Google Index tab should say URL is on Google.
3. Open Indexing > Pages. Within a week or two, you should see a number under Indexed, and the chart fills in over time.
4. Check Indexing > Sitemaps. The status should be Success with a page count close to what you expect.
5. Open Performance after a few weeks. Impressions for your brand name are a good sign.

Expect anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for a new site. Google's own docs say crawling can take that long. If nothing is indexed after four weeks and every check above passes, look at content quality and links.

Figure 5. On a new site the Indexed count climbs in steps. Illustrative numbers. Illustration of the screen. Labels can differ slightly in your account.

1. The Indexed total is your main number to watch.
2. This link lists the indexed URLs so you can confirm your key pages are there.

FAQ

How long does it take Google to index a new site?

Usually a few days to a few weeks. It depends on links, content and how easy the site is to crawl. There's no paid way to speed up organic indexing.

Do I have to use Search Console to get indexed?

No, because Google can find you through links alone. But Search Console tells you what's wrong when pages don't show up, so set it up anyway.

Should I request indexing for every page?

No. Request it only for a handful of key pages and let the sitemap cover the rest. The daily quota is small, and repeat requests don't help.

My site is indexed but doesn't rank. Is that an indexing problem?

Not usually, no. If URL inspection says URL is on Google, it's indexed. Ranking depends on relevance, content quality and competition. Search your exact business name to test.

Do I need a separate property for my Spanish pages?

Not if they're on the same domain. A Domain property covers every path and subdomain on it. Use hreflang tags so Google knows which version is for which language.

Stuck on this one? We fix these for clients every week. Book a free audit

Sources

• developers.google.com: /search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl
• support.google.com: /webmasters/answer/9008080
• support.google.com: /webmasters/answer/7451001
• support.google.com: /webmasters/answer/9012289
• support.google.com: /webmasters/answer/7440203