Why is my business not showing on Google?

"Not showing on Google" can mean two quite different things, and the fix for one does nothing for the other. Your website can be missing from the list of results, or your business can be missing from the map and the panel that shows your reviews, hours and phone number. This guide gives you a two-minute check for each, then works through the causes in the order they most often turn out to be the problem.

Which kind of "not showing" do you have?

Do these three searches on Google, on your phone and on a computer:

1. site:yourdomain.com, with your real domain and no spaces. This lists the pages of your site that Google has in its index, the catalogue of pages it is able to show.
2. Your exact business name.
3. Your main service and your town, the way a customer would type it.

Then match what you saw to this table.

The last two rows are ranking problems rather than visibility problems, and they are covered at the end of this page. The first two are covered next.

Why isn't my website showing on Google?

Google finds pages by following links and reading sitemaps (files that list the pages on your site), then decides which ones to add to its index. Google is clear that it does not guarantee it will crawl or index every page. When a whole site is missing, though, the cause is almost always one of these:

• The site is new. If nothing links to it and no sitemap has been submitted, Google may simply not have found it yet.
• A "noindex" tag is telling Google to stay away. Developers often add it while building a site so the unfinished version does not appear in search, and then forget to remove it at launch. Some website builders have a "hide from search engines" switch that does the same thing.
• The robots.txt file blocks Google. This small file at the root of your site tells crawlers where they may go. One wrong line can block the whole site.
• The content cannot be read. Pages that sit behind a login, or that only show their text after scripts Google struggles to run, can look empty to a crawler.
• Your domain changed without redirects. If you moved to a new address and the old pages were not pointed at the new ones, Google sees the old site disappear and has to discover the new one from scratch. The guide to 301 redirects explains how to fix this.
• Google has taken action against the site. A manual action (a penalty applied by a Google reviewer for breaking its spam policies) or a hacked site flagged for security issues can remove pages from the results.

When only some pages are missing, the cause is usually that Google considers them duplicates of other pages, or has crawled them and chosen not to index them yet. Search Console tells you which.

How do you get your website indexed?

1. Set up Google Search Console. Add your site as a domain property and verify it through your domain provider. The Search Console guide for business owners walks through this.
2. Open the Page indexing report. It lists indexed and not-indexed pages and gives each not-indexed page a reason. "URL blocked by robots.txt" and a reason mentioning noindex point to the two most common self-inflicted causes. "Discovered - currently not indexed" means Google knows the page exists but has not crawled it yet. "Crawled - currently not indexed" means Google has read it and decided not to include it for now, which often means the page offers little that other pages do not.
3. Fix the cause. Remove the noindex tag or the blocking robots.txt line, add redirects from old addresses, or make thin pages genuinely useful.
4. Submit your sitemap in the Sitemaps report. Most website platforms create one automatically, often at /sitemap.xml.
5. Inspect your most important pages with the URL Inspection tool, test the live version, and request indexing. There is a daily limit, so use it on your homepage and main service pages, not every page, and request each page once.
6. Check the Manual actions and Security issues reports. Both should say no issues detected. If either does not, it explains what to fix and how to ask Google to review the site afterwards.

Requesting indexing tells Google a page is ready. It does not make Google index a page it considers blocked, duplicated or thin, so fix the reason in the Page indexing report first.

Why isn't my business showing on Google Maps?

The map results and the profile panel come from Google Business Profile, a separate system from your website. Your site can be perfectly indexed while your profile is missing. The usual causes:

• There is no profile, or someone else controls it. A former employee, an old agency or Google itself may have created one you cannot access.
• The profile was never verified. Unverified profiles may not appear in search and cannot be fully managed.
• The profile was suspended. Google's Business Profile guidelines are strict. Common breaches include an address at a virtual office or a mailbox, a business name with extra keywords or locations added, and more than one profile for the same business.
• The business is not eligible. Profiles are for businesses that meet customers in person, at your premises or theirs. A purely online business does not qualify.
• The profile exists but does not rank. Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence. If you search from across town, closer and better-known competitors may simply rank above you.

How do you fix a missing or suspended Business Profile?

1. Search for your business on Google Maps to see whether a profile already exists. If one does and you cannot manage it, use the option on the profile to claim it or request access from the current owner.
2. If none exists, create one with your real-world business name exactly as it appears on your signage and paperwork, your primary category, and either your address or, if you travel to customers, your service areas with the address hidden.
3. Verify it. Google chooses which verification methods to offer each business. They can include a live video recording, a phone call or text, email, a postcard or a live video call, and you cannot pick a different one. For video, show your signage, tools or vehicle, and proof that you manage the business.
4. If it was suspended, fix the cause first, then use Google's appeal process for that profile, with evidence such as photos of permanent signage and business documents. Submit one appeal and wait for a decision rather than sending several.
5. Complete everything: categories, hours, services, photos of real work, and a link to the most relevant page on your site.

What if you show up for your name but not for what you do?

Then Google can see you, and the problem is ranking. Almost every business ranks for its own name, because nobody else is a better match for it. Service searches are a contest, and you win them with a page that matches the search closely, a profile and reputation that show you are well known, and, in the map, being near the searcher.

That is a bigger job than fixing a tag or verifying a profile. Why your competitors rank above you shows how to work out what the businesses beating you have that you do not, and how long SEO takes sets realistic expectations. If you used to rank and have fallen, start with why your Google rankings dropped instead, and if the fall followed a new website, read lost rankings after a redesign.

Are you checking the right way?

Many owners think they are invisible because of how they check. Google tailors results to the searcher's location, device and exact wording, so a search from your own office tells you where you rank in your own office. A private browsing window does not change your location.

More reliable checks:

• Search Console's Performance report shows the searches your site actually appeared for across all searchers, with an average position for each.
• Your Business Profile's performance figures show how many people viewed the profile, called, asked for directions or visited your website.
• Ask a customer or friend in your service area to search on their own phone and send you a screenshot.

If the checks show that Google can see you but buyers are not getting in touch, the problem has moved further down the path, and the guide to getting enquiries from Google shows how to find the stage that is failing.

When is it worth getting help?

Most of the fixes above are an afternoon's work for a confident owner. Get help when the Page indexing report shows reasons you do not understand, when a site move has gone wrong, or when a profile appeal has been refused. A good audit should tell you within days which of these problems you have and in what order to fix them. M/AFZAL's Visibility Audit checks this as part of its review of your ten most valuable searches, alongside what AI tools such as ChatGPT say about you, which the guide to AI search visibility explains.