--- title: "Is your website on Google? How to check it in 5 minutes (and what to do if it doesn't show up)" description: "Your website can be live and still not exist for Google. Learn how to check in 5 minutes whether it's indexed, why it doesn't show up and what to ask to fix it." date: "2026-10-27" category: "Google" keywords: "check if my website is indexed in Google, my website doesn't show up on Google, index my website, Google Search Console, live website not showing on Google" portada: "/portadas/portada-comprobar-si-tu-web-esta-indexada-en-google.webp" --- You published the website, showed it to your family and even put it on your business card. Days go by, you search for your own name on Google and you're not there. And the uncomfortable doubt arrives: is the website broken, or has Google simply not seen it yet? They are two different problems, and they're fixed in very different ways. Before calling anyone or ordering another website, it's worth knowing which of the two is happening to you. You can check it in five minutes, without installing anything and without knowing how to code. ## Not being indexed is not the same as not ranking first Google doesn't show the internet: it shows a copy of the pages it has crawled and stored. If your website isn't in that copy, it doesn't exist for anyone doing a search, however perfect it is when someone types the address by hand. - **Not indexed:** Google hasn't stored it. Whatever you search for, it won't show up. It's a technical problem and it can almost always be fixed quickly. - **Indexed but with no positions:** Google knows it, but doesn't consider it relevant for what people type. It's a problem of content and local signals, and it's worked on over time. Almost everyone believes they have the second problem when in fact they have the first. That's why there are businesses paying for months of "SEO" that cannot possibly work: they're optimising a website Google never got to see. ## The five-minute test **1. Search `site:yourdomain.com` on Google.** Type your domain without `www` and with `www`, both versions. If not a single result appears, Google doesn't have your website stored. If three pages appear and you have ten, it has three. **2. Search for your exact name.** If your Google Maps listing appears but there's no blue link to your website, that's a bad sign. A business can appear on the map and still not have its website indexed: they're two independent things. **3. Open Google Search Console.** It's free with your Google account. To verify ownership you have to add a record to the domain's DNS or upload a file: whoever manages your domain does it in five minutes. Inside, under "Page indexing", you see how many pages Google has and how many it has excluded, with the reason for each one. Under "URL inspection" you paste your address and you can request indexing by hand. **4. Check whether someone put a padlock on it.** Visit `yourdomain.com/robots.txt`. If it says `Disallow: /`, the whole website is blocked for search engines. Then open your website, look at the source code and search for the word `noindex`: it's a tag that means "don't show me in the results", and it's common for it to be left over from the testing days. **5. Check whether you have a sitemap.** Go to `yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml`. If it doesn't exist, Google has to discover the pages one by one, blind, and it will take much longer. ## The five most common causes 1. **The `noindex` nobody removed.** It's added so that a website under construction doesn't show up on Google, and it's forgotten when publishing. It's the number one cause on new websites and it's fixed in a minute. 2. **The `robots.txt` from the testing phase.** Someone blocked crawling so the website wouldn't be indexed while it was being built, and it stayed there. 3. **A newly bought domain, with no links or history.** Google distrusts what it doesn't know: it isn't a punishment, it's that it doesn't yet have reasons to trust it. It needs time and a few links from other sites. 4. **A single-page website with two paragraphs.** If there's no content to index, there's nothing to show. Google doesn't fill in the gaps. 5. **Nobody registered the website in Search Console or sent the sitemap.** It isn't compulsory, but it's the difference between Google finding you in days or in months. ## Indexed and still invisible: the other problem If `site:yourdomain.com` returns your pages, your website exists for Google. Then the problem is another one, and it's the most common of all: you don't show up for what your customer searches for. This is where it helps to understand how the order is decided. Google doesn't give the same result to everybody: where the person searching is located weighs heavily. Two people searching for "plumber" in two different cities see different lists, and the Google Maps listing takes up the first block of the screen. That's why a business can be well positioned in its own neighbourhood and be invisible fifteen kilometres away. Three things move the needle for a local business: - **One page per service and per area.** "Plumber in Telde" is a different page from "plumber in Las Palmas", not a paragraph inside the same one. - **The Google listing with recent reviews.** For many people, that listing weighs more than the website: it's where they compare and decide. - **Texts that answer what people type.** Not how you name your service, but how a customer who knows nothing about your trade searches for it. And a practical warning: if you search for yourself from your own premises, with your phone and your history, you'll see yourself higher than your customers see you. Repeat the search somewhere else and in an incognito window. ## What to ask whoever made your website (message ready to copy) You don't need to argue or understand what they're talking about. Five questions are enough: > "Is my website indexed on Google? Can you give me access to Search Console? Is there any `noindex` or anything in the `robots.txt` that is blocking crawling? Has the sitemap been submitted? How many pages are indexed and how many excluded?" If the answer is "that's not my department" or "that's Google's business", you already have the explanation for why you don't show up. And you also have a signal: whoever made it probably knows how to build websites, but not how to rank them, and they're two different trades. ## How long it takes to show up Two timescales that people mix up. **Being indexed** can take from a few hours to a couple of weeks: if you request indexing by hand in Search Console, it's usually a matter of days. **Appearing in the top positions** for what your customer searches for is another matter and is measured in months, depending on how competitive your city is. If you've just launched the website, here's [how long a new website takes to appear on Google](/blog/en/cuanto-tarda-una-web-nueva-en-aparecer-en-google). ## The conclusion Before investing one more euro in "ranking", check the basics: that Google has your website stored and that nothing is blocking it. It's free, it takes five minutes and it avoids the most expensive and most frequent mistake: paying to optimise something nobody can find. At pedroaren.com we build business websites that are indexed from day one, with Search Console configured, the sitemap submitted and one page per service and per area. If you want to know what yours is missing, you can [request a free design proposal for your website](/solicita-web/en) and we'll tell you, with no obligation. And if your website is already indexed but doesn't appear where it should, read on with [how to appear on the first page of Google in your city](/blog/en/como-aparecer-en-la-primera-pagina-de-google-en-tu-ciudad).