How to Get Your Website to Show Up on Google

If your website isn’t showing up in Google search results, you’re certainly not alone—but you shouldn’t settle for invisibility. Launching a new website or updating your content can feel exciting, yet frustrating if it remains hidden from your target audience.

Luckily, understanding how Google discovers, indexes, and ranks websites can help you speed up this process significantly.

In this article, you’ll learn practical steps to optimize your website’s foundation, boost its visibility and authority, and ensure it offers an excellent user experience. Finally, get noticed on Google.

Index

• How to Make Your Website Visible on Google Search
• Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Showing Up on Google
• Google Search Console: Speed up your website indexing
• Connecting website to Google Search Console
• FAQ

How to Make Your Website Visible on Google Search

Did you know that a huge portion of websites on the Internet are never seen by anyone? According to a study by Ahrefs, 96.55% of content gets no traffic from Google.

You may face the issue of your new website or updated content not appearing in Google search results. This can understandably cause concern. 

It’s important to know that search engines require time to explore websites and then display them in search results. Be patient, but in the meantime, there are several things you can do (and some things you should avoid) to speed up the process.

Optimize Your Website’s Foundation for Google

Before Google can show your website in search results, it needs to understand how your site is built. This means making sure the structure of your website is clear and easy to follow.

If Google can’t easily read your site, it might skip it altogether. Taking care of these basics sets a strong foundation for everything else in SEO.

Here’s what you can do:

• Submit Your Website to Google: A sitemap acts as a roadmap for Google, listing all the important pages on your website. Submitting your website’s sitemap through Google Search Console directly informs Google about your site’s structure and helps them crawl it more efficiently.

Submitting your sitemap to the Google Search Console

• Create High-Quality, Original, and Updated Content: Google prioritizes websites that offer valuable and unique information to users. Regularly creating fresh content and updating existing pages signals to Google that your website is active and relevant. Make sure your content is well-written, informative, and caters to the needs of your target audience.
• Implement Strategic Keyword Usage: Understand what your potential visitors are searching for. Research relevant keywords and naturally incorporate them into your page titles, headings (including H1 and H2), body text, meta descriptions, and image alt tags. This helps Google understand the topic of your content and match it with relevant searches.

Enhance Your Website’s Visibility and Authority

Your site needs to be trusted and easy to find to show up higher in Google searches. You can do this by linking your pages well and getting other trusted websites to link to yours.

Google sees these links like votes of confidence. The more quality links you have, the more likely Google is to see your site as useful and trustworthy.

• Build a Relevant Internal Linking Structure: Link your pages together in a way that makes sense for your users and helps Google understand the hierarchy and relationships between your content. Use descriptive anchor text where appropriate.

A smart internal linking structure improves SEO and helps Google understand your website.

• Earn High-Quality Backlinks from Reputable Websites: Backlinks from other authoritative websites act as endorsements, telling Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy. Focus on creating excellent content that others will naturally want to link to. You can also explore guest blogging or other outreach strategies to earn backlinks.

Want Google to notice your website faster? Purchase a Premium Webnode plan and submit your website’s sitemap through Google Search Console.

Ensure a Positive User Experience and Technical SEO Health

Now, focus on making your website user-friendly and technically sound for search engines, both of which are important ranking factors of Google.

Google wants to show responsive websites that are easy to use and work well on all devices. A fast, mobile-friendly site with good technical setup helps both your visitors and your search rankings.

If people have a hard time using your site, they’ll leave quickly — and Google notices that. A smooth experience keeps visitors happy and helps your SEO too.

• Optimize for Mobile Devices: A significant portion of internet users browse on mobile devices. Having a mobile-optimized website with a responsive design is crucial for ranking well in Google’s search results. Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, meaning they primarily use the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking.
• Optimize URLs and Meta Tags: Use clear, concise, and keyword-rich URLs that accurately reflect the content of the page. Write compelling meta titles and descriptions that encourage users to click on your link in the search results. These elements also help Google understand the context of your pages.

Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Showing Up on Google

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of timing, but other times, there are technical or content issues holding your site back. Understanding the cause is the first step to fixing it.

There are several reasons why a website might not appear in Google search results. Here are the most common ones:

New website or content

It takes time for Google to crawl and index a new website or fresh content. This usually takes 2-3 weeks, but sometimes it can even take a month.

Google needs to discover your site and understand what it’s about before it can show it in search results. Be patient, and make sure you’re giving it all the signals it needs.

No internal links or backlinks

Links are crucial for Google to discover and index your website. A common reason why pages aren’t indexed is simply that Google can’t find them. 

This often happens when there are no internal links connecting your pages, making it hard for Googlebot to navigate your site. Similarly, a lack of backlinks from other websites can also hinder Google’s ability to discover and assess the value of your content.

Duplicate content issues

Google generally doesn’t want to rank pages with duplicate content because it takes up unnecessary space in its index. If the same content appears on multiple pages of your website, it can cause problems.

Try to keep each page unique and useful. Repeating content can confuse Google and hurt your chances of ranking well.

Low Domain Rating

New websites without links or established credibility initially have a lower domain rating, which can affect their search position.

Google tends to trust websites that have been around longer and are mentioned or linked to by other trusted sources. Over time, as your site gains more quality content and links, your domain rating can improve.

Google Search Console: Speed up your website indexing

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free and highly valuable tool from Google that helps you monitor and maintain your website’s presence in Google search results.

GSC is an essential tool for speeding up the indexing of your website and increasing its visibility on Google. It helps you identify and fix issues, as well as provides insights into your website’s search performance.

Benefits of GSC

• It helps make your website Google-friendly.
• You can see if there are any pages with errors that need to be fixed or pages that, for some reason, can’t be crawled by Google robots.
• You can ask Google to inspect a specific URL to see if it was already indexed, crawled, or if the page is mobile-friendly. Use this “URL inspection tool” whenever you create a new page to make sure it will be noticed, but not before you’re sure it’s full of great content. You don’t want Google to form a poor opinion about the new page.
• If Google suspects that there is something shady happening with your website, which might cause harm to others (such as malware, phishing attempts, hacked website), you will see a notification about it in the Search Console.

Connecting website to Google Search Console

Connecting your website directly to Google through Google Search Console is the most effective way to inform them about its existence.

How to Connect Your Website to Google Search Console

You can add Google Search Console to your website in only four simple steps:

1. Sign up to Search Console and create a property for your website.
2. Log in to Webnode website builder and add the HTML code from Search Console to the header of your homepage. (This feature is only available with the Standard, Profi, or Business premium plans. Learn more about website pricing.)
3. Verify the connection in the Search Console.
4. Add your sitemap to Search Console to simplify the indexing of future pages.

Once your website is successfully connected to Google Search Console, you’ll unlock a wealth of data and tools to help you improve its performance in search results.

Adding the HTML verification code to your Webnode editor – available from the Standard plan.

FAQ

How do I get Google to crawl my site?

Google’s robots automatically crawl the internet, but you can speed up the process by submitting your sitemap in Google Search Console. You can also further influence how Google crawls your site by adjusting your SEO settings in Webnode.

How long does it take for Google to index a new website?

This depends on several factors, but it usually takes 2-3 weeks, sometimes even up to a month.

How to get on the first page of Google?

Getting to the first page of Google requires a comprehensive SEO (search engine optimization) strategy that includes creating high-quality content, using relevant keywords, link building, and technical SEO optimization. To learn more, here’s a detailed guide on how to do SEO for your website.

Conclusion

Getting your website to show up on Google takes a bit of time and effort. Be patient, and focus on doing the right things — like making your site easy for Google to understand, building trust with good links, and making sure your site works well for visitors.

Don’t forget to submit your sitemap to Google, regularly update your content, and most importantly, connect your website to Google Search Console. This free tool not only helps speed up indexing but also provides valuable insights into your website’s performance, helping you continuously improve and achieve better search rankings.

Purchase a Premium Plan to connect your website with Google Search Console and get found faster