Not showing up on Google
Either Google does not have your pages at all, or it has them and puts other people first. The checks below tell you which within ten minutes, and the fixes have nothing in common, so do not start guessing until you know.
The ten-minute triage
Everything else on this page branches off this one answer. The site: search takes five seconds and tells you which half of the page applies to you.
Type site:yourdomain.com into Google. It lists what Google actually holds for your domain. A handful of results when you have thirty pages means most of the site is not indexed. No results at all means none of it is, which is a technical problem with a specific set of causes, and usually a fast fix once found.
Set up Google Search Console if you have not. It is free and it is the only place Google tells you directly what it thinks of your site. Paste a page URL into URL Inspection and it will say whether the page is indexed and, if not, why. It also has a Request Indexing button, which is worth using once per page but does not help if something is actively blocking it.
This is the most common cause of a site that is entirely missing. A noindex instruction tells Google not to include the page, and it is often left switched on after a redesign. On WordPress, look under Settings, then Reading, for the option that discourages search engines from indexing the site. It exists so developers can hide a site while they build it, and it gets forgotten at launch constantly.
Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt. A line reading Disallow: / blocks the whole site from crawling. Like the noindex switch, it is usually a leftover from a staging site. Note the difference: robots.txt stops crawling, a noindex tag stops indexing, and a page blocked by robots.txt can still appear as a bare link because Google was never allowed in to read the noindex.
A canonical tag tells Google which URL is the real one. If every page on your site carries a canonical pointing at your home page, you have told Google that all your pages are duplicates of the home page, and it will index one of them. This happens by accident more often than you would think, particularly on sites built with the wrong template.
A sitemap is a list of your pages for search engines. Most content systems generate one at /sitemap.xml. Submit it in Search Console. It does not make Google rank you, but it makes sure Google knows the pages exist, which matters most on newer sites and on pages nothing links to.
Search the term you want and open the top three results. Look at what they have that you do not: a page dedicated to that exact service, more depth on it, their address and service area stated plainly, real photos, reviews. Ranking is comparative. You are not being judged against a standard, you are being compared with them.
The first two are technical and absolute. The rest are competitive, which means they are slower to fix but more within your control.
Most common for a brand new site
How to check: A noindex tag in the page source, the WordPress search engine visibility setting left on, or Disallow: / in robots.txt. Search Console URL Inspection names this outright.
The fix: Remove the block, then request indexing in Search Console. Pages usually reappear within days. This is the single most satisfying fix on this list.
Very common
How to check: The domain is a few weeks or months old, everything is technically correct, and there is simply nothing there yet. Search Console shows pages indexed but very few impressions.
The fix: Patience plus signals. Get your Google Business Profile verified, get listed in the places your industry gets listed, and publish pages that answer real questions. There is no shortcut and anyone selling you one is selling you a problem.
Very common
How to check: You want to rank for a service, and the only mention of it is one line on a combined services page. Meanwhile the sites above you each have a full page on it.
The fix: One page per service you actually sell, written for someone deciding whether to call. Say what it is, who it is for, what it costs or how pricing works, and where you do it. Thin pages that mention everything rank for nothing.
Very common for local businesses
How to check: The map results and the ordinary results are two different systems. Search your service plus your city and look at the map pack. If you are not in it, check whether your Google Business Profile is verified, categorized correctly, and shows the same name, address, and phone number as your website.
The fix: Verify and complete the Business Profile, and make the name, address, and phone identical everywhere they appear. Put the address and service area on the site itself, in text, not only in an image.
Common
How to check: A page that nothing on your own site links to is hard for Google to find and reads as unimportant. Check your own navigation and body text first, before worrying about links from other sites.
The fix: Link related pages to each other in the body text with descriptive wording. Then get the easy external ones: chamber of commerce, suppliers, trade associations, local sponsorships. Real relationships, not link schemes.
Common on template sites
How to check: Twenty city pages with the same three paragraphs and a different town name swapped in. Google indexes one and ignores the rest, which is exactly what you did not want.
The fix: Either make each page genuinely specific, with real local detail, or cut them down to a smaller number of pages you can actually make different. Fewer real pages beat many identical ones.
Less common but hard to spot
How to check: View the page source and search for a sentence you can see on screen. If it is not in the source at all, your content is being assembled in the browser and may not be reliably seen.
The fix: Serve the important text in the initial HTML. This is a build decision rather than a settings change, so it is one to hand to whoever built the site.
The timelines here get misrepresented constantly, and unrealistic expectations are how people end up paying for the wrong thing.
Free SEO checker
Scans a page for indexing blocks, metadata problems, heading structure, and accessibility basics.
OpenFree IT checkup
A wider report: SEO, performance, accessibility, speed, and email security in one score.
OpenSEO services
The version where I do the work: technical fixes, service pages, and local search structure.
OpenWebsite assessment
Looks at whether the traffic you do get turns into calls, which is the other half of this problem.
OpenMy website is slow
Speed is a ranking factor and a bounce factor. Worth ruling out while you are here.
OpenDo I need a website redesign?
For when the honest answer is that the site cannot be made to rank in its current shape.
OpenSearch for site:yourdomain.com with no space after the colon. Whatever comes back is what Google holds. Nothing coming back means you are not indexed, which is a technical problem and usually a quick fix. Results coming back means you are indexed and the problem is ranking.
Getting indexed usually takes days to a few weeks once nothing is blocking it and a sitemap has been submitted. Ranking for anything competitive takes months. Those are two different clocks and mixing them up is why people think something is broken when it is just early.
Because your name is a term nobody else is competing for. Service terms are contested, and you win those by having a real page about each service, local signals that line up, and enough substance to compare well against whoever currently ranks.
They are separate systems with separate inputs. The map pack is driven largely by your Google Business Profile, your categories, your proximity to the searcher, and your reviews. The ordinary results are driven by your website. A local business needs both, and it is common to do well in one and badly in the other.
No. Ads and organic results are separate and buying ads does not improve your ranking. Ads are a reasonable way to buy traffic while the slow work happens, but they are rent, not equity.
Most of the technical checks on this page can be run from outside. Diagnosing the competitive half properly needs Search Console access, because impressions and positions are the only honest measure of where you actually stand.
I will tell you whether it is an indexing problem or a ranking problem, and what would have to be true for that search to go your way. No obligation.
