My website is not showing on Google.
Where do I start?

Does Google know
the right page?

The first useful piece of evidence is the status of a specific page. A whole website is not simply one block that is either “listed” or “not listed”.

Start with the exact address.

Open the relevant property in Search Console and enter the full URL in URL Inspection. Check the indexed version's status, any reported reason and the selected canonical URL. The live test examines the current page; it does not replace the report on the version already known to Google.²

Our advice: first choose the page that should answer your customer's search. Record its address instead of testing only the homepage. Keep both reports with their dates so you and your provider can discuss the same evidence.

Check access, then directives.

Among other requirements, a page must be accessible to Googlebot, return an appropriate response and contain indexable content. Meeting these conditions does not guarantee indexing.¹⁰

Ask for the crawling rules, server response and indexing directives to be checked. A noindex directive may appear in a page tag or an HTTP header. Google must be able to crawl the page to read this directive.⁴

Do not remove directives indiscriminately. Some pages should stay out of results: working previews, private content or test versions. Clarify which page should be public and why.

HTTP : 200
X-Robots-Tag : noindex, nofollow, noarchive, nosnippet
Meta robots : noindex, nofollow

Indexed. But found
by the right customers?

An indexed URL may be absent from your personal search. Indexing does not ensure its appearance for every query.²

Move from impressions to evidence.

In the Performance report, examine pages and queries. You can filter a page and compare periods to understand where the observed visibility comes from.¹¹ We recommend separating searches for your name from searches for your services. The first come from people who already know you; the second relate to the customers you want to reach.

Simplified definitions based on Google. These metrics do not measure requests for quotes.⁷

Connect a need with a page.

Google recommends useful, original content that considers the terms readers use, together with descriptive links to relevant pages.⁸ For a small business, we turn this into practical questions: which service does this page explain? Who is it for? What evidence and conditions help someone choose?

For example, a practice may be known by name without clearly explaining a particular service. List your priority services and match each one to an existing page. Review the gaps before deciding to create content. Our SEO audit method explores this work in more detail.

Before asking for more visibility, specify the search you want to be found for.

Our recommended approach · Kanexio

Keep performance in perspective.

A website that is pleasant to use makes reading easier. Google uses Core Web Vitals in its ranking systems, but states that good scores do not guarantee top rankings and that a perfect score is not an end in itself.⁹

Address actual obstacles to reading and taking action while also examining content and searches. The Core Web Vitals guide explains the measurements and complements the visibility investigation.

What changed
between the two versions?

If your website was visible before an intervention, reconstruct the change before choosing a fix.

Google describes a site move with URL changes as a mapping exercise between old and new addresses. Its recommendations include permanent redirects to relevant pages, checking canonical URLs, removing development blocks that are no longer needed and updating sitemaps.⁵

Fictional URL paths illustrating the mapping, not a migration result.

Ask for a list, not a general assurance.

Gather the old pages that mattered to your business and their new destinations. Ask which addresses changed, which pages were removed and which content changed. Have your provider check the final destinations.

Google advises against redirecting all old pages to the homepage: this can confuse users and may be treated as a soft 404 error.⁵ A service page deserves a destination that matches its content.

Rankings may change during a migration while Google recrawls pages.⁵ That possibility does not remove the need to check for errors. Date the changes and compare periods relevant to your business. Our redesign guide helps you prepare these elements beforehand.

Your Maps listing
needs its own investigation.

A map result and a page on your website require different checks.

Google describes three main factors for local rankings: relevance, distance and prominence. Complete information helps Google understand the business; distance depends on the searcher's location. Prominence includes information about links to the business and its reviews.⁶

01Relevance

Does the business match the search?

02Distance

Where is the person searching?

03Prominence

Which links and reviews make the business known?

The three factors Google describes for local results.⁶

Check what actually describes your business.

Check profile verification, the accuracy of its information, category, contact details and opening hours.⁶ We also recommend recording the exact search and where it was made. A check in Brussels and a search elsewhere do not raise the same local question.

Avoid presenting a completed profile as a guarantee of appearing everywhere. Examine the website and business separately, then check their consistency for a customer. The Brussels local SEO guide explains this work.

A next action.
Evidence to keep.

Here is the workflow we propose. It helps you prepare an intervention and verify what has actually changed.

1. 01

   Describe the situation.

   Record the search, expected URL, date and recent changes. Separate what you see from the cause you suspect.

2. 02

   Gather the missing check.

   URL Inspection for indexing, the live test for current access, and the Performance report for searches and pages. For Maps, start with the Business Profile.

3. 03

   Link the fix to the observation.

   Ask what evidence justifies the intervention, which pages it concerns and which check will be repeated afterwards. A proposal should explain its scope.

4. 04

   Repeat the same check.

   After the intervention, check the URL and original issue. Keep the date and result. For trends, use comparable periods and scope.

If the problem concerns access or a directive, a technical check takes priority. If the page is indexed, work may focus on relevance and searches. If visitors arrive but do not contact you, then examine the conversion journey, as explained in our guide to conversion barriers.