On this page
Being in Google is not the same as being found
A page is in Google once it is in the index: Google found it, read it and stored it. You see that by typing site:yourdomain.com into Google; the full picture is in the Pages report of Search Console. Google itself writes that it can take a few weeks to notice a new site, and that crawling takes from a few days to a few weeks. An indexing request usually takes about a day, sometimes much longer, without guarantee, and requesting it again speeds nothing up.
Being found is something else: appearing when someone searches for what you do without knowing your name. There you compete with sites that have been around for years. How long that second part takes is worked out in how long does SEO take.
Live, indexed, found
- Day 0LiveSitemap in Search Console.
- Days to weeksDiscovered and crawledGoogle reads your pages.
- A few daysIn the indexVisible with site:.
- Soon afterFound on your nameWhoever looks for you finds you.
- Weeks to monthsFound on your serviceWith a page per question.
Business Centrum, non-brand search termsMid-September against five weeks later
- On page one, five weeks later1,593
- In the top 3, five weeks later518
- On page one, mid-September13
When a page is still missing after a month
| Cause | How you see it | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| A noindex left over from the build | Search Console says: excluded by noindex | remove the tag and request indexing again |
| A robots.txt that blocks everything | Search Console says: blocked by robots.txt | fix the rule |
| Content that only appears with JavaScript | the page source is empty | have the page delivered as HTML |
| A canonical pointing elsewhere | Google chose another canonical version | set the right canonical tag |
| Thin or duplicate content | crawled, currently not indexed | give the page a question of its own to answer |
Check whether something is in the way with the website not showing on Google tool. Still building? Add the build time from how long does it take to build a website; moving an existing site, read moving a website to a new host, so Google does not start from zero.
What really speeds up being found
A page per question your customers ask, in the words they type. For Business Centrum the site had been indexed for months, yet in mid-September people found it almost only by its name. Then pages came per employer question, in four languages, and within five weeks impressions went from 220 to 10,200 a day and clicks from 3 to 228. Being indexed was never the problem; the difference came from what there was to find. How to build such pages is in technical SEO and do SEO yourself; a fast site helps too, so check yours with the website speed test.
Search Console in week one
- Verify ownership of your domain.
- Submit your sitemap, ideally at /sitemap.xml.
- Request indexing for your home page and your five most important pages.
- Check that no page that must be found carries a noindex.
- After a week, open the Pages report: which are in, which not, and why.
Paying, and an index without visitors
Do I have to pay to get into Google?
No. Getting into the regular results is free and not for sale. You can only pay for ads, and those change nothing about your regular position.
Why is a page indexed but nowhere to be seen?
Because other pages answer the question better or are more trusted. A page with a full answer of its own, and links from other sites, helps.