Blog Post

I get asked a lot:
“Why isn’t my page showing up on Google?”

Short answer—it’s probably not being indexed. Long answer—it might be one of ten fixable problems holding your content back.

Just because you hit “publish” doesn’t mean Google can find your page.
And if Google can’t find it, it’s not going to rank it.
That’s why indexing is one of the first things I check when a site’s traffic flatlines—even if the content looks great on the surface.

Let me show you exactly how I troubleshoot and fix indexing issues—and how I help clients get their pages discovered, crawled, and ranked.

Here’s what I’ll walk you through:

• What indexing actually means (and how it works)
  
• The difference between crawl issues and indexing problems
  
• The most common reasons your content isn’t showing up
  
• How I use Google Search Console to diagnose and fix it
  
• The technical and strategic fixes I apply to get content indexed and ranked

Let’s keep this simple:

• Crawling is when Googlebot visits your site and discovers pages.
  
• Indexing is when Google actually stores a page in its database so it can show up in search results.
  

You can be crawled but not indexed. You can be indexed but not ranked.
And yes—you can accidentally block your own pages from both.

That’s why step one is figuring out what stage is broken.

These are the most common problems I see:

Developers often add these during staging and forget to remove them.
Solution: Check your page’s HTML and CMS settings. Make sure noindex isn’t applied to important pages.

Sometimes the robots.txt file disallows entire directories (like /blog/ or /wp-content/) unintentionally.
Solution: Review your robots.txt using Google Search Console’s testing tool. Here’s how I handle robots.txt for SEO.

If your canonical tag points to another page, Google may ignore your original page and index the other one instead.
Solution: Use correct canonical URLs, especially on blog posts, paginated archives, or product variants.

If your content doesn’t add value, or it looks too similar to something already indexed, Google might skip it.
Solution: Improve the quality and uniqueness of the content. Combine pages if necessary.

If nothing on your site links to a page, Google may never discover it.
Solution: Add internal links from relevant, indexed pages. A content hub model helps with this.

Large sites may not get crawled fully—especially if bots waste time on low-priority URLs.
Solution: Prioritize high-value URLs in your internal linking and sitemap.

URLs with tracking parameters or unnecessary query strings can confuse bots.
Solution: Use canonical tags and exclude parameter-heavy URLs from crawling if they don’t add value.

Here’s how I troubleshoot indexing issues from start to fix:

In Google Search Console:

• Enter your URL
  
• Check crawl status, index status, and last crawl date
  
• Look for noindex errors, canonical issues, or crawl blocks
  

If you don’t see “URL is on Google,” there’s work to do.

I check:

• robots.txt to make sure critical paths aren’t blocked
  
• Meta robots tags in the page source
  
• CMS settings (especially Yoast or Rank Math) for default indexing behavior
  

I look at submitted sitemaps:

• Are they updated?
  
• Do they include the missing URLs?
  
• Do they return a 200 status code?
  

Sitemaps are guides—not guarantees—but they’re important. Here’s why sitemaps still matter.

In GSC > Settings > Crawl Stats:

• I review how often Googlebot is visiting
  
• Look for spikes, crawl errors, or high redirects
  
• Identify whether bots are wasting time on unimportant content
  

If Googlebot is too busy crawling broken links or faceted navigation pages, that’s a problem.

If the content is new, optimized, and ready to go:

• Use the URL Inspection Tool to “Request Indexing”
  
• For bulk indexing, I use XML sitemaps or tools like IndexNow (when supported)
  

This step doesn’t guarantee ranking—but it starts the clock.

Some pages need extra help to get noticed. Here’s what I do:

• Add internal links from pages that already rank
  
• Share the URL externally (social or syndicated) to generate buzz and traffic
  
• Improve Core Web Vitals to boost crawl priority
  
• Add FAQ schema or structured data to clarify content type
  
• Rebuild thin content into something more comprehensive
  

If a page doesn’t add value, sometimes I’ll noindex it on purpose—or merge it with a better-performing URL.

Bonus: Keep New Pages Indexed Faster, Longer

To keep new content in the index, I do this:

• Add it to the sitemap immediately
  
• Link to it from recent blog posts or the homepage
  
• Avoid duplicate titles and descriptions
  
• Publish consistently—Google prioritizes active sites
  
• Use schema markup where applicable
  

If you’re publishing regularly but your content keeps disappearing from the index, it’s a sign Google doesn’t trust the quality or structure yet. That’s fixable.

Let me keep it real:

You can write the best content in your niche.
But if Google doesn’t index the page, you might as well not publish it at all.

Most indexing issues are avoidable—or fixable—if you know where to look.
Start with technical audits, clean up your structure, and use internal links and schema to get noticed.

I built a more detailed walkthrough here: How to Fix Indexing Issues and Get Pages Ranked.
If you’re publishing and getting zero results, this is where I’d start.

Because great content deserves to be found.