New site not on Google
Google doesn't attend launches. You have to send the invitation.
A new site is invisible on Google for one of two reasons: the normal one — discovery simply takes time — or a blocker you shipped without knowing. The trick is telling them apart fast, because waiting patiently on a blocked site wastes the exact weeks a new business can least afford.
Same-day diagnosis. Flat quote before any fix.
What’s actually happening
Google finds new sites by following links from pages it already knows and by reading sitemaps submitted through Search Console. A brand-new domain with no inbound links and no Search Console presence sits in the dark not because anything's wrong, but because nothing points to it — discovery-by-accident can genuinely take weeks. That's the 'normal' invisibility, and it's shortened dramatically by doing the introductions yourself: verified Search Console, submitted sitemap, requested indexing on key pages, and a few real links from real places.
The other invisibility is self-inflicted, and it's epidemic among new launches: the developer's staging settings ship to production. WordPress's 'discourage search engines' checkbox, a noindex meta tag in the template, a robots.txt still disallowing everything, or a password wall Google can't pass. These blockers make the waiting infinite — you can't out-wait a door you locked. Five minutes of checking separates the two conditions, and the check should be part of every launch.
The usual causes, ranked
After twenty-seven years of these calls, the odds are well mapped. Start at the top.
Launch-day noindex leftovers
The staging checkbox or meta tag that followed the site to production. The single most common cause of 'we launched a month ago and we're not on Google.'
No Search Console, no sitemap
Nobody sent the invitation — Google has to stumble across you via links that a new site doesn't have yet.
Zero inbound links
No directory entries, no social profiles, no mentions — the site exists on an island discovery can't reach.
A robots.txt still saying no
Disallow: / from the development era, faithfully turning crawlers away while everyone waits.
What you can safely try first
Nothing below can make things worse — that’s the selection criterion. Anything riskier belongs in professional hands, on a backup.
- 1
Run the two-minute blocker check
site:yourdomain.com on Google; view source and search for 'noindex'; visit /robots.txt. Blockers announce themselves — this check converts anxiety into information.
- 2
Set up Search Console and submit the sitemap
Verification takes minutes and transforms your relationship with Google from stranger to correspondent — including seeing exactly what it's crawled and hit.
- 3
Request indexing on your five most important pages
Search Console's URL inspection has a 'Request Indexing' button. It's the closest thing to a doorbell Google offers, and new sites should ring it.
Stop and call when…
- Blockers found — removing them cleanly across settings, templates, and server files is the fix worth doing once
- Six-plus weeks with clean checks and Search Console errors you can't parse — coverage-report reading is a skill
- You need customers now, not at Google's leisure — that's an ads-plus-indexing conversation about the bridge period
From there it’s our job: same-day look, flat quote, and the $229 flat repair covers most cases of exactly this.
Single Error Fix — buy it now, skip the hunt.
One error, hunted down and fixed — 500s, white screens, redirect loops, broken pages.
Covers one specific error or broken behavior on one site. Diagnosis, the fix, and a plain-English note on what happened. If we can't fix it, you get a full refund.
Questions we hear a lot.
How long should indexing normally take?
With the invitations sent — Search Console verified, sitemap in, indexing requested — days to two weeks for the site to start appearing, longer for competitive queries to rank. Without them, weeks to never, depending on whether anything links to you. 'How long' is mostly a function of whether you introduced yourself or waited to be discovered.
We're indexed but nowhere on the results. Same problem?
Different problem — indexed-but-invisible is ranking, and ranking is earned over time with content, relevance, and links. This page's disease is absence from the index entirely. The site: search tells you which you have: results appearing at all means indexing succeeded, and the conversation moves to SEO proper.
What does the $229 launch setup cover?
The full blocker sweep (settings, templates, robots, headers), Search Console verified and sitemap submitted, indexing requested on priority pages, the foundational links checklist, and schema markup validation so Google understands what it's reading. Essentially: the launch-day SEO ritual your site should have gotten, performed late but completely.
Related symptoms & help
Errors travel in packs. If this one visited, check its friends.
Send Google the invitation. Properly, today.
Send the symptom, get a same-day look and a flat quote from the developer who's fixed this exact thing more times than either of us can count.