How to tell if your website is hidden from Google

How to search for yourself

Open Google on your phone and type your full business name. Look through the first screen of results for your own website. A listing about you on another site is not your website.

Next, search your business name with your town. Then search your street address. Look for your own website each time. Check the address in each result to make sure it is yours.

Also search your business name with one service you sell. Look for the page of your site that covers that service. Take a screenshot of each search. Write down whether your website shows up.

What the results mean

If your own website shows up, Google can see it. That holds even when it sits on the second or third screen. You can stop here.

If you see only listings about you or your Facebook page, your website may be hidden. If you see nothing at all, check your spelling against your sign.

Do not pay for a fix yet. First rule out a hidden switch, because one short message can check it.

The hidden switch

Google drops a page from its search results after it reads a noindex rule on that page. A builder may add the rule while a site is under construction. If nobody removes it at launch, the page stays hidden.

Some site-building tools also have a setting named something like Discourage search engines. If someone ticked that box, your site may stay hidden too.

Who to ask and what to send

Ask whoever built your site. If you do not know who that is, look in your site footer and your old emails for a name.

If you built the site yourself, open its settings and look for a switch about search engines. If you cannot find one, ask a friend who builds sites.

Send these four lines in one message. Write the web address of your site at the top. You do not need to know where the rule lives. Add your screenshots so the person sees what you see.

• Check every page of my site for a noindex rule.
• Check whether a setting asks search engines to stay away.
• Tell me if anyone hid the site on purpose while building it.
• Tell me what you find and what you change.

A small site might not need a sitemap

A sitemap is a list of your pages that you hand to Google. Google says a site of about 500 pages or fewer with good internal links might not need a sitemap.

Good internal links mean you can reach every page by tapping from another page, such as your menu. Ask about the noindex rule before you ask about a sitemap.

Check again after the fix

Search your business name and your street address again. Write down what you see. Save a screenshot of the new result with the date.

If your website still does not show, send your screenshots back to whoever made the change. Ask what they checked and what they changed.