You built the website. You launched the website. You waited for the leads to roll in.
…And crickets.
If your website isn’t showing up on Google—or worse, it’s buried 10 pages deep—you’re not alone.
The truth is, just launching a website doesn’t mean Google will automatically rank you. In fact, there are dozens of small (but critical) factors that determine where and if you show up at all. If your site isn’t visible, it’s not working for you. And that means lost traffic, lost credibility, and lost sales.
Here’s a breakdown of why your site might not be ranking—and exactly what to do about it.
1. Your Site Isn’t Indexed by Google
Before Google can rank you, it has to know you exist. If your site hasn’t been indexed, it’s invisible.
Common causes of no indexing:
- Your site is too new and Google hasn’t crawled it yet
- You blocked search engines with a bad robots.txt or meta tag
- There are no backlinks pointing to your site
- You haven’t submitted your site to Google Search Console
How to fix it:
- Go to Google Search Console
- Add and verify your website
- Submit your sitemap (usually found at
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) - Check the “Coverage” report to see if pages are excluded or blocked
🧠 Pro tip: You can also run a simple test: type site:yourdomain.com into Google. If no results show up, your site isn’t indexed yet.
2. You’re Not Using the Right Keywords (Or Any at All)
Search engines rely on keywords to understand what your site is about. If you’re not using terms that your audience is actually searching for—or you’re stuffing random ones—it won’t work.
Examples of weak keyword strategy:
- Homepage title: “Welcome to Our Website” (tells Google nothing)
- No mention of your service area (e.g. “Scottsdale web designer”)
- Using jargon no one is searching (e.g. “digital ecosystem facilitator”)
How to fix it:
- Use tools like Ubersuggest, Keywords Everywhere, or Google’s Keyword Planner to find what people are actually typing into search
- Include primary keywords in:
- Page titles (
<title>tag) - Headings (especially H1 and H2)
- Meta descriptions
- Image alt tags
- Body content (naturally)
- Page titles (
Don’t stuff your site with keywords—write for humans first, search engines second. But make sure both can understand what you do and where you do it.
3. Your Site Loads Too Slowly
Google doesn’t want to send users to slow websites. Site speed is a ranking factor—and more importantly, it affects user experience and bounce rate.
Common speed killers:
- Huge uncompressed images
- Bloated themes or page builders
- Too many plugins or tracking scripts
- Cheap shared hosting
How to fix it:
- Use GTmetrix or PageSpeed Insights to analyze your site speed
- Compress images (use WebP where possible)
- Remove unnecessary plugins or third-party scripts
- Upgrade to better hosting (I recommend cloud-based or optimized WordPress hosting)
A site that loads in under 3 seconds keeps visitors around longer—and signals to Google that you’re worth ranking.
4. You Don’t Have Backlinks (a.k.a. No One Is Talking About You)
Backlinks—links from other websites pointing to yours—are one of the strongest SEO signals. Google sees backlinks as trust indicators: if reputable sites are linking to you, you must be worth showing to others.
If you have zero backlinks, Google has no reason to trust you.
How to fix it:
- Get listed on local directories (Google Business Profile, Yelp, BBB, Chamber of Commerce)
- Write guest posts for industry blogs
- Share your content on social media and tag partners
- Ask clients or vendors to link to your site
- Publish valuable content that others want to reference (like this blog post)
This doesn’t happen overnight—but even a handful of good links can help Google take you seriously.
5. You’re Missing the Basics (Meta Tags, Alt Text, Structured Content)
A beautiful site without meta tags is like a book with no title. Google relies on structure and signals to understand and rank your pages.
What most DIY sites miss:
- Page titles and meta descriptions (used directly in search results)
- Alt text on images (for accessibility and SEO)
- Clear heading structure (H1, H2, H3)
- Schema markup for business info, reviews, events, etc.
How to fix it:
- Use an SEO plugin like Rank Math or Yoast if you’re on WordPress
- Manually add meta titles/descriptions to each page
- Write descriptive alt text for all images
- Use one H1 per page and organize content logically with H2s and H3s
You don’t have to be an SEO expert to get the basics right—but you do have to be intentional.
Final Thoughts
If your website isn’t showing up on Google, it’s not doing its job.
Visibility = traffic.
Traffic = leads.
No visibility? No leads.
The good news? You don’t need a full rebrand to fix this—you need a strategic cleanup. Index the site. Optimize for the right keywords. Speed it up. Add backlinks. Fix the technical basics.
Once you do, your site will start doing what it was meant to do: bring people in and turn them into buyers.
Need a Website Audit?
If you’re not sure where your site stands, I offer strategic audits that break down exactly what’s helping and what’s hurting your visibility. You’ll get clear, actionable fixes without the fluff.
👉 Click here to request your audit or book a free consult to get started.
