Why is my website not showing in Google search?
Business owners often ask this question when searching Google for their website. If you have been Googling search terms for your website and can’t find it, there may be a number of reasons for this.
If your website is new, the chances are that Google hasn’t found and indexed it yet. ‘Indexing’ is when Google adds your website to the search results. This can take some time to do. Google indexes every website you can find on a search engine. As I am sure you can imagine, this is a figure somewhere in the hundreds of millions. Google may take around six weeks to get around to indexing a new website or changes you’ve made to an existing one.
Can I get my website indexed faster?
Yes and no. The best tool you can use is Google Search Console. This was previously known as Webmaster Tools. This free tool gives you information on your site, which it gains from Google. It also allows you to see which pages Google has already indexed, and which pages have a problem with indexing. Additionally, it will provide you with information about searches people have performed that have caused your website appear on Google.
The best way to get your website indexed faster is to use Google Search Console to upload an XML site map. This will let Google know that there is a new or updated site to look over. This map of your website makes it easier for Google to crawl each page. Once this is complete, Google will ultimately place your new site or page into its search rankings.
This is all just giving Google a little nudge. Think of it as waving your arms in the air to draw attention to your website. However, it is ultimately up to Google to get around to crawling your site. There is nothing you can do that will force them to make crawling your site a priority.
Most likely reason for established website not showing on Google
If your site isn’t new (meaning it was built over 6-ish weeks ago) and you still cannot find your site on Google, then there may be a deeper problem. There could be coding issues that are preventing the website from being indexed. However, the most likely reason that Google hasn’t indexed your WordPress site after a long period of time is that your developer forgot to turn off the ‘discourage search engines from crawling this site’ button once it had gone live – see image below.
You may or may not have optimised your website for SEO before it went live. If it has not, then you should complete this task sooner rather than later! Sites that are optimised for SEO get listed much higher in Google’s search rankings, in a quicker time frame.
If you are unsure of where you stand when it comes to SEO, send me your web address. I will be happy to conduct a quick assessment of your site for free. When you know what to look for, finding out if a website has had basic SEO tasks completed is a 30 second task. Follow the link at the bottom of the page to get in touch.
How can I get traffic to my website?
If your website is new, then the fastest way to get traffic to your website is to pay for it! Google Ads is a great way to instantly get more visitors to your website, but you will pay for each click on your advert. If you can spare money in your marketing budget for Google Ads, then I would definitely recommend using it.
When done correctly, you can get instant traffic to your site from an audience that is looking for your services. Providing the Google Ads is making you more money that it costs, this could be part of a longer-term marketing strategy.
Google Ads can also be helpful in getting more visitors to long-established websites. However, if your site is not new, and is still not appearing on Google, it’s likely that there are underlying issues that are preventing this, such as a lack of SEO optimisation. If this is a position you are in, it will be worth talking to a professional to help diagnose the problem. You could do this yourself, but the hours of your time it may take would most likely be 10 minutes from someone who is more experienced dealing with indexing issues.
Social media marketing
Along with Google Ads, social media is probably one of the most effective ways to drive quick traffic to your website. Hopefully, you have built up an audience on your social media channels that you can market your services to instantly. When your followers like or share your posts, this will also help to spread your message to their networks.
Whilst the return rates on social media marketing tend to be very low, as it is free (excluding your time) it can be a good way to get increase traffic to your website. There are other techniques to expand your reach on social platforms, but I will cover these in a separate post.
If you have any special offers, or you are selling directly to an end-customer, sponsored posts on social could be a good shout. They’re cheaper than Google Ads and provide you with a good reach to a targeted audience. When used properly, there is a good chance you can get a good return on investment from this type of pay-per-click marketing.
How to set up a pay-per-click campaign?
Facebook and Google have designed their campaigns to be really easy to set up. However, it may not be in your best interests to follow the direct instructions provided on these platforms. These companies have designed their platforms to serve them better than they serve you.
The best chance you have of making a success of your pay-per-click campaign is to speak to, or employ someone, who knows what they are doing! I have over 10 years of experience in creating and managing paid ad campaigns. Therefore, I can safely say that the difference in set-up when a professional creates a pay-per-click campaign, compared to someone attempting it for the first time, is night and day.
You may think that you will save money by setting up a pay-per-click campaign yourself. However, whilst people like me charge for their time to set-up and manage campaigns, it is actually a far more cost-effective solution than a DIY job. This is due to the huge amounts of money that inexperienced individuals tend to waste on ineffective campaigns and mistakes during set-up.
Claim your free PPC analysis
If you have already set-up a paid advertising campaign, let me check it over. Entirely for free. And without any obligation to proceed.
I’ll show you the changes that I would make to your pay-per-click campaign to make it more profitable. This service would normally cost in the region of £100 depending on the size of the campaign, so I believe I have made a decent offer! What are you waiting for?
To claim your free PPC analysis, or just to talk more about paid search options, please get in touch with me using the contact form below.
