You just devoted time and energy into developing a beautiful new website, but it won’t show up anywhere on the Google search results page (SERPs). What happened!?

Here are several reasons why your website isn’t appearing on search results, and also how to fix it.

1. Your website is new

   If it’s only been a few days since the launch of your new website, chances are that Google hasn’t yet had the chance to crawl and index it. What does that mean? It means that the bots haven’t finished reading and downloading your website content to Google’s database. Google doesn’t yet have a copy of your website in its database to display on its search results, so it cannot show up for relevant search queries.

   It usually takes Google a week or two to crawl and index a new website. You can reduce the waiting time by submitting your XML sitemap into the Google search console.

2. You have blocked Google from crawling your website

   ‘Noindex’ is a meta tag that tells crawlers such as Googlebots not to crawl and index a webpage. If you have set ‘noindex’ to your entire website or certain webpages, they will not appear on search results.

   I To prevent this issue from happening, make sure that webpages that you want to appear on search results don’t have ‘noindex’ in its meta tag.

3. Your website needs more quality backlinks and domain authority

   Although the digital world has changed significantly over the past several years, the importance of quality backlinks has not. Backlinks are incoming hyperlinks from one web page to another. A website with more quality backlinks is seen as more authoritative and will be ranked higher in search results. Websites that are completely new aren’t likely to have quality backlinks, and will rank lower as a result.

4. You need more product or service keywords on your website

   Google uses keywords on your website to gain textual understanding of your products or services, and will display your website on search results accordingly . If you don’t include relevant keywords, your website won’t appear on search results for related queries.

   An SEO audit will give you the information you need to strengthen your website with the correct keywords. A knowledgeable SEO expert will not only find the top keywords for your industry, but will also be able to tell you what keywords are being used by both your target audience and your competition.

5. Your website has been penalized

   If you have engaged in “unethical” or “black hat” SEO tactics, your website may be penalized and not appear on Google search results. Purchasing low-quality backlinks or stuffing your website content with keywords are unethical SEO practices that will be penalized by Google. The best way to identify whether your website has been slapped with penalization due to poor SEO practices is through a comprehensive SEO audit.

   These days, SEO is about so much more than just having the right keywords. An effective and informed SEO strategy is the difference between having a website and having a profitable web presence. If you’re ready for your business to win the rankings, contact our technical SEO experts for an SEO audit today.