Reasons Why Your WordPress Website Is Not Showing in Google Search

If you have a WordPress website, you know it requires regular upkeep and performance checks. While it’s one of the most convenient platforms, WordPress may come with challenges like the website not showing in Google search results, being too slow, or not loading properly.

While many problems are easily fixable, some may need a thorough diagnosis before making changes.

But what happens when a WordPress site is not showing in Google search results anywhere? You keep on trying to perform a WordPress SEO audit and fix some bugs, but nothing seems to work. So, there is no doubt WordPress site not showing on google is a problem and requires immediate fixes.

We know it’s quite frustrating when you put a lot of effort into search engine optimization, but your WordPress site doesn’t appear in SERPs. If your SEO strategy is well-tailored, but you don’t see any improvements, maybe you need to perform some technical and content quality checks on your site.

Even if you’ve had a website for some time, it’s not uncommon to face difficulties when your WordPress site doesn’t show up in Google search results. Figuring out the reasons behind this can be challenging.

Let’s explore some common factors that might be causing your WordPress website to be missing from Google search pages, we’ll discuss how to address them.

So, how to make your website appear on Google again?

Google Hasn’t Indexed Your Website

Sometimes you just need to wait until Google finds, scans, and recognizes your site as relevant and rankable. You simply can’t expect to launch a new website, which ranks the same day. But you can simply check if Google recognizes the homepage with the simple query:

site:sitename.com

This is a simple and effective way to search a website through Google and estimate its status.

If it appears in the results, Google knows this website exists but still needs to review the content. If it doesn’t show up, you have to create a sitemap and upload it to Google Search Console.

With the sitemap, you tell Google which pages to index and speed up the crawling process. Once you submit the sitemap, Google will easily spot your site and speed up the ranking process.

Your Website Is a New One

When launching a new website, admins or owners sometimes forget to enable the Search Engine Visibility feature. So, if you did everything fine, but your site doesn’t rank, you simply need to check in Settings>Reading path, scroll down, and find the Search Engine Visibility. Ensure you’ve removed the checkmark from the box that says, “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.”

Now, click the “Save changes” button. Sometimes, changes don’t apply because people don’t save them. It’s too obvious on the page but also too easy to oversee.

You Haven’t Connected the WP Site With Google Search Console

Add your website to the Google Search Console using the URL prefix method. This way, you can verify your site more efficiently.

At this point, it’s essential to copy and paste the website URL the way you see it in your browser, no matter if it contains www and HTTP/HTTPS. Then, verify the domain and activate the All in One SEO Plugin using the admin access to your website.

Now you can access the Webmaster Tools and enable Google Search Console.

Google Penalized or De-Indexed Your Site

Site penalization may happen for many reasons. One of the most common reasons why Google is de-indexing your website is lousy SEO practices like duplicate content and malicious backlinks. But it can be a lot more than that.

The most obvious solution is to write unique content and use some tools by choice to check on the uniqueness. We use Grammarly and QueText, but many other tools help you with this.

Using tools like ScreamingFrog and Ahrefs, we check the backlinks and remove any bad link that points to our or client’s website. So, you can try the same.

You can check if your website is penalized through Google Search Console. When you resolve the given issues, Google will lift the penalty and allow you to rank on search engine pages.

You Don’t Appear Relevant Enough for Google

One of the signals Google “catches” from your website is relevance. Search engines, especially Google, scan the content and compare it to relevant resources. This way, they check if your content is trustworthy and valuable.

So, when is your WordPress site not showing in Google search engine result pages, you should try to build authority and relevance. After that, Google will recognize your potential and help you rank better.

You’ve Blocked the Googlebot

This way, you prevent search engines from crawling your website. But let’s start from the beginning. Every website (or most of them) has a robots.txt file that specifies which pages to be indexed and which not. Without this file, all URLs will be crawled, and you spend your crawling budget for nothing.

So, sometimes people block the googlebot through this robots.txt file. Usually, it happens by accident. If your site won’t rank, check if this is the case with your robots.txt file and resolve it.

You Have Ongoing Technical Issues With Your Website

Technical issues are Google’s worst enemy. When your WordPress site loads slowly and performs poorly, then it may not rank as you expect after SEO implementation.

We suggest diagnosing the website once again and seeing if things go better after resolving the technical issues. Since WordPress requires plugins and extensions, check if they all fit nicely. Sometimes, some plugins may cause performance conflict, so you probably want to avoid that.

You’ve “Checked” Some “noindex” Feature

This is another setting that tells search engines not to index your site or a page. So, first, check on the source code and enter the word “noindex” in the search bar. If there is no result, then no page is marked like this.

This one is easy to fix because any user can remove the non-indexing feature, and see if the website performs well.

You Are Not Focused on the Right Keywords

Sometimes, the reason why your WordPress site won’t rank is not using the proper search queries and keywords. Some keywords are easier to use but not really competitive or completely irrelevant to your strategy.

We suggest using Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, and tools like Ahrefs to analyze the relevant keywords and tailor the strategy according to them.

Also, try to understand searchers’ intentions. That way, you can use human language instead of your tech jargon. So this way, you may answer your initial question about why is your WordPress site not showing in google search results pages.

You’re Using a Wrong XML Sitemap

You need to submit an XML sitemap so it can serve as a roadmap for the search engines. The XML sitemaps are guiding the search engine bots through the pages on your site. So, if you’re using an incorrect one, Google won’t be able to index all the pages or even the whole website.

To never face a similar issue again, ensure your XML sitemap is always updated with all relevant pages. As a result, your website will show up on Google with all relevant queries/searches that you’re optimizing for.

You Don’t Have Enough Content to Rank

Your website won’t show in Google results if you don’t have a content to guide it. If your website lacks sufficient, high-quality content, it may struggle to show up on Google.

If your website is new, you need to work on content by conducting keyword research. That way, you’ll identify topics relevant to your audience. As a result, Google will spot the relevance signals and reward you with a search appearance.

Outdated Content Writing Practices

Another case is if you think you have enough content, but your website is still not showing in Google. Probably your current content doesn’t meet any quality standards, it’s not useful and helpful, or is stuffed with too many keywords.

Also, check if you have duplicate content or review it again, especially if you rely on AI for writing. Remember, too many keywords and extended word count are outdated. Google can process the natural language and understand semantically similar phrases.

Don’t overoptimize and don’t write fluff – just focus on answering the questions your audience has.

Your Website Is Not Optimized For Search Engine Crawling

Google uses crawlers to explore and index web pages. If your website is not optimized for crawling, certain pages may not be discovered or indexed by Google. Ensure that your website’s robots.txt file allows for crawling, and use internal linking to help Google find and index all of your pages.

You Don’t Link Enough, or You Use Too Many Links

Since you already have a website that struggles to show up on Google, it’s time to consider internal and external linking. Yes, links are essential in SEO, but how do you implement them?

If you don’t use enough links, i.e., you have pages that don’t link to any other, then your site lacks linking. On the other hand, many overdo it by placing links on bad anchor texts. When you add the black-hat off-page SEO practices and spam backlinks, your website won’t be able to show on Google before you fix these problems.

You Still Don’t Appear Trustworthy Enough

New websites always have this struggle. In the sea full of different websites, it’s a challenge to stand out. The least you can do is implement SSL, avoid PBN and spam backlinks, nurture your audience, and publish quality content.

It won’t happen overnight, but your website will start showing trustworthy signals, encouraging Google to increase its chances to show up among similar results.

You’ve Chosen Too Competitive Industry

The online market is already very competitive, but some niches and industries may not give your website a chance to show. If your target market is already dominated by renowned and established competitors, you will have to carefully tailor your SEO and content strategies.

We suggest you to target niche-specific keywords, spot audience questions, and be unique enough to appear more trustworthy. Also, you can invest in long-term SEO strategy that includes content analyses, website audits, creating new content, and even improving the existing articles and copies on your page.

To Wrap It Up

WordPress is quite a popular web builder and service provider, and you need just a few minutes to set up the theme and register the domain. Still, you have to work a lot until your site ranks. Many times developers face issues with WordPress sites not showing up on google, and they need to find out what’s the reason behind this.

In this blog, we tried to list as many reasons and solutions as possible, so you can determine why is your WordPress site not showing in google search. You can even try to resolve some of them alone when possible.

So, the next time you ask why my WordPress blog is not showing in google search results, or even your eCommerce or service WordPress website, make sure you bookmark this article.

Most of the time, you can fix the issues without hiring developers to do that for you. In any other case, don’t mind asking for help without risking making a mistake.

FAQs

Is it possible for a new site not to appear on SERPs?

A brand new website still hasn’t enough content and relevance to appear in search results. Still, if you enter the site name, the homepage should appear on Google. If that won’t happen, then you need to find out why Google is not indexing your site.

What should I do for my WordPress site to rank on Google?

You have to perform an all-inclusive WordPress SEO audit for your website and track down the issues. Sometimes, some lags or tiny issues may affect the overall performance badly. The audit will help you detect the issues and learn what you need to change.

Why do bad SEO practices affect Google ranking?

Google doesn’t want it when you publish duplicate or plagiarized content. Also, it can penalize a website for keyword overstuffing and malicious backlink strategy. Luckily, Google Search Console detects the issues and signals Google when they are resolved to lift up the sanction.

Can technical issues affect WordPress site ranking on Google?

Technical issues are not a natural SEO element but can indeed affect your site’s performance on SERPs. So, you must resolve any technical issue to ensure the SEO strategy is implemented correctly.