Why Doesn’t My Website Show Up on Google?

A question we hear often is why a client’s website does not show up on Google, or in search engines in general.

If a website does not appear on Google, or appears very low down, there is a serious problem. Potential customers cannot find information about the business, and one of the main forms of online advertising is lost.

Website visitors without a presence on Google

Of course, a website that does not “exist” in search engines will not necessarily get no traffic at all, as its visitors may come through Meta ads or, more generally, ads on other websites.

But what does it mean when a website does not appear on Google, or only shows up on page 3, 4 or beyond?

It means that every day it misses the chance to attract potential customers and tell them about its offers and, more generally, about the products or services on its website.

It means it could gain 60% more visitors without paying anything for them. Users who arrive from search engines without advertising are free.

Some striking statistics on search and users

According to research by Forrester Consulting, we can see that:

• 95% of users used at least one search engine channel to discover something
• 94% of users used at least one search engine channel to buy something
• and 93% of users used at least one search engine channel to engage with something
• finally, to show how important search is for research, 90% of users have no specific brand in mind before they search.

Below is a chart from which we can draw more useful statistics:

In other words, a click in a search engine is more than a simple click: it is a step in the user’s journey towards the final purchase or action.

The main factors and reasons why your site does not show up on Google

The most common reasons your site does not show up on Google are:

1. It is new and has not been indexed yet
2. Search engines cannot access it because of a noindex tag
3. It is not optimised for search engines
4. You have very strong competitors and your website is many pages behind
5. You have a penalty from Google

If you have a new site, all you can do is wait until Google reads your website. What you can do is help it along by submitting your website to Google Search Console with a sitemap.

Your website may have a noindex tag, which stops search engines from accessing it. If you have a WordPress website, just make sure the box below is not ticked

If your site is not optimised for search engines, you can follow the tips we give below or talk to a specialist in website promotion, also known as SEO.

A website can also be accessible and optimised, but your competitors may have done such a good job that, to compete with them, you need to increase your SEO budget or do smarter SEO around so-called long-tail keywords

Another possibility is that Google has given you a penalty because you broke some of its rules. In that case you should go to a specialist to see whether you can get out from under the penalty.

To check whether your page has been “read” by Google, open Google in a new window and type the command site:yoursite.gr.

Where your website could appear in search engines

When it comes to search engines, we will focus mainly on Google, because the others usually try to imitate it, but above all because it holds by far the largest market share in Greece.

Your website could appear either in the organic results, as in the image below:

or on the Google Business Profile map, which shows businesses with a “good name” that are close to the user, as in the image below

or by paying for Google Ads advertising, as in the image below:

How to make your site show up on Google

If you do not know much about building and promoting a website, the first thing you can do is get in touch with someone who knows the subject and ask them to analyse what is wrong with your website.

Website analysis

This analysis usually covers 3 areas:

• On-site optimisation
• Off-site optimisation
• Keyword selection

If, on the other hand, you know what to do, split your work into these 3 areas and carry out your own analysis to find out what the problem is.

Use keywords in your content

Keywords can be a single word or a short phrase of up to four or five words. They should be terms related to your website that people are likely to use when they search on Google.

Use meta tags to add more keywords

Meta tags are hidden code: visitors to your website do not see them, but Googlebot, the search engine crawler that scans your website, will see and evaluate them.

Find keywords that are not too competitive

We suggest you use Google’s free Keyword Planner to work this out.

This keyword research tool lets you measure how popular specific search terms are, as well as how much competition you face when you use them.

Look for backlinks

A major factor for search engines is the quality of organic backlinks, that is, links from other sites to yours.

This is what search engines look for. If many websites link back to your site, Google gives your page more credibility and a higher search ranking.

Create content related to your business

Use articles or other material specific to the products and services you provide. Google’s algorithm ranks websites with original, relevant content higher than those whose content is repeated elsewhere

Conclusions on Google and websites

It is very important for business owners to learn about SEO and improve their online presence. In fact, 70% of Greeks have internet access, and the number grows every day. If you want to promote your website properly, just get in touch with us!