Why doesn't my site appear in Google searches?

Your site may not appear in Google search results if it's too new, its pages are hidden, or its content doesn't match the keywords visitors are using.

Follow this guide to learn how to fix common problems when a site or specific pages in it isn't appearing in search.

Before Google can show your content in search results, it must first crawl and index your site's content. Keep in mind, there's no guarantee that Google will crawl, index, or show the pages of your site in search results. This isn't something Squarespace can control. To learn more about how Google Search works, visit Google's documentation.

Using automated programs called crawlers, Google looks for new and updated pages on the web so they can be added to Google's list of known pages. After Google discovers a page's URL, it may crawl the page to find out what's on it, but keep in mind, Google doesn't crawl all the pages it discovers.

As it crawls a page, Google renders your page's content and runs any JavaScript it finds on it.

After a page is crawled, Google tries to understand what the page is about by indexing the page. During indexing, Google analyzes the content on the page and stores information in its index. How often search engines, like Google, index your site is outside our control. To try and speed things up, you can manually submit your content for indexing, but this doesn’t guarantee it’ll happen instantaneously.

After a page is crawled and indexed, Google may show it in search results. When users enter a query, Google searches its index for content and populates what it believes are the most relevant and high-quality results. Using keywords strategically across your site helps search engines determine if your site is relevant to the terms users are searching for.

First, search Google for site: followed by your site's exact URL or domain name with no other words. This checks if Google already sees your site and will show results with every page Google has indexed.

Custom domain example:

site:yourdomain.com

Built-in domain example:

site:yourdomain.squarespace.com

Then, follow these links for next steps based on what you see in the results:

• No pages appear in results
• Some pages appear in results
• All pages appear in results, but not for other keyword searches

Keep in mind, changes may not appear in search results immediately after you act. Google needs time to process any requests, then crawl and index the page. Google relies on a complex algorithm to update site information, so we can’t guarantee if and when Google will index all your changes.

If no pages appear when you search for your domain:

1. Ensure you've upgraded. Search engines don't see trial sites. Sign up for paid service and publish your site to make it visible to search engines.
2. Remove passwords. To check if your site has a password, open the site in a private browser window. If your site has a site-wide password or a page password on the homepage, remove the password.
3. Check noindex tags. If your site supports code injection, remove any noindex code from site-wide code injection, and from code injection for your homepage.
4. Verify your site with Google Search Console, if you haven't already.
5. Request Google index your site to help your site appear in search results sooner.
6. You may also want to verify with Bing Webmaster Tools.

If specific pages don't appear when you search for your domain, check the following for each page that isn't appearing:

1. Open page settings.
2. In the General tab, ensure Enable is checked to confirm the page isn't disabled.
3. In the General tab, check for a page password. Remove it if there is one.
4. In the SEO tab, ensure Hide this page from search results isn't checked.
5. In the Advanced tab, remove any noindex code (if your site supports Premium features).

After you've checked the pages:

1. Verify your site with Google Search Console, if you haven't already.
2. Request Google index your site to help any changes appear in search results sooner.
3. You may also want to verify with Bing Webmaster Tools.

If your site appears in search results for your domain but doesn't appear for keywords you expect visitors to use to find you, that means it's not ranking for those keywords.

There are some things you can do to understand your visitors' search patterns and make it easier for Google to find you:

• See which search terms drive traffic to your site with Search keywords analytics.
• Optimize your site with targeted keywords.

If you're not seeing all or any of your images in Google Images:

• Ensure you're using unique images relevant to your site content.
• Optimize your images with keywords in filenames, captions, and alt text.

Keep in mind, we can't control which images Google chooses to index. For example, if your site displays a set of similar images, Google may not index all of them. To learn more about best practices for Google Images, visit Google's documentation.