"I'm not showing up on Google" can mean several different things.
Google doesn't know your page exists. It knows the page but doesn't think it's a good answer. You do show up, just a long way down. Or you're looking at the map when you've only ever worked on the website.
Before you rewrite copy, hire someone for SEO or rebuild anything, work out which of these you're dealing with.
The most useful tool for that is Google Search Console. It's free, and it shows you which URLs Google knows about, which searches you appear for and which pages get impressions and clicks.
A site:yourdomain.com search is fine as a quick check, but I wouldn't base decisions on it.
1. First: does Google know about the page, and is it indexed?
Take an important URL from your site and check it with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.
If Google doesn't know about it yet, check the basics:
- the page is linked from elsewhere on your site;
- it's in your sitemap;
- the URL is accessible and isn't blocked in
robots.txt; - and if it's just been published, you can request indexing. That asks Google to look at it; it doesn't guarantee it will be indexed.
A page that nothing links to is harder to discover and ends up cut off from the rest of your site.
If Google knows the URL but hasn't indexed it, check these first:
noindex;- canonical;
- server errors;
- near-duplicate content;
- empty pages, or pages that don't add anything different.
Not every page Google discovers ends up indexed.
And it isn't always a technical problem.
Sometimes the right answer is simply to improve or rethink a page that didn't have a strong enough reason to exist.
2. It's indexed. Now look at what it shows up for
Being in Google doesn't mean a page will appear when someone searches for your service.
Open the Performance report in Search Console and look at the queries for that URL.
You'll usually find one of three situations.
It gets almost no impressions. Google may not yet connect the page with any particular search, or you're competing in a space where you still have very little visibility.
It shows up for searches you don't care about. The page probably isn't making it clear enough what it's an answer to.
It shows up for the right search, but far down. Then indexing isn't the problem anymore. It's time to compare your page with what's ranking above it.
A simple example:
If someone searches for "kitchen renovation Girona" and your page only talks about "integrated solutions to transform your spaces", Google may not be the problem.
You may just be describing things differently from the way people search for them.
3. Check whether several pages are trying to answer the same thing
This happens a lot on websites that have grown without a clear structure.
The homepage talks about a service.
There's also a page for that service.
Then a blog post goes up with almost the same intent.
And maybe there's a local page as well.
That doesn't mean two URLs can't both appear for the same query.
The problem is when several pages keep swapping places for the same intent and even you couldn't say which one should be the main one.
In Search Console you can filter by a query and see which URLs are getting impressions.
If you see that pattern, decide which page should answer that search and use the others to support it and link to it.
More pages don't always mean more chances to rank.
4. If all of that checks out, compare the answers
By now, Google knows your page, has indexed it and roughly understands what it's about.
This is where it gets harder.
Search the way your customer would and look at what's ahead of you.
Not to copy it.
To understand what it does better.
Maybe those pages explain:
- guide prices;
- how the service works;
- the differences between options;
- real examples;
- common questions;
- the area they cover;
- what happens after you get in touch.
Or maybe they just explain the service much better than you do.
It may also be that your domain is new and you're up against businesses that have spent years building up links, mentions, brand searches and content.
Changing a title tag won't fix that.
When Sánchez Ruiz Abogados launched their new website, there was no organic history behind it either. The approach was to give each practice area its own clear page and build content around specific problems. Visibility came from building that structure over time, not from switching on an "SEO" setting.
What if the problem is Google Maps?
For a local business, there's another possibility.
You're checking where your website appears in the regular results, but many of your customers are making their choice from the map.
That's where Google Business Profile comes in.
The website and the profile support each other, but they aren't the same thing.
You can have a well-built website and a profile that's practically abandoned.
Or a strong profile and a website that doesn't explain any service properly.
If your business depends on local searches, it's worth looking at both together. We go into it in local SEO by service and location.
If you only do one thing, do this
Open Search Console.
Pick a page that matters to you.
And answer these four questions:
- Is it indexed?
- Which searches does it appear for?
- Is it the right page for those searches?
- Does it answer them better or worse than what's showing above it?
That alone will tell you far more than searching for your business ten times on your own phone.
If you still can't tell what's going wrong after that, that's exactly what we look at in a Website Audit.
And if the site is technically fine but needs a structure built around how people search, you can see how we approach Web + SEO.
If your website is already live and what it needs is ongoing work on its rankings, that's what we do with SEO in Girona.
We write about decisions that come up in real projects: how to structure a website, how to capture demand and when technology can simplify a business.