Why your WordPress site is not showing up on Google
A WordPress site that is missing from Google has usually been told to stay out. WordPress has a setting that asks search engines not to index the site, it is often switched on while a site is being built, and it is easily forgotten at launch. Three other causes are nearly as common, and all four take minutes to check.
Each sounding opens its section
- 01 Check whether Google has the site at all 42 words
- 02 1. The search engine visibility setting 50 words
- 03 2. The SEO plugin 52 words
- 04 3. A maintenance or coming-soon page 50 words
- 05 4. The robots.txt file 33 words
- 06 Submit the site 48 words
- 07 If the site is indexed and still not found 48 words
- 08 Questions people ask 110 words
- 09 Free competitor gap report 102 words
- 10 More in this series 243 words
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- Site 366–1,117 · median 749.5
- Sections (H2)
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- Site 3–14 · median 9
- Internal links
- 28
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- File
- 73.1 kB
- HTML, uncompressed · of 83.6 kB budget · 0 scripts
Check whether Google has the site at all
Type site: and your domain into Google. No results means the site is not indexed, and the four checks below apply. If pages do appear, the problem is position, which the last section covers.
1. The search engine visibility setting
Open Settings, then Reading, in the WordPress dashboard. If “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is ticked, WordPress adds an instruction to every page asking search engines to ignore the site. WordPress’s own documentation describes exactly that effect. Untick the box and save.
2. The SEO plugin
SEO plugins have their own indexing switches, for the whole site and for each type of page. A plugin set to keep posts, pages or the whole site out of search does so whatever the WordPress setting says. Open the plugin’s settings and look for anything marked noindex.
3. A maintenance or coming-soon page
A plugin that shows visitors a holding page shows the same page to Google. If the site sat behind one during building, check that it has been switched off, by opening the site in a private browser window where you are not logged in.
4. The robots.txt file
Open your domain followed by /robots.txt. A line reading Disallow: / beneath User-agent: * blocks the whole site. It is sometimes left by a developer or a security plugin.
Submit the site
Once nothing is blocking it, tell Google the site exists. Add it to Google Search Console, submit the sitemap, and request indexing for the home page. WordPress serves a sitemap of its own at /wp-sitemap.xml, and an SEO plugin may serve a different one.
If the site is indexed and still not found
An indexed site that nobody finds has a ranking problem, and WordPress settings will not solve it. Our guides to why a website is not ranking and why a website is not showing up on Google cover the causes.
Questions people ask
Where is the search engine visibility setting in WordPress?
In the dashboard under Settings, then Reading. The box is labelled "Discourage search engines from indexing this site". It should be unticked on a live site.
Does WordPress have a sitemap?
Yes. WordPress produces one itself at /wp-sitemap.xml, and SEO plugins usually replace it with their own. Submit whichever the site serves to Google Search Console.
How long does a WordPress site take to appear on Google?
Days to a few weeks after the block is removed and the sitemap is submitted. Requesting indexing for the home page in Search Console can bring the first visit forward.
Free competitor gap report
A WordPress site that is indexed and still not found is being outranked. Name up to three competitors that appear where you want to be and we measure your site against theirs, then send you where the gap is.
- Speed and technical health, side by side
- On-page SEO and site structure
- The content they are found for and you are not
- Who holds the searches that matter in your market
- A prioritised list of what to fix first
Request your free report by email
- Address
- contact@hadalmedusa.com
- Include
- your site; up to three competitors; where you compete
More in this series
- Why your website is not showing up on Google
- Why your Wix site is not showing up on Google
- Crawled, currently not indexed: what it means and how to fix it
- Discovered, currently not indexed: what it means and how to fix it
- Page with redirect: what it means in Search Console
- Why your Squarespace site is not showing up on Google
- Why your Shopify store is not showing up on Google
- Why your Google Business Profile is not showing up
- Why your Shopify store is not getting traffic or sales
- Alternate page with proper canonical tag: what it means
- Duplicate without user-selected canonical: what it means and how to fix it
- Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user: what to do
- Excluded by noindex tag: what it means and how to fix it
- Blocked by robots.txt: what it means and how to fix it
- Soft 404 and Not found (404): what they mean and how to fix them
- Server error (5xx): what it means and how to fix it
- Redirect error in Search Console: what it means and how to fix it
- Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt: what it means and what to do
- Blocked due to access forbidden (403): what it means and how to fix it
- How to make your website show up on Google
- When a site is not showing on Google: the whole topic
- All guides
- On-site SEO: what the service includes