How to get your website on Google – a beginner’s guide

Building a website is one thing. Getting Google to find it, index it, and show it to people searching for what you write about is another.

The good news is that Google will eventually find most websites on its own. The less good news is that “eventually” can mean weeks or months if you don’t take a few simple steps to speed up the process.

This guide covers exactly how to get your website on Google – from the moment your site goes live to the point where your pages start appearing in search results.

How Google finds and indexes websites

Before the practical steps, a quick explanation of how Google actually works – because understanding the process makes the actions you need to take much clearer.

Crawling: Google uses automated programs called crawlers (also called spiders or bots) that follow links from page to page across the web, discovering new content. When a crawler finds a page it hasn’t seen before, it reads the content and follows any links on the page to discover more pages.

Indexing: After crawling a page, Google decides whether to add it to its index – the enormous database of web pages it uses to generate search results. Not every page that gets crawled gets indexed. Pages with thin content, technical errors, or signals that they shouldn’t be indexed (like a noindex tag) may be crawled but not added to the index.

Ranking: Once a page is indexed, Google determines where it appears in search results for relevant queries. Ranking is based on hundreds of factors including content quality, relevance to the search, site authority, page speed, and many others.

The steps in this guide primarily address crawling and indexing. Ranking is a longer-term process that depends on the quality and depth of your content, your site’s authority, and ongoing SEO work.

Step 1 – Set up Google Search Console

Google Search Console is Google’s free tool for website owners. It shows you how Google sees your site, which of your pages are indexed, what queries your pages appear for, and any technical issues Google has identified.

Setting it up is the single most important step for getting your website on Google.

How to set up Google Search Console:

Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with a Google account.

Click “Add property” and enter your website’s URL. Choose the “URL prefix” option and enter your full domain including https://.

Google will ask you to verify that you own the website. The simplest method for WordPress sites is to install the Google Site Kit plugin, which handles verification automatically. Alternatively, you can add a meta tag to your site’s header, upload an HTML file, or verify through your domain registrar.

Once verified, Search Console begins collecting data about your site. It takes a few days for the first data to appear.

What Search Console tells you:

Once set up, Search Console shows you which pages are indexed, which queries your pages appear for in Google search, how many clicks and impressions your pages receive, and any crawling or indexing errors. It’s the most direct window into how Google sees your site and it costs nothing.

If you only do one thing on this list, make it setting up Search Console.

Step 2 – Submit your sitemap

A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website – it gives Google a complete map of your content so it doesn’t have to rely entirely on following links to discover everything.

If you’re on WordPress with Rank Math or Yoast installed, your sitemap is automatically generated and available at yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml (Rank Math) or yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml (Yoast). The exact URL varies slightly by plugin but both work similarly.

How to submit your sitemap to Google:

In Google Search Console, click on “Sitemaps” in the left menu. Enter your sitemap URL in the field provided and click “Submit.”

Google will crawl your sitemap and use it to discover and prioritise your pages for indexing. You only need to submit it once – Google will automatically re-crawl your sitemap as you add new content.

If you’re not on WordPress:

Most website platforms including Squarespace and Wix automatically generate sitemaps. Check your platform’s documentation for the sitemap URL – it’s usually yoursite.com/sitemap.xml.

Step 3 – Request indexing for important pages

Submitting a sitemap tells Google what pages exist. Requesting indexing directly tells Google to prioritise crawling a specific page right now.

How to request indexing:

In Google Search Console, paste the URL of any page you want indexed into the search bar at the top (the URL inspection tool). Click “Request Indexing” when the results appear.

Google doesn’t guarantee how quickly it will index the page, but this typically speeds up the process significantly – often from weeks to days.

Do this for your most important pages when your site first launches: your homepage, your main category pages, and your first few posts. As your site grows and Google crawls it regularly, new pages tend to get indexed faster without needing manual requests.

Step 4 – Make sure your site isn’t blocking Google

This sounds obvious, but it’s one of the most common reasons new sites don’t appear in Google search – the site is inadvertently telling Google not to index it.

Check your WordPress reading settings:

In WordPress, go to Settings, then Reading. Make sure the option “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is not checked. This setting exists to keep a site private while it’s being built, but it’s sometimes left on accidentally when a site goes live.

Check your robots.txt file:

Every website has a robots.txt file at yoursite.com/robots.txt that tells search engines which pages they can and can’t crawl. Check that it doesn’t contain a “Disallow: /” line, which would block all search engine crawlers from your entire site.

A basic WordPress robots.txt should look like:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml

Check individual pages aren’t set to noindex:

If you’re using Rank Math or Yoast, check that individual posts and pages aren’t set to “noindex” unless you specifically want them excluded from Google’s index. This is easy to accidentally set on posts you’re testing before they’re ready to publish.

Step 5 – Make sure your site loads correctly

Google won’t index pages it can’t access or read properly. A few basic technical checks are worth doing when your site first launches.

Your site should be on HTTPS. The padlock icon in the browser bar indicates your site has SSL and is using HTTPS. Most quality hosting providers now include free SSL certificates. If your site is still on HTTP, contact your hosting provider – this is both a security issue and an SEO factor.

Your site should load reasonably quickly. You don’t need to be obsessively fast, but a site that takes more than 5 to 6 seconds to load on mobile will be penalised in Google’s rankings. Check your site speed with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool at pagespeed.web.dev.

Your site should work on mobile. Google primarily uses mobile versions of pages for indexing (this is called mobile-first indexing). Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check how your site appears on mobile devices.

Step 6 – Get your first links

Google discovers new pages primarily by following links from pages it already knows about. A new site with no links pointing to it from anywhere on the web is slower to get crawled and indexed than a site with at least a few incoming links.

You don’t need a link building campaign at this stage. A few simple things help:

Share your site and its posts on social media. Even though social media links are typically nofollow (they don’t pass SEO authority), they help Google discover your pages faster.

List your site in relevant directories. Depending on your niche, there are free directories and resource pages that accept new submissions. A few legitimate directory listings help Google discover your site.

Link internally between your own pages. When you publish a new post, link to it from one or two existing posts where it’s relevant. This helps Google discover new content by following links within your own site.

Tell your network. Share your site with people who might link to it naturally – other bloggers, community members, or anyone who might find your content useful enough to reference. One or two genuine external links from relevant sites significantly helps Google discover and trust your site.

Step 7 – Publish consistently

Google crawls established sites more frequently than new sites. The more consistently you publish new content, the more often Google’s crawlers visit your site, and the faster new pages get indexed.

This doesn’t mean publishing daily. Consistent is more important than frequent. A site that publishes one well-researched post per week will be crawled more regularly after a few months than a site that published ten posts in week one and nothing since.

As your site grows and Google learns to trust it, new posts will typically be indexed within hours or days of publication rather than weeks.

How long does it take to appear on Google?

This is the most common question, and the honest answer is that it varies.

A brand new site with no links and no Search Console setup can take several weeks to be discovered and indexed for the first time.

A new site with Search Console set up, a sitemap submitted, and a few incoming links can typically be indexed within a few days to a couple of weeks.

Individual pages on an established site (one that Google already crawls regularly) are often indexed within 24 to 48 hours of publication.

What to do while you wait:

Keep publishing. Keep promoting your content on social media. Keep building internal links between your posts. Each action helps Google discover and trust your site faster.

Search Console’s Coverage report tells you which pages are indexed and which aren’t, along with any reasons pages have been excluded. Check it weekly in your first few months to catch any indexing issues early.

Why isn’t my website showing up on Google?

If your site has been live for more than a few weeks and isn’t appearing in Google, here are the most common reasons.

Search Console isn’t set up. Without Search Console, you have no visibility into indexing status. Set it up and check the Coverage report.

Your sitemap hasn’t been submitted. Submit it via Search Console as described above.

The “discourage search engines” setting is on. Check WordPress Settings, Reading.

Individual pages are set to noindex. Check your SEO plugin settings on each page.

Your site is too new and Google hasn’t discovered it yet. Wait a few more days and request indexing for your key pages via Search Console.

Your content is too thin for Google to index. Pages with very little content (under 300 words) or content that closely duplicates other pages on your site may be indexed less quickly or not at all. Ensure each page has substantive, original content.

Your site has technical errors. Check the Coverage and Experience reports in Search Console for any specific errors affecting your pages.

Getting your site to rank – what comes after indexing

Getting indexed means Google knows your site exists. Getting ranked means Google shows your site to people searching for relevant topics.

Indexing happens relatively quickly with the steps above. Ranking takes longer and depends on:

Content quality and depth. Does your post comprehensively address what someone searching your target keyword actually needs? Does it go into more useful detail than what’s currently ranking?

Keyword targeting. Are you writing about topics people actually search for, using the language they use to search? This is where keyword research becomes essential.

Site authority. How many other quality websites link to your site? Authority builds over time as you publish useful content that others naturally reference.

Technical SEO. Is your site fast, mobile-friendly, and free of technical errors that might prevent Google from crawling and indexing pages properly?

These factors determine not just whether you rank, but where. Getting on Google’s index is the starting point. Everything that comes after determines whether your site appears on page one or page ten.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get my website on Google?
Set up Google Search Console and verify your site, submit your sitemap, request indexing for your key pages, and check nothing on your site is accidentally blocking search engines. Then keep your site fast, mobile-friendly, and publishing consistently so Google keeps crawling it. See the full step-by-step process above for each part of this.

How do I check if my site is on Google?
Search for site:yourwebsite.com in Google. This shows all the pages from your domain that are in Google’s index. If nothing appears, your site isn’t indexed yet.

Can I pay Google to rank higher?
Organic search rankings (the non-ad results) can’t be paid for directly. You can run Google Ads to appear at the top of results for specific keywords, but those are clearly labelled as ads and are separate from organic rankings. SEO is about earning organic rankings through content quality and site authority.

Does my site need to be submitted to Google?
You don’t have to — Google will eventually find your site on its own. But submitting via Search Console speeds up the process significantly and gives you visibility into indexing status, which is why it’s strongly recommended.

Will social media help my Google rankings?
Social media links don’t directly improve rankings (most are nofollow). But social sharing helps Google discover new content faster, can drive direct traffic, and popular content that spreads on social often earns natural links from other sites – which do improve rankings.

How many pages need to be indexed for my site to rank?
Even a single well-written, properly optimised page can rank. The number of indexed pages matters less than the quality and relevance of those pages. Focus on publishing substantive, keyword-targeted content rather than trying to maximise your indexed page count.

Why does my site rank for some things but not others?
Google ranks individual pages, not websites as a whole. Each post or page needs to be well-optimised for its specific topic to rank for related searches. A post ranking well for “email marketing for beginners” doesn’t automatically help another post rank for “WordPress hosting” – each piece of content earns its own ranking independently.