Why Isn't My Website on Google Search Anymore? 6 Checks

Why isn't my website on Google search anymore? Either Google removed your pages from its index, or they are still indexed but rank too low to be found. Most of the time the cause is a recent change on your own site: a redesign, a plugin, a new host, or a domain renewal that slipped. Google penalties and hacks happen, but less often. The six checks below take about 10 minutes. They tell you which case you're in, so you fix the right thing.

If you'd rather not do the checks by hand, you can run a free page audit with The SEO Brief connector for Claude. It checks indexing, robots.txt, your sitemap and your titles, and tells you what to fix first. No account needed.

This guide is for a site that used to show up and then stopped. If you've never been able to find your site on Google, start with why can't I find my website on Google. If the site is brand new, follow how can I get my website on Google instead.

Why is my website not showing up on Google anymore? Gone or just lower?

Before you change anything, find out which problem you have. The fixes are very different.

Search your exact business name. If your site shows up, Google still knows it. You probably have a ranking drop, not a removal.
Search site:yourdomain.com (use your real domain, with no space after the colon). This lists pages Google has in its index for your domain. It's a rough sample, not a full count, but it answers the main question.

Here's how to read the results:

What you see	What it usually means	Go to
`site:` shows your pages and your name search finds you	Still indexed, ranking lower	Check 6
`site:` shows pages, but old addresses or an old design	Google is still showing your previous site	Check 4
`site:` shows pages with strange titles (pills, casinos, foreign text)	Likely hacked	Check 5
`site:` shows nothing at all	Removed from the index	Checks 1, 2 and 3, in order
Your site doesn't load in your own browser	Domain or hosting problem	Fix this first, before anything else

That last row matters more than people expect. If your domain registration lapsed or your hosting bill bounced, Google can't reach the site, and pages drop out over time. Load your homepage on your phone using mobile data, not your office Wi-Fi. If it doesn't open, call your domain registrar or host before you do anything else.

Check 1: Did someone switch on "noindex"?

This is the most common cause after a redesign. Developers often build the new site with a "don't show in search" setting so the unfinished version stays hidden. If nobody switches it off at launch, the live site carries the same instruction.

Google is clear about what happens: when its crawler reads a noindex rule, it drops the page from search results entirely, even if other websites link to it. The rule can sit in two places:

a tag in the page code: <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
a server header: X-Robots-Tag: noindex

Where to look:

WordPress: Settings, then Reading. The box "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" must be unticked. Also check the SEO plugin (Yoast, Rank Math and similar), which can set noindex on single pages or whole sections.
Wix, Squarespace, Shopify: each has a page-level "hide from search engines" setting. A theme change or a password-protected launch can leave it on. We cover the platform cases in Wix SEO not working and Squarespace not showing up on Google.
Anything else: open your homepage, right-click, choose "View page source", and search the code for noindex.

Check 2: Is robots.txt blocking Google?

Robots.txt is a small text file at yourdomain.com/robots.txt that tells crawlers which parts of the site to skip. Open it in your browser. If you see this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

then your whole site is blocked. That line is common on staging sites and gets copied to the live site by mistake.

One detail most guides miss: Google says that for noindex to work, the page must not be blocked by robots.txt, because the crawler never reads a rule on a page it isn't allowed to open. So if you have both problems, fix robots.txt and noindex together. Fixing only one leaves you stuck.

Check 3: Open three screens in Search Console

Google Search Console is Google's free dashboard for site owners. If you never set it up, do it now. The launch plan walks through the steps. Then look at these three screens, in this order.

1. Manual actions. Go to search.google.com/search-console/manual-actions. A manual action means a Google reviewer found something against its spam policies. Google's Manual actions help page says that when a site has one, "some or all of that site will not be shown in Google search results." If the report says "No issues detected", cross penalties off your list.

2. Security issues. Same menu, one line down. This is where Google flags hacked content or malware. If something is listed, go to Check 5.

3. URL Inspection. Paste your homepage address into the search bar at the top. The URL Inspection tool tells you whether the page is in Google's index, when Google last crawled it, and which address Google picked as the main version (the "canonical"). If it says the page is excluded by noindex or blocked by robots.txt, you've found your cause. Our guide to checking if a page is indexed explains each status in plain English.

Also open the Removals report. An owner of your Search Console property can hide pages from Google with it, and a past developer or agency may have done that. Google's Removals help page says a successful temporary removal "lasts only about six months." Cancel any request you don't recognise.

This is the point where most owners get stuck. If the three screens confuse you, ask Claude to do it with The SEO Brief's free audit connector: "Audit mydomain.com and tell me why it's not on Google anymore." It reads your robots.txt, noindex tags and sitemap and gives you the fixes in order.

Check 4: Did you move or rebuild the site without redirects?

If you changed domain, switched platform (say, from Wix to WordPress) or renamed your pages, the old addresses Google knew may now show an error page. Google ranked those old addresses. Unless each one points to its new version with a permanent redirect (a "301"), Google treats the new pages as new and the old ones as gone.

Google's own guide to moving a site with URL changes recommends permanent redirects from each old address to its matching new one.

Quick test: search site:yourdomain.com, click a few old results, and see where you land. A "page not found" means missing redirects. Your old developer or your new platform can add them. Most site builders have a redirects setting.

Check 5: Was your site hacked?

Signs of a hack you can spot yourself:

site: results with titles or text you never wrote
Google showing "This site may be hacked" under your result
a warning in the Security issues report
visitors (but not you) being sent to other websites

Google's help for hacked sites explains how to confirm a hack and how recovery works. Be honest with yourself here: cleaning a hacked site properly means finding how the attacker got in, not just deleting the strange pages. This is a job for your host's support team or a developer. Once the whole site is clean, request a review from the Security issues report.

Check 6: Still indexed, just lower in the results

If checks 1 to 5 came back clean and site: shows your pages, Google didn't remove you. You're ranking lower. Common reasons: a Google update, a competitor publishing better pages, content you deleted during a redesign, or seasonal demand.

That's a different diagnosis, and we wrote a full guide for it: why did my Google ranking drop. For the basics of why any page ranks or doesn't, start with why isn't my site ranking.

Local businesses, one extra point: your website and your Google Business Profile (the map listing) are separate. If you've disappeared from Google Maps but your website still shows up, the problem is the profile, not the site. See business name not showing on Google Maps.

How to get your site back on Google, and how to check the fix worked

Fix the causes in this order. Each step is useless if the one before it is still broken.

Site loads (domain and hosting paid and working)
Robots.txt no longer blocks the site
Noindex removed from every page that should rank
Hack cleaned, then a review requested
Redirects from old addresses to new ones
Manual action fixed on every affected page, then a review requested

Verify each fix. In URL Inspection, click "Test live URL". Google's URL Inspection help page presents the live test as a way to check the current version of a page for indexing problems, so you can see whether your fix worked before Google crawls the page again. The same help page notes: "There is a per-property daily limit of live inspections." When the live test is clean, click "Request indexing" for your homepage and your main service pages.

Then resubmit your sitemap in the Sitemaps report. The same help page says "There is a daily limit to how many index requests you can submit", and recommends submitting a sitemap instead when you want many pages indexed.

How long until you're back?

Google doesn't promise a date. Its page on asking Google to recrawl says crawling "can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks", and its URL Inspection help says "Indexing can take up to a week or two." For a manual action, Google's Manual actions help page says most reconsideration reviews "can take several days or weeks", and link-related requests can take longer.

One more honest point: "URL is on Google" in the inspection tool means the page can appear, not that it will rank where it used to.

What not to do while you wait

Don't request indexing ten times a day. Google's recrawl page says requesting a recrawl several times for the same address won't get it crawled any faster, and you'll hit the daily limit.
Don't rebuild the site from scratch before you know the cause. You may recreate the same setting.
Don't buy links or "rapid indexing" services. Paid links break Google's spam policies and can get you a manual action.
Don't change everything at once. Fix one cause, test it live, then move on. Otherwise you won't know what worked.

When to call a pro

You can handle noindex, robots.txt and a lapsed domain yourself in an evening. Call a developer when the site is hacked, when you moved hundreds of pages without redirects, or when you have a manual action for links. If you already pay an SEO company and nobody noticed your site vanished, read how to check if your SEO company is doing anything.

FAQ

Why is my website not showing up on Google anymore when it used to? Usually because of a recent change: a redesign that left noindex on, a robots.txt file that blocks crawlers, a domain or hosting lapse, or a move without redirects. Search site:yourdomain.com to see if Google removed the pages or only ranks them lower.

Did Google penalize my website? Only Search Console can tell you. Open the Manual actions report. If it says no issues detected, you have no manual penalty, and the cause is technical or a ranking drop.

Did a Google update remove my site? Algorithm updates change rankings. They don't usually take a whole site out of the index. If site: returns nothing, look for a technical cause or a manual action first.

How can I check if my site is still on Google? Search site:yourdomain.com, then paste your homepage into Search Console's URL Inspection tool. It tells you if the page is indexed and when Google last crawled it.

What to do today

Load your homepage on mobile data and search site:yourdomain.com. Write down which row of the table matches you.
Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and check your platform's "hide from search engines" setting.
In Search Console, open Manual actions, Security issues and Removals, then inspect your homepage.
Fix the first broken item, run "Test live URL", then request indexing and resubmit your sitemap.
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