Wix SEO Not Working? 8 Fixes, in the Right Order

If your Wix SEO is not working, Wix itself is rarely the cause. The usual cause is a setting that hides your site from Google, or pages that are too thin to rank. Start by finding out which of those two problems you have. The check takes about two minutes. Then work through the fixes below, in order.

Most guides give you a long list of checks in no particular order. This one is a decision path. First you find out which problem you have. Then you do only the fixes that apply to it. If your site gets no traffic at all, also read our general guide, why isn't my site ranking? Five checks, in the right order.

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Step 1: Is your Wix site not indexed, or just not ranking?

These are two different problems, and each one has its own fixes. Mix them up and you can lose a weekend.

Not indexed means Google has not stored your page. It can't show it to anyone, for any search.
Indexed but not ranking means Google has your page but shows other pages above it. You might be on page 5, where nobody looks.

The quick test: open Google and type site:yourdomain.com (use your real address, without "https" or "www"). Then look at the results.

What you see	What it means	Go to
No results at all	Google has not indexed your site	Fixes 1 to 5
Your homepage, but some pages are missing	Part of the site is blocked or too thin	Fixes 3 to 6
All your pages show up, but you can't find yourself for your service	Indexed, not ranking	Fixes 6 to 8
Results under a `wixsite.com` address, not your domain	Your domain is not connected the way you think	The free plan section below

Google says the site: search does not always show every page it has indexed (Google Search Central). Use it as a quick sorting test. Search Console, in fix 5, gives you the exact answer.

Why is my Wix site not showing up on Google? Fixes 1 to 5

If site: found nothing, or pages are missing, go through these in order. Each fix comes from the Wix Help Center page on sites missing from search results, unless we say otherwise.

Fix 1: Publish the site and remove any password

Wix says search engines can't index pages that are password protected, or pages only your site's members can see. This catches owners who built the site in the editor and never pressed Publish. It also catches owners who added a password "while we finish it" and forgot to take it off.

Check it: open your site in a private browser window, logged out of Wix. If you see a password box, a login screen or nothing at all, Google sees the same thing.

Fix 2: Turn on the site-wide indexing switch

Wix has one switch that decides whether search engines can index your whole site. Go to SEO & GEO > Tools and settings > SEO Settings, and make sure Let search engines index your site is on.

This switch comes first for a reason. eSEOspace, a third-party source, says Wix has three levels of indexing settings: the whole site, each type of page, and each single page. The site-wide one overrides the other two (eSEOspace). If it is off, nothing below it matters.

Fix 3: Check the page-type and single-page switches

Once the site switch is on, check the two lower levels.

Page types. Blog posts, product pages and other dynamic pages can each have their own indexing setting. If your blog is missing from Google but your homepage isn't, look here first.
Single pages. Open Pages & Menu, click the More Actions icon next to a missing page, go to SEO Basics, and check that the page can be indexed.

Owners often hide these pages by mistake: a "Services" page copied from a hidden template, a landing page built for an ad, or a page duplicated from one that was set to stay out of search.

Fix 4: Clean up redirects and canonical tags

Two advanced settings can quietly stop indexing.

Redirects. A 301 redirect is a permanent "this page has moved" signal. A badly set one sends Google away from the page you want indexed. Go to SEO & GEO > Tools and settings > URL Redirect Manager and delete any redirect that sends a live page somewhere it shouldn't go.
Canonical tag. This tag tells Google which address is the "main" version of a page. If someone changed it, Google may index a different address, or none. On the page, go to Pages & Menu > More Actions > SEO Basics > Advanced SEO > Additional Tags. Next to the canonical tag, open More Actions and choose Reset to Default.

Redirects often get messy after a redesign or a domain change. If you recently moved to Wix from another platform, check this first.

Fix 5: Connect Google Search Console and submit your sitemap

Google Search Console is Google's free tool. It shows which of your pages Google has indexed, and why it skipped the others. Wix can connect it for you through the SEO Setup Checklist. Wix says this needs a Premium plan and a connected domain (Wix Help Center).

Once connected:

Wix submits your sitemap to Google (the list of all your pages). If it didn't, open Sitemaps in Search Console and submit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
Paste the address of a missing page into the URL Inspection bar at the top of Search Console. It shows Google's indexed version of that page and tests whether it can be indexed (Google's URL Inspection tool help).
If the page is not indexed and you have fixed the cause, click Request indexing. Google says a request does not guarantee the page will appear.

What Search Console is telling you, in plain English

The Pages report in Search Console lists why some pages are not indexed. Here are the statuses Wix owners ask about most, with what Google says they mean (Google's Page indexing report help).

Status	Plain-English meaning	What to do
Crawled, currently not indexed	Google visited the page and did not store it. Google says it doesn't index every page, so this is common and not always a problem.	If it's an important page, make it more useful (fix 6), then inspect it and request indexing.
Discovered, currently not indexed	Google found the page but hasn't visited it yet. Google says it usually put the visit off so it wouldn't overload your site.	Link to the page from your menu or homepage, then give it time.
Excluded by "noindex" tag	The page tells Google not to index it.	One of the switches in fixes 2 and 3 is off.
Submitted URL marked noindex	You asked Google to index a page that also says "don't index me."	Same as above. The sitemap and the page disagree.
Page with redirect	The address forwards somewhere else.	Normal for old addresses. A problem only if it's a page you want on Google (fix 4).
Alternate page with proper canonical tag	Google indexed another version of this page instead.	Usually normal. Check fix 4 if it's your main page.

"Crawled, currently not indexed" worries owners the most. It is not a penalty. On a small business page, it often means there wasn't enough on the page to make it worth storing.

If you've done all five fixes and Google still won't index your pages, the problem is usually no longer a setting. It's what's on the page. That takes a few evenings, not one click. Subscribe to The SEO Brief for free to get one guide, the day it comes out, on fixing exactly that in the right order.

Indexed but stuck on page 5: fixes 6 to 8

If site: shows all your pages but nobody finds you for "plumber in Leeds" or "family dentist Austin," the switches are fine. Google has your site. It just thinks other pages answer the search better. These are the usual reasons on small business Wix sites.

Fix 6: Give each page enough real content

Wix warns that pages with no content at all may be removed from Google's index, and recommends at least 250 to 400 words on a page (Wix Help Center). That is Wix's own guideline to avoid being dropped. It is not a Google rule, and it is not a word count that makes you rank. Many Wix templates look great with three lines of text per page. That gives Google very little to work with.

For each main page, answer what a customer wants to know:

What exactly you do, in the words customers use ("boiler repair," not "heating solutions")
Where you work, by town or area
What it costs or how pricing works, if you can say
How the job goes, from first call to finished
Real photos of your work, with a short description

Text inside images is a weak spot. If your services are written on a banner image, Google may not read them the way a customer does. Put them in normal text as well.

Fix 7: One page per service, and per area you really serve

This is a common gap on small business sites. One "Services" page that lists eight services gives Google one weak page trying to rank for eight searches. Eight pages, one per service, each give Google a clear answer to one search.

Do the same with towns, carefully. A page for a town you really serve, with jobs you've done there and details that apply to that town, can help. Ten copies of the same page with only the town name changed is the kind of content Google's spam policies warn against (Google Search Central spam policies).

Then link these pages together. Add them to your menu, and link from your homepage to your main services. Our internal linking guide shows how. To choose the search each page should target before you write it, see how to write a blog post that actually ranks.

Fix 8: If you serve local customers, fix your Google Business Profile

For searches like "electrician near me," Google often shows a map with a few businesses above the normal results. Your Wix site doesn't decide who appears there. Your Google Business Profile does. A strong Wix site with a weak or unverified profile can still miss local searches.

Check that your profile is verified, uses the right main category, shows the same name, address and phone number as your site, and links to your Wix site. Our Local SEO guides walk through each setting.

Is Wix bad for SEO? Free plan, custom domain and Premium

Wix is not a blocker in itself. Ahrefs writes that Wix's bad SEO reputation is out of date (Ahrefs). Much of the "Wix is bad for SEO" talk you find online rests on that old reputation.

What changes from one plan to another:

Free plan. Your site lives at a wixsite.com address. Wix's help page on missing sites does not list a custom domain as a requirement for being indexed. But you can't use Wix's built-in Search Console connection, because it needs Premium and a connected domain (see fix 5). You end up working blind.
Custom domain. Whether a custom domain helps you rank directly is a theory, not something Google documents. What is certain: customers recognise yourbusiness.com, your profile and your site match, and you keep the address if you ever leave Wix.
Premium plan. For SEO, it matters mainly because it unlocks the custom domain and the Search Console connection. It does not boost rankings on its own.

If you run a real business on the free plan, the main reason to upgrade is to see what Google sees.

How long it takes, and when to get help

Wix only says "it can take some time for your page to appear," even after you finish the SEO Setup Checklist (Wix Help Center). eSEOspace says Google can take a few weeks to find a brand new site (eSEOspace). Ranking for competitive searches takes longer than being indexed. Our guide on how to get your website on Google explains the indexing steps and what to expect.

Signs you're moving in the right direction, even before you rank:

The number of indexed pages in Search Console goes up
Search Console shows impressions (times you appeared in results), even if clicks are still low
Your site shows up when you search your exact business name

When to get a pro instead of doing it yourself:

You moved domains or platforms, and traffic dropped sharply afterwards. Redirects at scale are easy to get wrong.
Search Console shows a message under Security & Manual Actions. Google says it issues a manual action when a human reviewer at Google has found that pages on your site break its spam policies (Google's Manual actions report help). That needs a careful fix.
Your pages are indexed and well written, you've done fixes 6 to 8, and Search Console shows no change after several months.

Before you pay anyone, you can get a free page audit through our Claude connector. It tells you what to fix first.

FAQ

Do I need a custom domain for my Wix site to show up on Google?

Wix's help page on missing sites does not list a custom domain as a requirement for being indexed. But Wix's own Search Console connection needs a Premium plan and a connected domain. On the free plan, you can't easily see what Google sees.

How long does it take Google to index a Wix site?

Wix doesn't give a number, only that it "can take some time." A third-party source, eSEOspace, says a new site can take a few weeks. You can request indexing for a specific page in Search Console's URL Inspection tool, but Google says that doesn't guarantee it will appear.

Why did my Wix site disappear from Google?

Check recent changes first: an indexing switch turned off, a new redirect, a password added, or a domain change. Then check Security & Manual Actions in Search Console. If none of those apply, work through our five ranking checks, in the right order.

I completed the Wix SEO Setup Checklist. Why is my site still not on Google?

The checklist covers the basics and submits your sitemap. It can't make the decision for Google. Run the site: test. If nothing shows, recheck fixes 1 to 4 and give it time. If your pages show but don't rank, the fix is content and local signals (fixes 6 to 8).

What to do today

Search site:yourdomain.com on Google and note which row of the table in step 1 you're in.
Open SEO & GEO > Tools and settings > SEO Settings and confirm the site-wide indexing switch is on.
If you're on Premium with a domain, connect Search Console through the SEO Setup Checklist and inspect your homepage and your main service page.
Pick your weakest service page and rewrite it in normal text, not images, to at least Wix's recommended 250 to 400 words of real, useful content.
Subscribe to The SEO Brief for free to get the next guide the day it comes out on what to fix after that.