why is my website not showing on Google?
A website can work perfectly in your browser and still be absent from search results. The first step is to work out whether Google cannot find it, cannot index it, or simply is not ranking it yet.
Start with the right question
A website that is live is not automatically a website that Google has indexed. Hosting makes a page available. Search engines still need to discover it, crawl it, decide whether to index it, and work out which searches it deserves to appear for. Those are different jobs, and they have different fixes.
Before touching the code, search for an exact page address or use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. A site:yourdomain.co.za search can be a useful rough check, but it is not a complete count of indexed pages. Search Console is where to look for the actual status Google reports for a particular URL.
Step one: is Google allowed to access the page?
A homepage may load for you while a crawler receives a blocked response. Check whether the page returns 200 OK and whether it is blocked by a noindex instruction, authentication, a firewall or an overly restrictive rule. A robots.txt file is not a switch that forces indexing; it mainly tells compliant crawlers which paths may be fetched.
If the page was built in a private staging environment, make sure development-only blocks were removed before launch. Test the exact address you want indexed, including https, www and trailing slashes. Do not assume those versions behave the same way.
Step two: check the preferred address
Many websites respond under several addresses: /services, /services/, /services.html and /services/index.html. If they all show the same content, Google must choose a preferred version. Your canonical tag should name the URL you want search results to use. Internal links and your sitemap should point to that same address.
A Search Console message saying alternate page with proper canonical tag may be entirely normal. Likewise, a page with redirect should not be indexed as a separate page if it correctly sends visitors to the preferred version. The problem is not seeing those messages; the problem is when the chosen destination is wrong, broken or irrelevant.
Step three: deal with real errors, not every exclusion
A 404 Not Found means the requested URL is absent. That is correct for a page that never existed or was deliberately removed with no useful replacement. But if an old service or article page moved, it deserves a direct permanent redirect to the closest relevant new page.
Never redirect every missing URL to the homepage just to make a report look cleaner. That can confuse visitors and create soft-404 issues. Keep a simple list of historical URLs, map moved content accurately and let genuinely missing pages return a genuine 404.
Step four: give the page a reason to rank
Indexing and ranking are not the same thing. A page can be indexed and still appear far down the results. Ask whether the page answers a specific customer question, uses language a customer would actually search for and shows credible evidence of the business behind it.
A vague homepage that only says you are "passionate about innovation" offers Google and customers little to work with. A clear services page that explains who it helps, where it operates, what happens next and how to enquire has a much stronger job to do.
Your practical 20-minute check
Open Search Console. Inspect the homepage and your most important service page. Confirm the preferred canonical, crawl eligibility and any reported error. Check that both appear in your sitemap, that internal links use the preferred URLs and that the page provides a useful answer to a real customer need.
Then make one change at a time and watch the reports. Search engines need to recrawl pages; a fix in your files does not create immediate indexing. The goal is not zero warnings. The goal is that the right pages are accessible, useful and eligible to be found.
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