You’ve built your website. You’ve written the copy (or asked someone like me to do it for you), chosen the photos, agonised over the colours. You might even be posting on social media and sending people to it. But is Google actually showing your website to anyone?
Many people assume that simply having a website means Google will be able to find them. But there’s a difference between having a website and having a website that Google knows exists. And if you’re in the second camp, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your site is or how perfectly you’ve described your services. If someone types your exact specialism into Google, you won’t show up. Not on page one. Not on page ten. Nowhere.
The 10-second Google Visibility test
Open Google and type this into the search bar:
site:yourdomain.co.uk
Replace “yourdomain.co.uk” with your actual website address. If all your pages appear in the results, Google knows you exist. If you get “no results found”, your website is invisible.
I’ve delivered copywriting and SEO services for hundreds of small businesses, and I see this more often than you’d think. People spending money on websites, paying for content, even running ads that send traffic to a site that Google can’t see. It’s like setting up shop, then locking the door and wondering why nobody shows up.
Why does this happen?
There are a few common reasons, and none of them are your fault. Most website builders (Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, etc.) have settings that control whether search engines can find your site. Sometimes these get ticked the wrong way during setup. Sometimes they’re deliberately set to “hide” while the site is being built and nobody remembers to switch them back on.
The main culprits are:
Your robots.txt file is blocking Google. Every website has a file called robots.txt that tells search engines what they’re allowed to look at. If yours says “Disallow: /” then you’ve essentially put a “do not enter” sign on your front door. You can check this by visiting yourdomain.co.uk/robots.txt in your browser.
Your site hasn’t been submitted to Google. Google doesn’t automatically know every website exists. It discovers sites by following links from other sites, and by having website owners submit their sites directly. If your website is brand new, has very few links pointing to it, or has never been submitted, Google might simply not have found you yet.
Individual pages are set to “noindex.” Even if Google can see your site overall, specific pages might be marked as hidden. This is a setting within your website builder that tells Google to ignore that particular page, and it’s surprisingly easy to tick by accident.
Your site has no sitemap. A sitemap is basically a contents page for search engines. It tells Google exactly which pages exist on your site and makes it much easier for them to crawl everything. Most website builders generate one automatically, but not all of them submit it to Google on your behalf.
How to fix it
The good news is that fixing this takes about 20-30 minutes and costs nothing. Here’s the short version:
1. Set up Google Search Console. Go to search.google.com/search-console, sign in with a Google account, and add your website. Google will ask you to verify you own it – usually by pasting a small piece of code into your site’s settings. Once verified, you have a direct line to Google and can see exactly how it views your site.
2. Submit your sitemap. In Search Console, go to the Sitemaps section and enter your sitemap URL. For most sites, this is yourdomain.co.uk/sitemap.xml. Hit submit and wait for Google to confirm it’s been received.
3. Request indexing for your key pages. Use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console. Paste each of your important page URLs (homepage, about page, services page) and if Google says they’re not indexed, click “Request Indexing.” This essentially puts you in the queue.
4. Check your robots.txt. Visit yourdomain.co.uk/robots.txt and make sure it doesn’t contain “Disallow: /”. If it does, go into your website builder’s SEO settings and look for an option about search engine visibility. Make sure your site is set to be visible.
5. Add page titles and meta descriptions. Every page on your site should have a unique page title (the text that appears in the browser tab and in Google results) and a meta description (the short summary underneath). These tell Google what each page is about and help it decide which searches to show you for. Most website builders have dedicated fields for these in their page settings.
The bit nobody tells you
Getting indexed is step one. It gets you through the door. But it doesn’t automatically put you on page one for competitive search terms. That takes time, consistent content, and a basic understanding of what your potential clients are actually typing into Google.
This is where most businesses go wrong. They optimise their site for what they call their service, not for what their customers search for. A garden designer might optimise for “bespoke landscape architecture” when their ideal clients are actually searching for “help with my garden” or “garden doesn’t feel right.” A coach might describe themselves as offering “transformational programmes” when people are searching “why do I still feel the same after…”
The trick is to think about the problem your customer has before they know you exist, and create content that meets them there. Blog posts, FAQs, and resource pages that answer real questions in plain language will do more for your Google rankings than any amount of keyword stuffing or technical trickery.
That’s where copywriters like me come in. We run keyword research, look for high intent search queries, and make sure that your audience not only find you, but take the next step when they get on your site.
Start here
If you do nothing else today, do the 10-second test. Type site:yourdomain.co.uk into Google and see what comes back. If it’s empty, you now know exactly what to fix. If your pages do appear, look at what Google is showing as your page titles and descriptions. Are they clear? Do they describe what you actually do? Would a stranger click on them?
Congratulations, you’ve just done more for your SEO than most small business owners ever do!
And if you’d like a bit of help with the copywriting, drop me a message and we’ll arrange a no-obligation consultation.