Your website is not ranking. Here is how to find out why.
Work through the causes in order, from indexation to intent mismatch. Each one you can check yourself, most in under ten minutes.
If your website is not ranking on Google, check six things in this order. Check whether the page is indexed, whether it ranks just off page one, and whether it matches what searchers want. Then check whether two of your pages compete, whether Google can see the content, and whether the page gives Google a reason to prefer it. Start with indexing. The URL Inspection tool in Search Console tells you whether Google can index a page, and Google recommends it over a site: search, which does not show every indexed URL (Google Search Central).
Many owners asking this have already started rewriting content. In many of the sites we are asked to look at, the content was not the problem, and the cause could be checked in ten minutes. The order matters. There is no point improving a page Google is not indexing.
The short version
- Check indexing first, with the URL Inspection tool and the Pages report in Search Console. A page that is not indexed cannot rank for anything.
- “Crawled, currently not indexed” means Google fetched the page and did not index it. Google says it may or may not be indexed later and there is no need to resubmit (Search Console Help).
- A page at position 8 to 20 is ranking. It needs improving, not replacing.
- If the top results for a search are all one type of page, such as comparisons, a different type of page will struggle to rank there.
- Google renders JavaScript in a separate step, and a page can wait in that queue for longer than a few seconds. That puts content that only appears after scripts run at a disadvantage (Google Search Central).
- Authority is the slowest fix, so rule out the five quicker causes first.
The six checks at a glance
| Check | Where to look | What a failure looks like | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Indexed | Search Console, URL Inspection and Pages report | “URL is not on Google”, or an excluded reason | Fix the reason given, then request indexing once |
| 2. Position | Search Console, Performance, filtered by query | Average position between 8 and 20 | Improve the page that already ranks |
| 3. Intent | A private-window search for the target phrase | The top ten are a different type of page from yours | Make the type of page that ranks, or target another phrase |
| 4. Cannibalisation | site:yourdomain.com “target phrase” | Several of your pages come back for one phrase | Pick one target page, merge or differentiate the rest |
| 5. Rendering | View source, search for a sentence from the page | The sentence is missing from the source | Server-side rendering or pre-rendering |
| 6. Authority | Compare your page and links with the pages on page one | Yours is thinner and has no links | Add what the ranking pages lack, and earn links |
Is the page indexed at all?
Open Search Console, paste the URL into URL Inspection and read the result. A site:yourdomain.com/the-page-url search is a quick first look, but Google says the site: operator does not necessarily return every indexed URL, so an empty result is not proof (Google Search Central).
Then go to Pages in Search Console and read the reasons pages are not indexed. These are the ones that matter most, with Google’s own definitions from the Page indexing report help:
| Status in Search Console | What Google says it means | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Crawled, currently not indexed | Google crawled the page but did not index it. It may or may not be indexed in future, and there is no need to resubmit | Whether the page is thin or close to another page |
| Discovered, currently not indexed | Google found the URL but has not crawled it yet, typically because crawling then was expected to overload the site | Internal links to the page, server speed, and how many low-value URLs the site has |
| Excluded by noindex tag | Google found a noindex rule when it tried to index the page | Page source and HTTP headers for noindex |
| Blocked by robots.txt | The site’s robots.txt file blocks the page | The Disallow lines in yourdomain.com/robots.txt |
| Alternate page with proper canonical tag | The page points to another page as canonical, which is indexed. Google says there is nothing to do | Only a problem if this is the page you wanted indexed |
Google does not give a reason for “Crawled, currently not indexed”. In the sites we review it most often turns up on thin pages, near-duplicates, and pages with nothing that is not available elsewhere.
A noindex tag looks like <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> in the page source. It often appears after a redesign, when a staging setting was never switched off. A robots.txt Disallow left over from staging blocks crawling of everything it covers. The website launch checklist is how to stop both happening.
Are you ranking, just not on page one?
In Search Console, go to Performance, filter by the query and look at average position. If you are at position 14, Google already understands the page and considers it relevant. The problem is competitive strength, not existence. That is an improvement job, not a creation job, and it is cheaper.
Our recommendation is to pull the list of pages sitting between positions 8 and 20 before writing anything new. On the sites we work on it is usually the quickest work to pay back, because Google has already done half the job.
Why does a good page not rank for its main keyword?
Often because it is the wrong type of page for that search. Search your target keyword and look at what ranks. Look at the type of page, not how good each one is.
If the top ten are all comparison articles and your page is a product page, it will struggle, however well the product page is optimised. The results show what Google has decided the search is for. Your options are to make the type of page that ranks, or target a different search. In the sites we review this is the most common finding after indexing problems, and it is invisible unless you look at the results rather than at your own page.
Photo: Nicola Barts on Pexels.
Are two of your pages competing?
Search site:yourdomain.com "your target phrase". If several of your own pages come back, you may have cannibalisation: two or more pages aimed at the same search. Google may pick a weaker page than the one you want, or switch between them. Duplicate content on your own site is not a violation of Google’s spam policies, but Google says it can waste crawling (Google Search Central).
The fix is a decision more than a technique. Choose one page as the target. The others either link to it and cover something different, or get merged into it and redirected.
Can Google see the content?
Right-click, choose View page source, and search for a sentence from the middle of your page. If it is not there, your content is being built by JavaScript after the HTML arrives.
Google can render JavaScript, but it does so in a separate step. Google says a page may sit in the rendering queue for a few seconds, and it can take longer than that (Google Search Central). The same page recommends server-side rendering or pre-rendering, because it makes a site faster for users and crawlers, and not every bot runs JavaScript. If your content only exists after scripts run, that is a real risk.
Is there any reason for Google to rank you?
This is the uncomfortable one. If your page is a shorter version of what already ranks, and your domain has no links and no history, Google has little reason to prefer it. Google’s own starter guide says that creating content people find compelling and useful will likely influence your presence in search more than any of its other suggestions (Google Search Central).
Authority work and content that adds something new are the slowest fixes. They are also where many people start, which is why so much SEO effort produces so little.
Photo: ANTONI SHKRABA production on Pexels.
How long should a new site take to rank?
Google does not give a fixed time. Its starter guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others take several months. It also says you will likely want to wait a few weeks before judging whether a change worked (Google Search Central).
As a rough guide from the sites we work on, a brand name usually shows within days to a few weeks. Long-tail commercial terms show in two to four months if the page is good. Competitive terms show in six to twelve months or longer on a domain with no history. Those are our rules of thumb, not Google figures. If you are three weeks in and worried, it is too early to judge. The fuller picture, including what the odds look like across two million tracked pages, is in how long SEO takes.
Does Google penalise new websites?
We know of no Google documentation describing a penalty for being new. What a new site lacks is history, links and signals from real visitors, so Google has little reason to trust it over an established competitor. That is an absence of evidence rather than a penalty, and it resolves with time and links rather than with a fix.
Should I resubmit my sitemap?
If Google is already crawling the site, resubmitting an unchanged sitemap does little. Use URL Inspection to request indexing of a specific page instead. Google says requesting the same URL again will not get it crawled any faster, and that crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks (Google Search Central).
The order, again
Indexation. Position. Intent match. Cannibalisation. Rendering. Authority.
Five of those six can be checked in an afternoon without any paid tool. Do them before you rewrite anything.
The bottom line
A page that does not rank is usually telling you something specific, and the specific causes are cheaper to find than content is to write. Rule out the technical and structural reasons first, in order, and only then decide whether the page needs to be better.
Questions people ask about this
How do I fix “Crawled, currently not indexed”?
Treat it as Google saying the page did not earn a place. Compare it with the pages that do rank for the same query and ask what yours adds that they lack. Merge it with a similar page of your own if there is one, or rewrite it with first-hand detail that exists nowhere else. Then link to it from pages that already get crawled and request indexing once. Google says there is no need to resubmit a page with this status, so resubmitting it unchanged will not help.
What should I do with a page stuck at position twelve?
Treat it as your best opportunity, because Google already understands it. Look at the query it ranks for and check that the page answers it fully. Add what the top results cover that yours does not. Make the title match the query more closely. Link to the page from your strongest pages. Small changes on a page already on page two often move it further than a new page ever would.
How do I tell which page type Google wants?
Search the query in a private window and classify each of the top ten results by type rather than quality: comparison, guide, product page, category page, tool, video. If eight are one type, that is the intent Google has decided on. Your page needs to be that type to compete. If the results are mixed, the query has more than one intent and you can pick the version that fits your business.
Should I delete a page that competes with another?
Not before deciding which page is the target. Once you have chosen, the losing page either gets merged into the winner and redirected to it, or rewritten to cover something genuinely different and linked to the winner. Deleting without a redirect throws away any links and history the page had. The redirect is what transfers that value to the page you want to rank.
Can a rendering problem be fixed without rebuilding the site?
Often. Many platforms and frameworks have a setting or plugin that outputs the content in the first HTML response rather than after scripts run. Ask your developer whether server-side rendering or pre-rendering is available for your setup. Test the result by viewing the source again and searching for a sentence. If it appears, Google can read the content without waiting for rendering, and that risk is gone.
Does changing the title tag help a page move up?
It can, when the current title does not say what the page is about in the words people search for. It is the cheapest test on the list. Change the title so the main query appears naturally near the start, wait a few weeks, and watch the position and click-through rate in Search Console. If the page is not indexed, or the intent is wrong, no title fixes it.
What if the page is indexed but never appears for anything?
Check Search Console for any impressions at all. Zero impressions on an indexed page often means the page targets a phrase nobody searches. Or it is so similar to another page that the other one is shown instead. Search the phrase yourself and see what appears. If the query has demand and your page never shows, it is either cannibalised or badly outmatched on authority.
How many links does a new site need?
Google publishes no number, so anyone who gives you one is guessing. What matters is whether the sites already ranking have more and better links than you do. Look at the link profiles of the pages on page one for your target query and compare. For low competition local terms, a handful of relevant local links can be enough. For head terms, you are competing against years of accumulated authority.
Should I write more content when nothing ranks?
Not until you have done the six checks. More content on a site with an indexation or rendering problem is more pages Google ignores. If the checks show the site is indexed and matched to intent but weak, then content that adds something the ranking pages lack is the right move. Volume alone does not help. Every new page needs a reason to exist beyond a keyword.
When is it time to get help with this?
When you have worked through the six checks and either found nothing or found something you cannot fix, such as rendering, site-wide cannibalisation or authority. Bring the results of the checks to whoever you ask, because it saves them repeating the work and shows you where the problem lies. We offer a free written review of a site at /contact if you want a second pair of eyes.
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