You spent weekends building your website. It looks good, the photos are up and your phone number is on every page. But when you search for what you do in your town, you’re nowhere to be seen. A website not showing on Google is one of the most common worries we hear about.
That’s frustrating, and it’s really common. It usually isn’t about how the site looks. It’s about what’s going on underneath, in the parts most website builders don’t show you.
First, credit where it’s due
Building your own website takes real effort, and modern website builders make it easier than ever. For a hobby, a very early side project or a simple online business card, DIY can be perfectly fine.
The trouble starts when the website needs to bring in work. That’s when the technical foundations start to matter, and they’re the part that’s easiest to miss when you’re doing it yourself.
Nobody can promise you a spot on page one. But there are clear reasons some sites give Google much more to work with than others.
Website not showing on Google? Start with titles, speed and mobile
Three things come up again and again when we look at DIY websites. None of them are obvious from the front end, which is exactly why they get missed.
Page titles and descriptions are missing or generic
Every page on your website has a title and a short description that Google can show in search results. These are some of the first things Google reads to understand what a page is about.
On many DIY sites, every page ends up with a title like “Home” or “Services”, or just the business name. Descriptions are often blank, so Google pulls a random sentence from the page instead.
Good titles and descriptions are specific. They say what you do and where you do it, in words your customers would actually type. For example, “Emergency plumber in Ballina” tells Google, and the person searching, far more than “Home”.
The site is slow
People don’t wait around for slow pages, and Google takes page experience into account. Common causes of a slow DIY site include:
- Huge photos uploaded straight from a phone or camera.
- Too many plugins, widgets or add-ons doing similar jobs.
- Cheap or overseas hosting that’s slow for Australian visitors.
- Heavy page builders loading lots of code you don’t use.
Speed is fixable. For JS Henderson, a North Coast builder in the Alstonville area, we delivered a faster website. Good hosting also matters, which is why we offer managed Australian WordPress hosting.
It doesn’t work well on phones
Most people looking for a local business are searching on their phone, often while they’re out and about. Google looks at the mobile version of your site first.
Many templates claim to be mobile-friendly, but the details still go wrong. Text is too small, buttons are too close together, menus don’t open properly or images overflow the screen. Pull up your site on your own phone and try to call yourself or send an enquiry. If it’s fiddly for you, it’s fiddly for customers.
The structure is confusing
Google reads a website a bit like a book. It looks at headings to work out what each section is about, and it follows links to understand how pages connect.
DIY sites often have structure problems like:
- Headings chosen for how big they look, not what they mean.
- All your services crammed onto one long page.
- Important pages that aren’t linked from anywhere.
- Text placed inside images, which Google can’t read well.
A clear structure, with a page for each main service, helps both people and search engines. For Dash Security Group in Lismore, we built a new website with a page for each service and an easy way to book a site assessment. Each service gets its own clear page rather than competing for space.
There are no local pages
If you work across a few towns, your website needs to say so clearly. Mentioning “Northern Rivers” once in the footer isn’t much to go on.
Useful, genuine pages about the areas you serve give Google a much better idea of where you work. That doesn’t mean copying the same page and swapping the town name. It means writing something real about the work you do in each place. We’ve done this ourselves, with pages for areas like web design in Ballina, each written for that town.
Search Console was never set up
Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows how your site is performing in search. It tells you which searches you’re showing up for, which pages Google has found, and whether there are errors stopping pages from appearing.
Many DIY site owners have never heard of it, so the reasons behind a website not showing on Google can go unnoticed for months. Setting it up, submitting a sitemap and checking it now and then is one of the simplest things you can do.
Our digital setup service connects Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile and your social accounts so they all work together with your website.
What a professional build includes
Every website we build is mobile-responsive and comes with on-page SEO foundations, security and an SSL certificate. That means proper titles and descriptions, a sensible heading structure, optimised images and a clear layout from day one.
It doesn’t guarantee rankings, and anyone who promises that should be treated with caution. What it does is give your site the best start, so your content has a fair go. Custom WordPress websites start from $1,595 + GST, and you can read more in our website pricing guide.
Want to know why your site isn’t showing up?
Our free website health check takes about 30 minutes. We review your site’s performance, design and SEO, point out what’s holding it back and recommend practical fixes, in plain English and with no obligation. Call us on 02 6610 9202, Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm.
