There are two different problems: Google hasn't listed your website yet, or it has listed it and other websites come first. A quick search tells you which one you have. Search engines take time, and nobody can guarantee a position, including us.
Test it: is your website listed?
In Google, search for this, using your own address and no space after the colon:
site:yourdomain.com
| What you see | What it means | Go to |
|---|---|---|
| A list of your pages | Google has listed your website. It's coming up low for the words people search. | "Listed, but hard to find" below |
| Nothing, or only a few pages | Google hasn't listed it yet, or hasn't listed all of it. | "Not listed yet" below |
Not listed yet
Work through these in order.
- Check your website is live at that address. Open it in a private browser window, or on your phone using mobile data. If it doesn't appear, see My domain, my website, my hosting and my email: who does what?. If you changed your nameservers, that can take up to 48 hours, and usually happens within 6, depending on your internet provider.
- Check the page isn't hidden from search engines. Select the page in EverWeb. In the Inspector, open the Page Settings tab, then the Search Engine Optimization section, and make sure Include page in search engines is ticked. If you change it, publish again.
- Tell Google about your website. Sign up for free at Google Search Console and add your website.
- Google asks you to prove you own it, usually with a TXT record. If you host with us, send us that record and we'll add it. It can take a few hours to work.
- Then ask Google to visit your website. If you have SEO PowerUp, you can also give Google your sitemap, at
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
- Give it time. Google decides when to visit. A few days to a few weeks is common, and some websites take longer.
How to know it worked: your pages start to appear in the site: search.
Listed, but hard to find
Being listed doesn't mean coming first. Google ranks pages by how useful and trusted they seem compared with every other page on the subject. This is why new websites rarely rank straight away:
- Google has little history for a new website. A rebuilt website can be treated much like a new one for a while.
- For common searches, you're up against established websites with many links from other websites.
- Having the words in your domain name doesn't earn you a top spot.
What you can do, page by page:
- Pick the phrase people would search for, ideally something specific. "Left handed golf clubs" is easier to win than "golf". Two phrases per page is a good target.
- Write a clear page title that includes your phrase, in Web Page Title on the Page Settings tab.
- Write a description of about 150 to 160 characters in Web Page Description. It doesn't lift your position much, but it's often the text people read before deciding to click.
- Write real text. About 250 to 500 words on your important pages helps. Pictures of words can't be read as text.
- Use headings. Select your main heading and set it to H1 under HTML Tag in the Text Inspector. Use one H1 per page.
- Describe your images in the Alt text field on the Shape Options tab.
- Make it work on phones, and use a secure address (the padlock).
- Ask for links. Links from other trustworthy websites, such as clubs, suppliers or local directories, help a lot.
The Keywords list in EverWeb is for your own tracking. Google doesn't use it to decide your position.
What's free, what SEO PowerUp adds, and what we can do for you
| Option | Who does the work | Cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built into EverWeb | You | Included | Page titles, descriptions, headings, image text and the Include page in search engines setting. Check Page in the toolbar gives suggestions for one page per project. |
| Free SEO video course | You | Free | Step-by-step lessons on all of the above. |
| SEO PowerUp add-on | You, with a tool | $29.95 USD a year. Included with Hosting Pro and larger plans. | Check Page on every page, a sitemap (a list of your pages for search engines) created each time you publish, a robots.txt file that lets search engines find your sitemap, and faster loading on EverWeb Hosting. |
| SEO service | Us | We send you a quote | We go through your project file and set up titles, descriptions, image text, headings and page structure, then send the file back to you. |
None of these can guarantee a position on Google. SEO PowerUp lets search engines find your sitemap file, which helps them find and read your pages. It doesn't move you up the results on its own.
To turn on SEO PowerUp after you buy it:
- Quit and reopen EverWeb. If it still asks you to buy the add-on, go to EverWeb > Settings on a Mac, or Edit > Options on Windows, open Account, and sign out and back in.
- Open your project and go to File > Edit Publishing Settings.
- Tick Optimize & Submit Website to Search Engines.
- Go to File > Publish Entire Site.
For a quote on the SEO service, contact us. We'll ask you for your project file.
How long does it take?
| Change | Usual time |
|---|---|
| Google notices a change you've published | A few days to a few weeks |
| A new or rebuilt website is listed | Days to weeks, sometimes longer |
| You move up the results | Weeks or months, and it's never certain |
Search Console messages that are usually normal
Google sends messages that sound alarming even when nothing is wrong. You'll see these in the Page indexing report.
| Message | What it means | Do you need to act? |
|---|---|---|
| Alternate page with proper canonical tag | Google found two addresses for the same page, such as a phone version, and chose one to show. | No |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | Google found the same content in more than one place and chose one. | No, unless it's showing the wrong page |
| Page with redirect | An address forwards to another, such as http to https. Google lists the final one. | No |
| Excluded by 'noindex' | Include page in search engines is off for that page. | Only if you want the page found |
| Crawled, currently not indexed, or Discovered, currently not indexed | Google knows about the page but hasn't listed it yet. | Usually no. It can take weeks. |
| Not found (404) | That address no longer exists. Often it's a deleted page or an old link. | Only if the page should exist |
| A message that validation failed | Google rechecked and still sees one of the messages above. | Not if the message is one of those above |
When to ask us
Contact us if:
- The
site:search still shows nothing after several weeks - Your home page shows as not listed in Search Console
- Search Console says a page you want found is blocked or is giving a server error
- A large share of your pages stay unlisted for months
Please send your website address and a full-screen screenshot of the Page indexing report, including the reasons listed.
We can check your settings and explain what Google's messages mean. Choosing your phrases and writing your pages isn't part of support. For those, use the free course or ask for a quote for the SEO service.