You paid for a website and... nothing. No calls, no form fills, invisible on Google. The frustrating truth is that it is usually one of a handful of fixable problems — not a mystery. Here is the checklist I run.

First: is it even indexed?

Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. If your pages do not appear, Google has not indexed them, and nothing else matters yet. Common causes:

A stray noindex tag or a robots.txt rule accidentally blocking pages.
A www-versus-non-www conflict, where Google indexes one version and treats the other as a duplicate.
A brand-new domain with no signals yet — it simply has not been crawled.

Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool tells you exactly which of these is happening.

On-page: can Google tell what each page is about?

Unique, descriptive title tags and meta descriptions on every page.
One clear H1 and a logical heading structure.
Enough real content to actually answer the searcher's question.
Structured data (schema) so you qualify for rich results.

Technical: is the site healthy?

Fast load and mobile-friendly — Google indexes the mobile version first.
A valid sitemap submitted in Search Console.
No broken links sending visitors and crawlers to dead ends.
Images with alt text and set dimensions.

Off-site: does Google trust you?

A complete, verified Google Business Profile — the single biggest lever for local visibility.
Reviews, which feed both ranking and conversion.
Consistent name, address, and phone across directories (citations).
A few quality links from real, relevant sites.

The new layer: AI search

More people now get answers straight from ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews without ever clicking a link. Getting cited there — sometimes called GEO or answer-engine optimization — comes down to clear, factual, well-structured content, plus schema and an llms.txt file so AI engines can confidently quote you. Most local competitors are not doing this yet, which makes it an opening rather than a cost.

Where to start

If you are not sure which of these is hurting you, that is precisely what an audit is for. I run every one of these checks against a site and report back what is broken and what it is costing you — in plain language, no jargon. New clients start with that audit for free.

Want to see where your site stands? Get in touch and I will send the audit over.

Why Your Small-Business Website Isn't Getting Found (and How to Fix It)