Academy › Courses › Get found on Google
Get your website to show up on Google, not just your listing
By the end, you'll know how to check whether Google has indexed your website, whether it already has your sitemap, and what's keeping it from showing up, and you'll pick three real searches to target instead of guessing at keywords.
You search for your business on Google and your listing shows up, stars, map and all. Your website, the one you paid for or built so carefully, is nowhere to be found. You don't know if Google even knows it exists, if it got rejected for something you did without realizing, or if you just need to wait. You tweak a sentence just in case, but you have no way to tell if it made any difference.
This course starts by looking, not touching: you'll find out how many pages of your website Google has actually added to its index, and the exact reason the rest are missing. Then you'll track down the specific block holding them back, confirm Google has your site's sitemap, and pick three real searches to check in two weeks to see if the fix worked.
This is for people who already have a live website and want to know if Google is really seeing it, not for those who don't have a website or domain yet.
- Get a quick, one-minute first look at which of your site's pages Google already has indexed using site:, then confirm it in Search Console
- Read the Pages report in Search Console and pinpoint the exact reason behind each missing page
- Find the block, a noindex tag, a robots.txt rule, or a redirect, that's keeping a page from being indexed, and find out whether it's fixable on your site or depends on having your own domain
- Confirm Google has your site's sitemap and pick three real searches to measure the result in two weeks
You should already have your website live, with access to Google Search Console and your domain verified.
The 6 lessons
In the order it makes the most sense to read them.
- 1
Type site: followed by your website, before touching anything else
In one minute you'll know how many pages of your site Google has actually indexed, without relying on what you see when you search your own name.
7 min - 2
The reason Search Console gives you, not the one you imagine
You know how to open the Search Console "Page indexing" report and pin down the exact reason for each missing page, instead of trying random fixes.
6 min - 3
The tag that tells Google to stay out
You find out which of the three blocks is keeping your page out of Google (a noindex tag, a robots.txt rule, or a redirect), check that it wasn't set on purpose, know how to remove it or who to ask, and ask Google to take another look.
5 min - 4
The map you hand over, not the one it has to guess
Find out whether your sitemap.xml tells the truth about your site, how to fix it if you manage it yourself, and how to check in Search Console that Google has it.
6 min - 5
The three phrases people actually type, not the ones you assume
You'll come away with three real searches chosen from data, not guesswork, and the judgment to rule out the rest.
6 min - 6
Run a site: search again in two weeks, not tomorrow
You set the exact date to recheck the fix, and with the three phrases in front of you, you know whether to leave it as is, tweak the text, or go back to Search Console.
7 min