How to get my website on Google: usually you don’t have to do anything

The short version

• You usually don’t need to submit anything. Google finds sites on its own. In its words, "the vast majority of pages listed in our results aren't manually submitted for inclusion".
• It can take a few weeks. Google says so for new sites. On our own site, new blog posts have been crawled anywhere from the same day to 57 days after they went up.
• Check with a site: search, but don’t trust a blank. Google says it doesn’t necessarily list every page it has.
• The usual blockers are on your side, so you can fix them. Nothing links to the site, the pages are mostly pictures, there’s a login screen, or something tells Google to stay away.
• Search Console and a sitemap are optional, but useful. They show you what Google has found, and let you ask for a crawl once.
• It costs nothing. Google says it doesn’t take payment to crawl a site more often or rank it higher.
• Your business on Google Maps is a separate thing: a free Google Business Profile.

How to check whether your website is on Google

Search Google for site: followed by your address, with no space, for example site:example.com. If pages from your site come back, Google has them.

Google’s page on the site: search adds two warnings. First: "The site: operator doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed under the prefix specified in the query." A page missing from the list isn’t proof it’s missing from Google. Second, the exact address matters: "site:https://www.example.com doesn't return the same results as site:https://example.com/". If you get nothing, try it with and without the www.

For a single page there is a more exact answer. The same page says: "If a URL doesn't show in a site: query, use the URL Inspection tool to make sure the URL can be indexed and to submit the URL to indexing." The URL Inspection tool is part of Google Search Console, which comes up again below.

Why Google might not have found your site yet

Google’s Get your website on Google page lists the usual reasons. Here they are, with what to do about each.

• Nothing links to it. Google: "Your site isn't linked to by other sites on the web." One way Google discovers new pages is by following links from pages it already knows, so it helps to be linked from somewhere real: a trade body you belong to, a supplier or customer who mentions you, a local directory. Don’t buy links, though. Google’s wording is "please don't pay them to link to you; that could be considered a violation of Google's spam policies".
• It’s brand new. Google: "It can take a few weeks for Google to notice a new site, or any changes in your existing site." Here, waiting is the answer.
• There’s little for Google to read. Google: "Remember to use text, not just images or video, on your site." A menu that is a photo, or a home page that is one big picture with the words drawn on it, gives Google very little to go on.
• Google got an error. Google: "Most common reasons for this are that you have a login page for your site, or that your site blocks Google for some reason." Its test is a simple one: "Make sure that you can access your site in an incognito window". If a private window shows you a login screen, a password page or an error, Google is probably seeing the same thing.
• Google just missed it. Google says: "Although Google crawls billions of pages, it's inevitable that we'll miss a few sites, especially small ones." Its advice: "Wait a while, and try to get linked from other sites."

Optional, but worth ten minutes: Search Console and a sitemap

Google is relaxed about this. Its page says: "If you're feeling adventurous, you can add your site to Search Console to see if there's an error that might prevent Google from understanding your site." You don’t need Search Console to appear on Google. But it is where Google tells you, page by page, whether it has crawled your site, so it is worth setting up.

1. Add your site and prove it’s yours. If your site is built on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or similar, look in your platform’s settings first. Google’s verification help says that for sites on a hosting platform, "your platform might provide a special plugin or setting to verify your property easily, or even automatically, on Search Console."
2. Make sure there’s a sitemap, and submit it. A sitemap is a list of your pages for search engines. Google says it "can be very helpful if you just launched your site or recently performed a site move". You may already have one: Google’s sitemap guide says "If you're using a CMS such as WordPress, Wix, or Blogger, it's likely that your CMS has already made a sitemap available to search engines." Its recrawl page says of hosted platforms: "In most cases, the platform submits your new content to search engines automatically." In both cases Google suggests checking your platform’s own help pages.
3. Ask Google to crawl your home page, once. In Search Console, inspect your home page’s address and click Request indexing. Google’s recrawl guidance says: "Keep in mind that there's a quota for submitting individual URLs and requesting a recrawl multiple times for the same URL won't get it crawled any faster." It also says: "Requesting a crawl does not guarantee that inclusion in search results will happen instantly or even at all."

How long it takes

Google gives two timescales. For a new site: "It can take a few weeks for Google to notice a new site". For a page you have added or changed: "Crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks."

Our own figures fit inside that. We check our blog posts in Search Console and write the dates down. In October, one new post was crawled the same day it went up; a post from August waited 57 days for its first crawl. We have written up three of them, with every date, in our post on Discovered - currently not indexed, the status Search Console shows while a page waits.

Those were new pages on a site Google already knew. A brand-new website on a brand-new address is a different case. We haven’t launched one recently, so we have no dates of our own for it, and Google’s "a few weeks" is the figure to go on.

Getting your business on Google is a separate thing

If you searched for this because you want your business to show up on Google Maps, what you need is a Google Business Profile, not a website. Google’s get-on-Google page suggests one for local businesses: "Consider claiming your Business Profile". Google’s Business Profile page calls it free, and says it lets you "Take control of how your free Business Profile appears on Google Search and Maps", including the chance to "manage customer reviews".

The profile and the website are set up separately. If you have both, put your website’s address on the profile, so one leads to the other.

Being on Google isn’t the same as being on the first page

Once Google has your site, where it appears depends on what people search for and what else is out there. Google’s Search Essentials say: "It doesn't cost any money to appear in Google Search results, no matter what anyone tries to tell you." Its guide to how Search works is blunter: "Google doesn't accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher. If anyone tells you otherwise, they're wrong." Google’s ads are a separate, paid product.

On the technical side, Google says: "There are actually very few technical things you need to do to a web page; most sites pass the technical requirements without even realizing it." The free things that help are plain. After helpful content, Google’s list says: "Use words that people would use to look for your content, and place those words in prominent locations on the page, such as the title and main heading of a page". And: "Tell people about your site."

If Google already has your site but shows something out of date about it, that is a different problem, which we covered in how to update your website on Google.

What argues the other way

• Some guides make Search Console sound compulsory. One on the first page of results for this question, first published in 2023 and updated in February 2026, calls it the service "which is necessary to add your website to Google". Google’s own page offers it to those "feeling adventurous". It is useful, not required.
• Some promise speed. An agency’s guide says: "In our experience, most pages take less than 24 hours to be indexed after we submit a request." It gives no example page and no dates. We haven’t tested that, so we can’t say it is wrong. Google’s own wording is more careful: a crawl request "does not guarantee that inclusion in search results will happen instantly or even at all."
• Google doesn’t promise anything either. Its guide to how Search works says: "Google doesn't guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve your page, even if your page follows the Google Search Essentials". Most small sites do get in; some take longer, and Google says so.
• We have an interest here. We sell training and advice, including on being found by AI search, so it would suit us to make this sound complicated. For most small websites, it isn’t.

Sources, and what we checked

• Google Search Central: Get your website on Google, site: search operator, Ask Google to recrawl your URLs, Build and submit a sitemap, Google Search Essentials and In-depth guide to how Google Search works. Read on 12 and 14 October 2026.
• Search Console Help: Verify your site ownership and URL Inspection tool. Google: Google Business Profile. Read on 12 and 14 October 2026.
• The two guides in "What argues the other way" were on the first page of results we checked on 12 and 14 October 2026. Our search tool shows US results, so the UK page may differ. We describe them rather than naming them.
• Our own crawl dates: Google’s URL Inspection API for lolasquared.com, run by us and logged with dates. The full record is in our Discovered - currently not indexed post.
• Every quotation above was tested automatically against the text of its source before publication.