If your business is not showing on Google, the cause is almost always one of a handful of things: the site is too new or not indexed, you have no Google Business Profile, your details do not match anywhere, the pages never clearly say what you do and where, or stronger local competitors are simply ahead of you. Each of those has a practical fix. The first job is to work out which problem you actually have, because “not showing” and “not ranking for plumber Burgess Hill” are different.
I run this diagnosis from Hassocks. Search your exact name in a private window before you assume you are invisible. A lot of firms are indexed and still losing the searches customers type.
How can I tell if I am invisible, or just not ranking?
Search your exact business name in an incognito or private window. If you appear, Google knows you exist. The real problem is ranking for the phrases people use: “electrician Hassocks”, “oil boiler Uckfield”. Those are different jobs.
Searching from your own phone can flatter you. Google personalises results. Ask someone in another part of town, or use the private window.
Then search the trade plus the town, still in a private window. Note whether you appear in the Maps pack, in the ordinary blue links, or not at all. No pack and no blue link is a visibility problem. A blue link on page two is a ranking problem.
Do not judge a new site on day three. Indexing can take days to a few weeks. The Maps pack typically takes weeks to months. Anyone who says you should already be in the top three after a weekend of SEO is selling a timeline that does not exist.
Why would a new website not appear on Google at all?
Google has to find and index a page before it can show it. A brand new site, or a site that blocked crawlers by mistake, can sit invisible.
The fix is unglamorous. Set up Google Search Console (free). Submit the sitemap if you have one. Check the pages report. A leftover “noindex” tag from a staging site is a classic. A robots.txt that blocks crawlers is another. A site that never got submitted can simply be unknown.
Once you are indexed, Google can show the page. You are not yet winning “heating engineer Uckfield”. That takes the local work in local SEO for small businesses. Speed and mobile layout sit here too. Huge images are the usual offender. Fix the obvious, then stop obsessing over a lab score.
If you would rather someone else look, the free website audit is the honest starting point. It will tell you whether you are not indexed, not ranking, or ranking and failing to convert.
What if I have no Google Business Profile?
For local searches, the map and the pack come from the profile, not from the website. No profile, no presence in that whole slice of the results. You can have a perfectly decent site and still be invisible to the person who only looks at the map.
The fix is to claim and verify a free Google Business Profile and complete it. This is usually the single biggest lever for a local firm. The listing is free from Google. We set it up as part of SEO where it fits. There is no standalone Page Forge price for the profile.
The walkthrough is in the Google Business Profile guide. Do not pay anyone to “register you on Google”. Do not create a second listing because the first one is unverified. Claim the stub if one exists.
Oilfire in Uckfield already had a five-star Google rating. The listing was not the missing piece. The website was. The opposite is more common: a site with no profile, wondering why “near me” never calls.
Why do inconsistent name, address and phone details hide a business?
Google trusts a business whose details agree with themselves. If the website says one thing, Facebook another, and an old Yell listing a third, Google has to guess. Guessing is how you get left out.
Pick one exact version of the name, address and phone number. Use it everywhere, including abbreviations. “14 Example Street” and “14 Example St” are a mismatch. Two phone numbers, one retired, are a mismatch. A home address on one site and a hidden address on the profile is a mixed message.
You do not need a listing on every directory in Britain. You need the important ones to match: Google, the website, Facebook, and the trade body you already use. If you move or change number, treat it as a project.
Shopfronts should show the real address. Service-area trades working from home should hide the pin and list the towns they cover. Do not drop a pin in Brighton to “win Brighton” if you work from Hassocks.
What if the pages never say the service or the town?
A surprising number of small sites never plainly state the work and the place. If the words a customer types are nowhere on the page, Google has little reason to show you for them. “Welcome” and “quality service across the region” help no one.
Put the core service and the area in the title, the main heading and the first screen, in natural language. Not stuffed. Just present. “Oil boiler engineer in Uckfield and across the Weald” is useful. “Serving Sussex and beyond” is true of almost everyone and useful to almost no one.
One page will not rank you for the whole county. It can compete for a town and the villages around it. That is enough for most of the firms I build for. Name the towns you actually cover. Do not ask a one-pager to do a county’s work.
When is the problem simply stronger local competition?
Sometimes nothing is broken. You are indexed. The profile exists. The details match. Established competitors with more reviews, older sites and more complete listings still sit above you.
That is not a bug. It is the long game. Build reviews as a trickle. Keep the profile active. Add a page only if the service and town are real. Earn the odd local mention that you did not buy. It compounds over months.
Hassocks-shaped towns can move sooner. Brighton takes longer. I will not invent a ranking you should already have. The Maps pack takes weeks to months. Organic rankings usually trail that.
SEO across Sussex starts at £99 as a one-off: research, on-page work, local signals and Google Business Profile setup where it fits. No monthly retainer unless you later ask for more. No promise of a pack slot. The job is to remove the reasons you are invisible.
Frequently asked questions
How long before a new website shows up on Google?
Usually a few days to a few weeks to be indexed at all. Ranking well for competitive local searches takes longer, often a few months of steady work on the profile, reviews and content. The Maps pack is weeks to months, not a weekend.
Why does my business show on my phone but not on other people’s?
Google personalises results based on location and history, so your own device flatters you. Check in a private window, or ask someone in another area, to see what a stranger sees.
I have a website but still cannot be found. Why?
The most common reasons are no Google Business Profile, inconsistent name, address and phone, or pages that never clearly state the service and town. Fix those three before you buy ads or a blog. Most invisibility problems ease once those are clean.
Does a Google Business Profile cost money?
The listing is free from Google. If you want it done as part of our SEO work, that starts at £99 as a one-off. We do not sell a standalone profile product.
Can I be on Google without a website?
Yes, via a verified Google Business Profile. You can appear on Maps with no site. You will be less convincing, and you give Google fewer facts to trust. Most firms want both.
Will a free audit tell me why I am not showing?
It will tell you which bucket you are in: not indexed, not ranking, or ranking and failing to convert. That is enough to stop spending money on the wrong fix. The free audit is the same read without a pitch deck.