Before your page can show up in Google search results, Google needs to find it and add it to their index. Their index is basically a giant database of every page they know about. If your page is not in the index, it is invisible to search.
This might sound like it happens automatically, but it does not always work that way. Plenty of websites have pages that Google has never found, especially newer sites or pages with technical problems.
How to check if a page is indexed
Open Google Search Console and use the URL Inspection tool at the top of the page. Paste in the full URL of the page you want to check (like https://yoursite.com/your-page) and press Enter.
If Google has indexed the page, you will see "URL is on Google" with a green checkmark. This means the page is in Google's database and can show up in search results.
If it says "URL is not on Google," that means Google either has not found the page yet or decided not to index it for some reason. The tool will usually tell you why.
Common reasons pages do not get indexed
Sometimes pages have a "noindex" tag that tells Google not to add them to the index. Developers sometimes add this during testing and forget to remove it. Check the page's HTML for a meta tag that says "noindex" and remove it if the page should be indexed.
Your robots.txt file might be blocking Google from accessing the page. This file lives at yoursite.com/robots.txt and tells search engines which parts of your site they can and cannot access. If your page's path is listed under "Disallow," Google will not index it.
The page might be returning an error. If Google tries to access your page and gets a 404 (page not found) or 500 (server error), they will not index it. Try visiting the page yourself and make sure it loads correctly.
There might be a "canonical" tag pointing to a different page. Canonical tags tell Google "this is the main version of this content." If your page has a canonical tag pointing to a different URL, Google will index that URL instead.
The page might have no links pointing to it. Google discovers pages by following links. If no other page on your website links to a page, Google might never find it.
How to get a page indexed faster
If you have a page that is not indexed and you have fixed any problems, you can ask Google to crawl it. In the URL Inspection tool, click "Request Indexing." Google will usually crawl the page within a few days.
Make sure the page is included in your sitemap. A sitemap is a list of all the pages you want Google to find. Most website builders create one automatically.
Add internal links from other pages. If your homepage links to the new page, Google will find it next time they crawl your homepage. The more links pointing to a page, the faster Google tends to find it.
New websites take longer to get fully indexed. Google does not trust new sites as much and crawls them less frequently. This is normal. Keep publishing good content and building links, and Google will start crawling more often over time.
For brand new websites
If you just launched your website, Google might not know it exists at all. Start by adding your site to Google Search Console and submitting your sitemap.
You can also share your pages on social media or anywhere else that gets traffic. When Google sees links to your site from other places on the internet, they are more likely to come check it out.
Be patient. It can take weeks for a brand new site to get fully indexed. This is frustrating, but it is how it works. Focus on making your site as good as possible while you wait.