Two different problems
"My website doesn't show up in Google" means one of two things, and they need different fixes.
Not indexed: Google does not have your pages at all. Searching for your exact business name, or your exact web address, returns nothing from your site.
Not ranking: Google has your pages but shows them far down, or not at all, for the searches you care about. Your business name finds you; "dentist in [town]" does not.
This article is about the first. It is more common than people think, especially after a new site or a redesign, and it is nearly always a technical mistake that takes minutes to fix and days to weeks to take effect.
Check in one minute
Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. This lists every page Google has from your domain. If it shows your pages, you are indexed and the problem is ranking, which is a different article. If it shows nothing, or only one or two pages when you have twenty, read on.
Then, if you have Search Console, open the Pages report. It says exactly which pages are indexed and, for those that are not, why.
Cause 1: a noindex tag left over from development
The most common. While the site was being built, it was told to stay out of Google so the half-finished version would not appear. Someone forgot to turn that off at launch.
On WordPress: Settings, Reading, "Discourage search engines from indexing this site". If it is ticked, untick it. SEO plugins have their own per-page and site-wide noindex settings; check those too.
On other platforms: a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tag in the page's code, or an X-Robots-Tag header. A developer can see it in seconds. Search Console shows it as "Excluded by noindex tag".
Cause 2: robots.txt blocking everything
A file at yourdomain.com/robots.txt tells search engines which parts of the site to stay out of. A development version often contains Disallow: /, which means "all of it". If that shipped to live, Google is politely obeying.
Open the file in your browser. If you see Disallow: / under User-agent: *, that is the problem. Search Console shows it as "Blocked by robots.txt".
Cause 3: the site is brand new
A domain that has never had a website, with no links pointing at it, can take days to weeks to be discovered and indexed. Google has to find it first.
Speed it up: verify the site in Search Console and submit the sitemap (usually yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml). Use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing of the home page and key pages. Get a few real links to it: your Google Business Profile, your social profiles, a directory or two. Then wait; a week or two is normal.
Cause 4: the domain changed and the old one was not redirected
New site, new domain, and the old domain, which had all the rankings, was left to expire or shows a dead page. Google still has the old pages and does not know about the new ones. The redesign appears to have made you vanish.
Fix: redirect every old URL to its equivalent on the new domain with permanent redirects, keep the old domain registered for at least a year, and tell Search Console about the move with its Change of Address tool. Rankings transfer over a few weeks.
Cause 5: a password or "coming soon" page
The site is live to you because you are logged in, but visitors and Google see a password prompt, a maintenance page or a coming-soon plugin. Open the site in a private window. If you see anything other than the site, that is what Google sees too.
Cause 6: the site is technically broken for crawlers
Rarer. The server returns errors to Google but not to browsers, or the pages are rendered entirely by JavaScript in a way Google struggles with, or the site is so slow Google gives up. Search Console's URL Inspection tool shows exactly what Google fetched and whether it could render the page. A developer reads that in minutes.
How long fixes take to show
- Removing a noindex or robots block: Google needs to recrawl. Request indexing in Search Console for key pages; typically days.
- A new site: one to three weeks after submitting the sitemap.
- A domain move with redirects: several weeks for rankings to settle.
Do not judge the fix by searching the next morning. Check the Pages report in Search Console after a week; it is the only reliable signal.
What not to do
Do not pay anyone who promises to "submit your site to Google" or "get you indexed fast". Indexing is free and there is no fast lane. Do not resubmit the same page every day; it does nothing. Do not rebuild the site because it is not indexed; the fix is almost always one setting.
If you are here now
Do the site: search and open robots.txt. Between them they catch most cases in two minutes. If both look fine and the Pages report is confusing, this is one of the fastest things a diagnosis resolves, because the tools tell a developer exactly what Google is seeing. Keeping it fixed, checking Search Console monthly so a stray noindex never lasts a quarter, is part of what a care plan is for.