Why isn't my site getting indexed by Google?

How to quickly find the cause

Open Google Search Console → "URL Inspection" → enter any page URL. Google shows one of: "URL is on Google", "URL is not on Google: reason …", "URL is blocked". If a reason appears — that's your answer.

5 main causes of non-indexation

• robots.txt blocks bots. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. If you see Disallow: / — indexing is blocked site-wide. Often a leftover from development.
• Noindex meta tag. The page HTML contains <meta name="robots" content="noindex">. WordPress often retains the "Discourage search engines" setting after migration.
• 5xx server errors. The server crashes or responds too slowly. Bot can't get a response, marks the page as "unreachable".
• No sitemap.xml. Without a sitemap, Google discovers pages only via external links. No links = invisible.
• Crawled — currently not indexed. The most common modern problem: Google found and read the page but decided it's "not worthy". Cause — low quality, thin content, duplicates, AI generation.

How to fix — step by step

1. Check robots.txt and remove blocks. Must allow: User-agent: * + Allow: /.
2. Remove all noindex from target pages. In WordPress: Settings → Reading → uncheck "Discourage search engines from indexing".
3. Create sitemap.xml and submit in GSC: Sitemaps → Add a new sitemap.
4. Request indexation manually for the homepage and top 10 key pages via "URL Inspection" → "Request Indexing".
5. Get 5-10 backlinks to your site — the strongest signal "index me" Google has.

How long to wait

After fixes — 1-7 days for the homepage to get indexed, 14-30 days for the bulk of pages. If 30 days pass and pages still aren't indexed — the problem is deeper (low-quality filter or bad backlink profile), and you need an expert audit.