Where to start
- Search the brand and inspect what customers see
- Check indexation for priority URLs
- Review titles, H1s and intent alignment
- Test calls and forms on mobile
Why is my website not showing on Google?
First distinguish discovery, indexing and ranking. A page can load for visitors but remain unknown to Google; a known page can be excluded from the index; an indexed page can rank too low for the searches you are testing. Each situation needs different evidence.
Use URL Inspection for the exact preferred address. If the URL is unknown, check crawlable internal links and sitemap discovery. If it is excluded, read the reported reason and inspect redirects, robots directives and the selected canonical. If it is indexed, use the Performance report to see the actual queries, impressions and landing pages. Verification gives you access to these reports; it does not raise rankings.
- No impressions: inspect the URL and reporting filters before concluding there is no search demand.
- Impressions at low positions: compare the page with the customer’s actual task and the business evidence needed to answer it.
- Impressions with few clicks: separate position and query mix from the wording of the title and snippet.
- Clicks without enquiries: test the offer and contact journey, then distinguish a saved request from a qualified lead.
Minutes 0–5: inspect branded search
Inspect several important URLs in Search Console to check Google’s reported indexing status and selected canonical. Separately confirm that each page allows indexing and is linked from navigation or relevant hubs.
Note competing entities, duplicate profiles and inconsistent phone numbers.
Minutes 5–15: check priority pages
Choose the homepage and two commercially important service pages. Record their current HTTP response, canonical address and navigation links. Where you have authorized Search Console access, use URL Inspection to check Google's recorded status. A public page or sitemap entry is not proof of indexing, and a site: search is not a complete inventory.
Confirm each page has one clear intent, a descriptive title, one primary heading and useful original content. Record what you actually checked and when; write unavailable when an account or report cannot be accessed.
Minutes 15–23: test local and technical basics
Compare name, address and phone across the footer, contact page and Google Business Profile. Open the site on mobile and look for obvious speed, layout or interaction problems.
Check robots.txt and the XML sitemap, then make sure legal and valuable legacy URLs are not being lost during a redesign.
Minutes 23–30: inspect the customer handoff
Open the contact route and check labels, keyboard access, phone-link destinations and the explanation of what happens next. Do not send a pretend customer enquiry merely to complete a checklist. If an end-to-end test is necessary, agree on a controlled QA method with the owner, suppress customer notifications and exclude it from business results.
Keep three observations separate: the page works, an interaction was recorded, and a genuine enquiry reached the business. A tag in source proves none of the latter two. An analytics key event can reflect a chosen interaction rather than an accepted sales opportunity.
Copy this monthly decision sheet
Use one record for each issue. The point is to choose an implementable action, not produce a larger list of warnings. Keep private customer records in the business's own authorized system; do not paste enquiry details into a public SEO report.
- Review period and comparison period: use the same length and note reporting delays or changed tracking.
- Page and reader task: which exact URL and customer decision are affected?
- Observed evidence: source, date, filter and what the observation can establish.
- Unknowns: missing access, unverified receipt, small samples or an untested assumption.
- Proposed change and owner: one bounded edit, accountable person and due date.
- Acceptance check: how will you verify the edit works after publication?
- Review date and decision: keep, revise, investigate or stop; explain why.
A hypothetical decision, not a performance case study
Imagine a service page loads normally but its mobile contact link points to a retired address. Search data is unavailable. Record the broken link as a directly observed issue and fix its destination; do not claim that traffic fell or that the repair increased leads. Acceptance is the corrected link, a working destination and preserved page metadata.
If the next month's verified enquiry total changes, record the actual counts and other changes before suggesting a cause. Attribution assigns credit under a measurement method; it does not establish that one page edit caused the outcome. When evidence is thin, a narrower conclusion is more useful than a confident story.
Choose a repair, a focused audit or ongoing work
A reproducible broken link can be a small repair. An unexplained change across many pages may need a scoped technical audit with access, exclusions and deliverables agreed first. Repeated editorial or implementation needs may justify ongoing work. Bring the decision sheet to the professional SEO audit page below so the request describes a problem and a decision, not simply a demand for more rankings.
The indexing diagnostic was updated October 13, 2026 using Google Search Central guidance. This worksheet is an editorial aid, not a complete technical audit or a promise of search performance.
Write findings that someone can resolve
For each issue, record the exact URL, observed behaviour, expected behaviour and business impact. “Improve technical SEO” is too broad to assign. “The main service page redirects to an unrelated page” gives a developer something concrete to investigate. Attach the tool output or screenshot that demonstrates the problem.
Use Search Console URL Inspection for Google’s reported indexing status and selected canonical. A site: search can suggest discovery, but it is not a complete inventory or an indexability test. Record when a check was performed and repeat it after the fix. Our published VancouverSEO.com technical audit provides a worked example of separating measured evidence from items that require account access.