How to Get Your Business Website on Google: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
If you have just launched a business website and want people to find it on Google, there are a few things you should do before you start worrying about rankings.
First, connect the website to Google Search Console, verify that you own it, and submit your XML sitemap. Then check whether Google can access your important pages and whether those pages are being indexed. After that, give Google time to crawl the site and monitor what happens through Search Console.
That is the practical process I use when working on websites. Getting a website onto Google is not the same thing as ranking first on Google. The first job is making sure Google can discover, crawl and index the important pages. Ranking comes later.
I learned this distinction through actually building websites rather than simply reading about SEO. A website can be beautifully designed and completely functional, yet still have problems that prevent Google from properly discovering or understanding its pages.
This guide focuses specifically on that first stage: getting your business website properly connected to Google and giving its important pages a clear path into Google Search.
What Does “Getting My Website on Google” Actually Mean?
When a business owner says:
“I want my website to appear on Google.”
they can actually mean two different things.
They may want Google to know that the website exists.
Or they may want the website to appear when somebody searches for a particular service.
Those are not the same problem.
For example, suppose you own a printing company called ABC Prints.
You launch:
abcprints.com
If you search:
site:abcprints.com
and Google returns pages from the website, Google has already indexed at least some of it.
But that does not necessarily mean the website will appear near the top when someone searches:
printing company in Lagos
That becomes a search visibility and ranking issue.
So I would separate the process into two stages:
Stage 1: Get Google to discover and index the website.
Stage 2: Improve the pages so they can compete for relevant searches.
This article is mainly about Stage 1.
Step 1: Finish the Website Before You Submit It to Google
This sounds obvious, but it is something I pay attention to when building websites.
Don’t rush to submit a half-finished website simply because you want Google to find it.
Before connecting the website to Search Console, I want the basic structure working.
At minimum, a typical business website should have the important pages the business actually needs, such as:
- Home
- About
- Services or Products
- Contact
- Privacy Policy
- Relevant supporting pages
The exact structure depends on the business.
A gym doesn’t need the same website structure as a law firm.
A care agency doesn’t need the same pages as a software company.
That is one lesson I have learned from designing websites: the website structure should follow the business, not a template.
Before worrying about Google, I check whether a visitor can answer three questions quickly:
What does this business do?
Who does it serve?
How can I contact or buy from it?
If those answers aren’t clear, I would fix the website first.
If you’re still planning the website rather than launching one, my guide to creating a professional business website without coding covers the practical website-building side separately.
Step 2: Make Sure Your Website Is Publicly Accessible
Google cannot index a page that it cannot properly access.
This is one of the first technical checks I make.
Open your website in a browser without being logged into WordPress.
Check the homepage.
Then open the important pages individually.
Make sure they load normally.
Pay particular attention to:
- Homepage
- Services pages
- Product pages
- About page
- Contact page
- Important blog posts
If a page requires a login, is returning an error, or has accidentally been restricted, Google may not be able to access it properly.
You should also make sure your website uses HTTPS.
For a normal business website, the address should look like:
rather than:
http://yourbusiness.com
Step 3: Check WordPress Search Engine Visibility
If your business website is built with WordPress, there is one setting I would check before doing anything else.
Go to:
WordPress → Settings → Reading
Look for the setting related to discouraging search engines from indexing the website.
If you accidentally enable it, you can spend days publishing content and wondering why Google isn’t picking it up.
This is a simple mistake, but it can have a major effect.
I have learned to check the basic technical settings before assuming that Google is the problem.
There is no point requesting indexing repeatedly if you’ve accidentally told search engines not to index the site.
Step 4: Set Up Google Search Console
Now connect the website to Google Search Console.
Search Console is Google’s own tool for monitoring how your website appears in Google Search and investigating crawling and indexing issues.
Create or sign into your Google account and add your website as a property.
You’ll normally encounter two main options:
Domain property
This covers the entire domain and its different URL variations and subdomains.
For example:
example.com
URL-prefix property
This covers a particular URL prefix.
For example:
For a business owner who wants broader monitoring of the entire domain, a Domain property can be useful.
The important thing is not simply adding the property. You need to verify that you control the website.
Google provides several verification methods depending on your setup.
If you’re new to Search Console, I have written a separate practical guide on how to use Google Search Console to get your website indexed.
I would keep the present article focused on getting the business website onto Google rather than repeating the full Search Console tutorial here.
Step 5: Submit Your XML Sitemap
Once Search Console is connected, check your XML sitemap.
A sitemap gives search engines a list of URLs they can discover on your website.
If you’re using WordPress with an SEO plugin, your sitemap may already have been generated automatically.
Common sitemap addresses include:
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
or:
yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml
But don’t simply assume which one you have.
Open your website’s sitemap and check.
Once you know the correct sitemap address, go to:
Google Search Console → Sitemaps
Enter the sitemap URL and submit it.
A sitemap does not guarantee that Google will index every page.
I think this is an important distinction for beginners.
You are basically giving Google a cleaner way to discover the URLs that exist on your website. You are not telling Google:
“Index all these pages immediately.”
Step 6: Check Your Website on Google
After setting up Search Console, perform a simple Google search:
site:yourdomain.com
For example:
site:abcprints.com
If Google returns pages from your website, then Google has already indexed at least some of your pages.
That is good information.
But don’t misunderstand the result.
A site: search isn’t a complete diagnostic report of everything Google has indexed.
For more detailed information, use Search Console’s URL Inspection tool.
Still, the site: search is a quick test I often find useful when trying to understand what Google is already showing.
Step 7: Inspect Your Homepage
Go back to Google Search Console.
Use:
URL Inspection
Enter your complete homepage URL.
For example:
Search Console will tell you whether Google has the URL in its index and provide information about its status.
You may see something like:
URL is on Google
or:
URL is not on Google
If the homepage is not indexed, don’t immediately start rebuilding the website.
Find out why.
That is an important habit I’ve developed from working with websites.
I don’t like changing five things at once when I don’t yet know what is causing the problem.
Step 8: Inspect Your Important Business Pages
Don’t stop with the homepage.
Inspect the pages that actually matter to the business.
For example, a web-design company might have:
/web-design/
A printing company might have:
/printing-services/
A care agency might have:
/care-services/
An accountant might have:
/accounting-services/
These pages may be more commercially important than a general blog article.
If Google can find your homepage but cannot properly index your main service pages, you haven’t solved the real problem.
This is why I recommend thinking about important URLs, not simply “how many pages are indexed?”
Step 9: Make Sure Important Pages Are Linked From Somewhere
This is one of the easiest things to overlook when building a website.
Don’t create a page and then leave it sitting somewhere with no useful links pointing to it.
For example, if you have a service page called:
Website Design for Small Businesses
your homepage might naturally link to it.
Your services page might link to it.
A relevant article might also link to it.
Your navigation may link to it.
This gives visitors a clear way to reach the page and gives search engines additional paths through your website.
The same principle applies to your content.
If you publish an article about website design costs, it can naturally link to a related article about how much small business website design costs.
That is much more useful than randomly adding internal links simply because someone said:
“You need internal links for SEO.”
The link should make sense to the person reading the page.
Step 10: Check Your Robots.txt File
Another basic technical check is your robots.txt file.
You can normally find it at:
yourdomain.com/robots.txt
This file provides instructions to search-engine crawlers about areas of your website they can or cannot crawl.
You don’t need to become a technical SEO specialist to understand the basic principle.
You simply need to make sure you haven’t accidentally blocked important areas of the website.
I’ve seen how easy it is for a website owner to copy settings from somewhere else without understanding what those settings actually do.
Don’t do that with robots.txt.
A rule that makes sense for one website may not make sense for another.
Step 11: Check for Accidental “Noindex” Settings
This is another thing I would investigate if an important page isn’t appearing on Google.
A noindex directive tells search engines that a page should not be included in their index.
If your service page accidentally has a noindex directive, submitting it repeatedly through Search Console won’t solve the underlying problem.
Check:
- WordPress settings
- SEO plugin settings
- Individual page settings
- Important templates
- Any other setting that controls search-engine indexing
If you use an SEO plugin, look at the page’s search appearance or advanced settings rather than assuming everything is configured correctly.
Step 12: Make Sure Your Website Doesn’t Have Basic Technical Problems
Before blaming Google, I check the website itself.
Can the page load?
Does the URL return an error?
Does the website work properly on a phone?
Are important links broken?
Are images so large that the page takes a long time to load?
Are there unnecessary plugins causing problems?
Is the website secure?
These aren’t all “Google indexing problems,” but they can affect the overall quality and accessibility of the website.
I’ve become particularly careful about website performance because fixing speed isn’t simply about getting a high number in a PageSpeed test.
For example, a large hero image, excessive scripts, poor hosting or unnecessary plugins can create completely different performance problems. I’ve documented the practical approach I use in my guide to fixing Google PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals problems.
Step 13: Request Indexing for a New or Updated Page
If you’ve published an important new page and it isn’t indexed yet, you can use Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to request indexing.
The basic process is:
URL Inspection → Enter URL → Request Indexing
But this is where I would caution a beginner.
Don’t keep pressing the button because the page hasn’t appeared immediately.
Requesting indexing is not a command that says:
“Put this website on Google now.”
It is a request for Google to consider crawling the URL.
Google still decides when and whether a page is crawled, indexed and eventually displayed in search results.
So after making sure the page is technically accessible and useful, give Google time.
Understand the Difference Between Indexing and Ranking
This is probably the biggest misunderstanding I see around this subject.
Suppose your business website is indexed.
You search:
web designer in Lagos
and don’t see your website.
That does not necessarily mean Google hasn’t indexed your website.
Your website could already be indexed but ranking far below the results you’re looking at.
For example:
Indexed: Google knows about your page.
Ranking: Google decides where that page appears for a particular search.
These are different things.
Imagine you built a website for a Lagos-based business.
Google may know the website exists.
But when someone searches:
website designer Lagos
your website may appear much farther down the results.
At that point, submitting the sitemap again won’t solve the problem.
You need to look at the actual search visibility of the relevant page.
Don’t Expect Your Business Name to Rank for Every Service Immediately
There is another practical distinction worth understanding.
Suppose your business is called:
ABC Digital Solutions
If someone searches:
ABC Digital Solutions
you have a very specific branded search.
But if someone searches:
website design for small businesses
that is a completely different search.
Your website needs a page that clearly addresses that service and its search intent.
This is one reason I don’t treat “getting a website on Google” and “getting customers from Google” as exactly the same task.
The first is about discoverability and indexing.
The second requires much more work around relevance, useful content, page structure, competition and search intent.
Make Your Main Service Pages Understandable
When I build a business website like our own (www.creativitypublications.com), I don’t want the homepage to be the only page carrying the entire business.
A service should have enough information on its own page for a visitor to understand what is being offered.
For example, if you offer web design, a page about web design should explain:
- What you build
- Who the service is for
- What is included
- What problem the service solves
- How the process works
- How someone can contact you
Don’t create a page that simply says:
“We offer professional website design services.”
That’s too little information for a serious business page.
The page should help both the visitor and the business.
If you are deciding whether to build the website yourself or hire someone, I also explain what to look for when choosing the right web designer.
Check Google Search Console After the Website Has Been Live for a While
Once Google has had time to crawl your website, Search Console becomes much more useful.
Look at:
Performance → Search Results
You’ll begin to see information such as:
- Clicks
- Impressions
- Queries
- Pages
- Countries
- Devices
- Average position
- Click-through rate
This tells you what is actually happening rather than what you think is happening.
For example, you might discover that Google is already showing your service page for several searches you didn’t specifically target.
That gives you useful information.
You may also discover that an important page has impressions but very few clicks.
That tells you to investigate the page’s visibility and search result rather than assuming the page isn’t indexed.
I go into the Search Console process in much greater detail in my beginner’s guide to Google Search Console.
What If Your Website Is Indexed but Still Doesn’t Appear When You Search?
This is where many beginners make a wrong turn.
They submit the sitemap again.
They request indexing again.
They change the homepage.
They install another SEO plugin.
None of those actions necessarily solve the problem.
First ask:
Is the page actually indexed?
If yes, ask:
What search am I expecting it to appear for?
Then check:
What is the page’s average position for that search?
If your page is indexed but sitting far down the results, the problem has moved from basic indexing to search visibility.
I’ve written separately about why a website may not be showing on Google even when the website is live.
That is a different problem from simply getting a new website discovered.
One Lesson My Website Projects Have Taught Me
When I started learning web design, I was interested in making websites look good.
That is a natural starting point.
You choose the layout.
You adjust the colours.
You arrange the sections.
You make the buttons look right.
But after building and working on different websites, I came to understand that a website isn’t finished simply because it looks finished.
I’ve worked on different types of projects, including redesign work and websites built from scratch. Each project presents different problems.
One website may need a better structure.
Another may have a specific business process that the website needs to handle.
Another may need a completely different approach to content and navigation.
And my own experience rebuilding Creativity Publications reinforced another lesson: owning and maintaining the website matters just as much as building it.
The original Creativity Publications website was created years ago. When the domain later expired while I was away working remotely, I lost content that had not been properly backed up.
That experience changed the way I think about websites.
A business website isn’t just a design project.
It is something you need to maintain, protect, monitor and improve.
Google is part of that process.
Don’t Confuse “On Google” With “Ranking on Google”
If you remember only one thing from this article, make it this:
Getting your website on Google and getting your website to rank well on Google are two different jobs.
To get started, make sure:
- Your website is publicly accessible.
- Your important pages are complete.
- Search engines are not accidentally blocked.
- Google Search Console is connected.
- Your website is verified.
- Your sitemap is submitted.
- Your important URLs are inspected.
- Your important pages are internally linked.
- You monitor indexing.
- You use Search Console data to understand what happens next.
Don’t keep submitting the same URL because it hasn’t ranked yet.
Don’t install another SEO plugin simply because your website isn’t appearing for a competitive keyword.
And don’t rebuild a perfectly functional website before finding out what the actual problem is.
Check first. Diagnose second. Fix the actual problem.
That is the approach I have found much more useful through practical website work.
Your first goal isn’t to make Google love your website.
It is much simpler:
Make sure Google can find your website, access the important pages, understand what those pages are about, and include the right pages in its index.
Once that foundation is in place, you can start working on the much bigger question of getting those pages in front of the right people.
Related resources
For readers who want to continue from this specific point, these are the most relevant supporting guides:
- Google Search Console for Beginners — for inspecting URLs, indexing and search performance.
- Why Is My Website Not Showing on Google? — for diagnosing websites that are live but not appearing as expected.
- How to Create a Professional Website Without Coding — for the website-building side before launch.
- How to Fix Google PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals — for practical website performance problems.
- How to Choose the Right Web Designer — for businesses considering professional website development.
- Website Design Cost for Small Businesses — for understanding the practical costs involved in building a business website.
- Best Website Builders for Small Businesses — for readers who haven’t chosen their website platform yet.
Olayinka Joseph is the founder, editor and lead practitioner behind Creativity Publications, where publishing, technology, web design, and digital content come together to help authors and businesses build with confidence. He is a writer, publisher, web designer, and digital publishing professional with more than 15 years of combined professional and ministry experience. With a B.Sc. in Computer Science and postgraduate studies in Information Technology, he brings together practical technology knowledge, publishing experience, writing, website development, and digital content strategy to help authors, entrepreneurs, churches, and small businesses build a credible presence online.
Through Creativity Publications, Olayinka works directly on the practical side of publishing and digital brand development. His work includes book writing and editing, manuscript preparation, book formatting, self-publishing guidance, publishing research, author branding, WordPress website design, website development, SEO, content creation, and online publishing strategy. Rather than simply discussing these subjects theoretically, he applies the same principles to real publishing and website projects—helping turn manuscripts into professionally presented books and helping authors and businesses build websites that serve as credible online platforms for their brands, content, and products. And also writes beginner-friendly guides on web design, artificial intelligence and book publishing, to help readers make informed decisions
