How long does it take for a new website to show up on Google?

The home page is often indexed within days of verifying the site and requesting indexing, but it can take a few weeks. Ranking for searches beyond your company name usually takes months, and competitive phrases take longer. Requesting indexing helps Google find a page; it does not decide where it ranks.

Why is my website not showing up on Google?

Start with the basics: a noindex tag left over from staging, Disallow: / in robots.txt, a firewall or country block stopping Googlebot, or pages that nothing links to. URL Inspection in Search Console tells you whether a page is indexed and, if not, why. If everything is technically fine, the site may simply be too new or its pages too thin to compete.

Is it free to submit a website to Google?

Yes. Google Search Console, sitemaps, URL Inspection and Google Business Profile are all free, and so are Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow. You cannot pay Google for higher organic rankings; paid placement is Google Ads, a separate product.

How many pages can I request indexing for per day?

Request indexing in Search Console has a daily quota per property. Google does not publish the exact number, and it is small, so use it for your most important pages. For everything else, rely on the sitemap and on links between your own pages.

Should I buy backlinks for a new website?

No. Links bought to influence rankings break Google's spam policies and can hurt the site. Put the effort into links from real clients, partners, associations and content people want to cite.

Do Arabic and English pages need separate URLs?

Yes. Give each language its own URL, point each page's canonical to itself and connect the versions with hreflang. If you switch language on the same URL with cookies or by location, Google will usually see and index only one language.

Do I need Bing Webmaster Tools if most people use Google?

It takes a few minutes if you import the site from Search Console, and Bing's index also feeds Yahoo, part of DuckDuckGo and Microsoft Copilot. It also gives you a second set of crawl reports, which can surface problems that are less obvious in Google's.

How to get a new company website on Google

Youssef Mohamed20 October 202613 min read

How a new website gets into Google

Publishing a website does not put it on Google. Search engines first have to find the address, crawl the pages, decide which ones are worth keeping in their index, and only then rank them. For a new domain with no links pointing to it, that takes weeks, not hours.

Nobody can switch this on for you, and Google itself says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. What you can do is remove whatever slows each stage down. This is the checklist I follow for every company website I launch, in this order.

Launch checks: HTTPS, redirects, robots.txt and noindex

Before telling any search engine about the site, check what can hide all of it at once:

HTTPS works, and http:// redirects to https:// with a permanent 301.
One host only, with or without www, and the other one redirects to it.
Real pages return 200, and missing pages return a real 404, not an error page with a 200 status that Google may treat as a soft 404.
No page you want found has a noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header. Staging sites add one on purpose and it sometimes survives launch, as can the WordPress setting ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’.
robots.txt does not say Disallow: / for all user agents. Remember that Disallow stops crawling, not indexing, and Google cannot see a noindex on a page it is not allowed to crawl.
If the site replaces an old one, old URLs with visits or links redirect with a 301 to their closest new page.
The mobile version has the same content as desktop, because Google indexes mobile.

# Production robots.txt: crawl everything except private areas
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

# A staging robots.txt often looks like this.
# If it reaches the live site, it blocks crawling of every page:
# User-agent: *
# Disallow: /

Set up Google Search Console and choose a verification method

Google Search Console is free, and it shows how Google sees your site. Set it up on launch day:

Add a Domain property if you can. It covers http and https, www and no www, and every subdomain, and it is verified with a DNS record, usually TXT.
Use a URL-prefix property only if you cannot edit DNS. It covers one exact address and can be verified with an HTML file, a meta tag, Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager.
Leave the verification record in place, or the property loses its verification.
Create the property in a Google account the company owns, then add your developer as a full user. When people change jobs, the data stays with the business.

Submit a clean sitemap

Most website platforms generate a sitemap, usually at /sitemap.xml. Open it before you submit it and check:

It lists only indexable pages that return 200: no redirects, no 404s and nothing marked noindex.
Every URL is the canonical version, on the protocol and host the site really uses, in both languages if the site has two.
lastmod changes only when the content changes. Google uses it when it is consistently accurate, and it ignores priority and changefreq.
robots.txt has a Sitemap: line with the full address.
Then submit it under Sitemaps in Search Console. ‘Success’ means Google read the file, not that every page is indexed. The old sitemap ‘ping’ address is retired.

URL Inspection and its daily limit

Paste any address into the bar at the top of Search Console to see whether it is indexed, which canonical Google chose and when it was last crawled. ‘Test live URL’ shows the HTML and a screenshot of what Googlebot gets right now, the fastest way to spot a firewall or script in the way.

‘Request indexing’ adds the page to a priority crawl queue. Google says crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks, and a request does not guarantee indexing. Only owners and full users can use it.

There is also a small daily quota per property, and Google does not publish the number. When it runs out, Search Console says to try again tomorrow. Asking twice for one page does not help, so spend it on the home page and main service pages, and let the sitemap and internal links do the rest.

Why pages sit in ‘Discovered – currently not indexed’

Google says it found the URL but rescheduled the crawl, typically to avoid overloading the site. On a new site, it usually means Google is not yet convinced the page is worth it. These things help:

Link to the page from pages Google already crawls: the main menu, the home page, related services and articles.
Make the page worth indexing. Two lines under a heading, or a near copy of another page, gets little attention.
Cut low-value URLs that compete for crawling: filter parameters, empty tag pages, old test pages.
Keep the server fast and stable, and earn a few links from other sites.
‘Crawled – currently not indexed’ means Google fetched the page and passed for now. Google says there is no need to resubmit; improve the page instead.
‘Page with redirect’ and ‘Alternate page with proper canonical tag’ are usually fine. They mean your redirects and canonicals are working.

CDN, firewall and security settings that block crawlers

The problem I find most often on sites that look perfect in a browser is something in front of the site treating Googlebot or Bingbot like an attacker. Check for:

Country blocking. Sites in Egypt and the Gulf often block traffic from abroad to cut spam, but Googlebot usually crawls from the United States.
Challenge pages. JavaScript challenges, CAPTCHAs and ‘under attack’ modes can show crawlers a challenge instead of your content.
Rate limits so tight that a crawler fetching several pages in a row gets errors.
AI crawler settings. On Cloudflare, a rule meant for AI training can also catch crawlers that do several jobs, such as Googlebot and Bingbot. Check what each option does to search crawlers before saving.
To check, run ‘Test live URL’, open Settings and then Crawl stats in Search Console, and ask your server admin to look for Googlebot in the logs.
To opt out of AI training but stay in Google Search, use the Google-Extended token in robots.txt; Google says it does not affect Search.

Canonical and hreflang on an Arabic and English site

Most of my clients in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE need their site in Arabic and English. That works well when each language has its own URL, such as /ar/ and /en/.

Each page's canonical points to itself. A common mistake is pointing the Arabic page's canonical at the English page, which tells Google the Arabic page is a duplicate and drops it from Arabic results.

hreflang tags list every version, including the page itself, and each version must list the others back, or Google ignores them. Add x-default as the fallback and use valid codes such as ar, en, ar-SA or en-AE, not ar-UAE or en-UK.

Do not switch language on one URL by IP or cookie, or redirect visitors by browser language: Googlebot usually crawls from the US and would see only one version. Google reads language from visible text, not the lang attribute, so translate menus and buttons too, and still set lang and dir for browsers and screen readers.

<!-- In the <head> of https://www.example.com/en/services/web-design -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/en/services/web-design">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.example.com/en/services/web-design">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ar" href="https://www.example.com/ar/services/web-design">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/en/services/web-design">

<!-- In the <head> of https://www.example.com/ar/services/web-design -->
<!-- (and that page starts with <html lang="ar" dir="rtl">) -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/ar/services/web-design">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.example.com/en/services/web-design">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ar" href="https://www.example.com/ar/services/web-design">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/en/services/web-design">

Titles and descriptions that match real searches

The title is the link people see in search results, and the meta description is often the text under it. Every page needs its own:

Describe the page, not the company. ‘Web design and development in Riyadh | Company name’ beats ‘Home’.
Put the important words first. There is no fixed length, but long titles get cut off.
Write Arabic titles in the words people actually search for, such as ‘تصميم مواقع’, not a word-for-word translation.
Keep every title and description unique, and do not repeat one phrase across all of them.
Treat the description as a short pitch for the page. It does not change rankings, and Google sometimes writes its own snippet, but a good one earns clicks.
Give each page one clear main heading that matches its title.

Page speed basics

Speed matters for ranking and for visitors on mobile data. Google measures real users with three Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint (good is 2.5 seconds or less), Interaction to Next Paint (200 milliseconds or less) and Cumulative Layout Shift (0.1 or less). Test pages in PageSpeed Insights and fix the usual causes:

Images: display size, WebP or AVIF, and lazy loading lower down, never for the top image.
Autoplaying hero videos, often the heaviest thing on the whole site.
Arabic fonts, which are large. Load only the weights you use, subset them where the licence allows, and use font-display: swap.
Third-party scripts: chat widgets, trackers and embedded maps. Keep only what you use.
Layout shifts: set width and height on images, and reserve space for banners.
Distance: serve the site through a CDN with locations near your visitors in the Gulf or Egypt.
Expect ‘not enough data’ in Search Console's Core Web Vitals report at first; it is based on real Chrome users.

Service and region pages, and why city-swap pages fail

A home page cannot rank for everything. Someone searching for ‘mobile app development company in Riyadh’ wants a page about exactly that, so give each service its own page, and each region you really serve.

A service page covers what you do, who it is for, how the work runs, what the client prepares, what drives cost and timeline, real examples, common questions and how to get in touch. A region page covers working with clients there: language, time zones, contracts and payments, local needs such as mada card payments in Saudi Arabia, and the questions those clients actually ask.

What fails is one template copied fifty times with only the city name changed. Google's spam policies call these doorway pages, and pages mass-produced this way can also count as scaled content abuse. At best they are ignored; at worst they bring lower rankings or a manual action. If you cannot write something specific about a region, skip the page.

Google Business Profile and other local listings

Searches with a city name or ‘near me’ often show map results first. Those come from Google Business Profile:

You qualify if customers visit you during stated hours or you go to them. Online-only businesses and virtual offices do not.
If you visit clients and do not receive them, set a service area and hide the address.
Use your real business name. Adding keywords or cities to it breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
Pick the most accurate primary category, and add services, hours, real photos and a link to the matching page.
Google picks the verification method and may ask for a short video of your premises.
Ask real clients for reviews and reply to them. Never buy or reward reviews.
Keep name, address and phone identical everywhere, then add Bing Places, which can import your Google profile, and Apple Business Connect where available.

Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow

Bing's index also powers Yahoo, is one of DuckDuckGo's sources and sits behind Microsoft Copilot's web answers. In Bing Webmaster Tools, import your site from Google Search Console: it is verified automatically, and your sitemaps can come across too.

Bing also supports IndexNow, an open protocol for announcing that URLs were added, changed or deleted. Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam and Yep take part and share submissions with each other. Google does not use it, so it adds to Search Console rather than replacing it.

Many CMS plugins and some CDNs send IndexNow pings for you. If yours does not, host a key of 8 to 128 letters, numbers or dashes in a text file at the site root, and send only the URLs that changed. A 200 or 202 response means it was accepted:

# 1. Host the key in a text file at the site root:
#    https://www.example.com/0f3c9a2b7d4e4f1a8c6b5d2e9a7f3c1b.txt
# 2. Send the URLs that changed:
curl -X POST "https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
  -d '{
    "host": "www.example.com",
    "key": "0f3c9a2b7d4e4f1a8c6b5d2e9a7f3c1b",
    "keyLocation": "https://www.example.com/0f3c9a2b7d4e4f1a8c6b5d2e9a7f3c1b.txt",
    "urlList": [
      "https://www.example.com/en/services/web-design",
      "https://www.example.com/ar/services/web-design"
    ]
  }'

Earning real links

Links from other sites are still one of Google's strongest signals, and they are how crawlers and people find a new site. The good ones come from real relationships:

Clients who add a credit line with a link, if they agree.
Partners, suppliers and distributors that list who they work with.
Chambers of commerce, industry associations and events where you are a member, sponsor or speaker.
Directories that people in your field actually use, not bulk directory lists.
Content others want to cite: a clear guide, a checklist or original photos of your work.
Profiles such as LinkedIn with the same name and link everywhere. They rarely pass ranking value, but they help confirm who you are.
Avoid bought links and ‘1,000 backlinks’ packages. Google treats links bought for ranking as link spam, and paid placements should use rel="sponsored" or nofollow.

What to expect in the first weeks and months

Every site is different, so treat this as a typical pattern, not a promise:

First days: Search Console fills with data, the home page is often indexed soon after you request it, and a distinctive company name may start to show.
Weeks two to four: more pages get indexed, some wait in the ‘Discovered’ or ‘Crawled’ states, and impressions appear for long, specific searches.
Months two and three: positions jump around, which is normal. Fix what the Page indexing report shows and keep improving the main pages.
Month three onwards: with good pages and growing links, searches without your name grow. Phrases like ‘web design company in Dubai’ take much longer against sites with years of content and links.
Watch impressions and indexed pages first; clicks come later. The Performance report's Queries tab shows what people searched to find you.
A site: search is only a rough check; Search Console is the reliable source.

What to do this week

If your site is new, or has been live for a while without showing up, work in this order:

Check robots.txt, noindex tags, redirects and the CDN or firewall settings.
Verify a Domain property in the company's own account, and submit the sitemap.
Request indexing for the home page and the main service pages, a few a day.
Import the site into Bing Webmaster Tools, and turn on IndexNow if your platform supports it.
Fix canonical and hreflang tags on the Arabic and English pages.
Write a strong page per service, and per region only where you have something real to say.
Set up Google Business Profile if eligible, and ask recent clients for a review and a link.
Check Search Console weekly, not hourly, and give it a few months.

Common questions

How long does it take for a new website to show up on Google?: The home page is often indexed within days of verifying the site and requesting indexing, but it can take a few weeks. Ranking for searches beyond your company name usually takes months, and competitive phrases take longer. Requesting indexing helps Google find a page; it does not decide where it ranks.
Why is my website not showing up on Google?: Start with the basics: a noindex tag left over from staging, Disallow: / in robots.txt, a firewall or country block stopping Googlebot, or pages that nothing links to. URL Inspection in Search Console tells you whether a page is indexed and, if not, why. If everything is technically fine, the site may simply be too new or its pages too thin to compete.
Is it free to submit a website to Google?: Yes. Google Search Console, sitemaps, URL Inspection and Google Business Profile are all free, and so are Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow. You cannot pay Google for higher organic rankings; paid placement is Google Ads, a separate product.
How many pages can I request indexing for per day?: Request indexing in Search Console has a daily quota per property. Google does not publish the exact number, and it is small, so use it for your most important pages. For everything else, rely on the sitemap and on links between your own pages.
Should I buy backlinks for a new website?: No. Links bought to influence rankings break Google's spam policies and can hurt the site. Put the effort into links from real clients, partners, associations and content people want to cite.
Do Arabic and English pages need separate URLs?: Yes. Give each language its own URL, point each page's canonical to itself and connect the versions with hreflang. If you switch language on the same URL with cookies or by location, Google will usually see and index only one language.
Do I need Bing Webmaster Tools if most people use Google?: It takes a few minutes if you import the site from Search Console, and Bing's index also feeds Yahoo, part of DuckDuckGo and Microsoft Copilot. It also gives you a second set of crawl reports, which can surface problems that are less obvious in Google's.