You have a website, you have searched for your business on Google, and it is nowhere to be seen. It is one of the most common frustrations I hear from Dorset business owners. The good news is that the cause is usually one of a handful of fixable problems. Here are the eight I see most often.
1. Google has not found your website yet
New websites are not indexed instantly. Google has to discover your site, crawl it and decide to include it in results. You can check by searching site:yourdomain.co.uk. If nothing appears, submit your site to Google Search Console and add a sitemap so Google knows which pages exist.
2. Your website is telling Google to stay away
This happens more often than you would think. WordPress has a setting called “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”, which is often switched on during a build and never switched off. A stray “noindex” tag or a blocking robots.txt file can have the same effect. All three are quick to check and quick to fix.
3. You are searching for the wrong thing
Searching your exact business name is not the same as being found by customers. People search for what they need: “plasterer Dorchester” or “wedding photographer Dorset”. If your pages never mention the services you offer and the places you serve, Google has little reason to show them for those searches.
4. Your pages are thin or unclear
A single homepage that lists everything you do in one paragraph is hard for Google to rank. Dedicated pages for each main service, with clear headings and useful detail, give Google a much better understanding of what you offer and who it is for. It is how I structure every website I design for Dorset businesses.
5. Your website is slow
Speed affects both rankings and whether visitors stick around. Oversized images, heavy page builders, too many plugins and cheap hosting are the usual culprits. You can test any page for free with Google’s PageSpeed Insights, and regular website maintenance stops a fast site slowing down over time.
6. It does not work well on phones
Google primarily looks at the mobile version of your website. If text is tiny, buttons are hard to tap or content is hidden on smaller screens, your rankings can suffer, and so will your enquiries.
7. There are technical errors getting in the way
Broken links, redirect chains, duplicate pages and missing page titles all make it harder for Google to understand and trust your site. They are invisible to most visitors but show up quickly in an SEO audit.
8. You do not have a Google Business Profile
For local searches, and especially searches that include “near me”, the map results often appear above the normal results. Those come from Google Business Profile, not your website. A complete, verified profile with genuine reviews is one of the most effective things a local business can set up.
What to do next
If you have checked the basics and your website still is not showing up, it is usually worth a proper audit. I offer SEO optimisation for Dorset businesses, starting with a full audit and a plain-English summary of what is holding your site back. Get in touch and I will take a look.