To get your website on Google, you do not pay anything or fill in a submission form. You make sure Google can crawl your pages, add the site to Google Search Console and verify that you own it, submit your sitemap, ask Google to crawl your most important pages with the URL Inspection tool, and get a few links from other sites. Google finds and indexes most new sites within a few days to a few weeks after that.
This guide puts those steps in the order that works, shows how to check whether your website is on Google right now, and covers what to do when it still is not showing up.
Is my website on Google already? Check first
Search Google for site:yourdomain.com (your own domain, no space after the colon). If pages come up, your website is on Google and you can skip to the steps for the pages that are missing. If nothing comes up, Google has not indexed the site yet, or not much of it.
The site: search is a rough check: Google itself says it does not necessarily return every indexed URL. Once your site is verified in Search Console (step 3), the URL Inspection tool gives you the exact answer for any page: URL is on Google or URL is not on Google, with the reason.
How to get your website on Google in 6 steps
The order matters. Each step depends on the one before it, and skipping the first two is the most common reason a new site stays invisible.
| Step | What you do | Time it takes | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Make the site crawlable | Remove robots.txt blocks, noindex tags and login walls from public pages. | 15 minutes | Free |
| 2. Publish real pages | Homepage, an about or contact page and 3 to 5 core pages with real content. | Hours to days | Free |
| 3. Verify in Search Console | Add a Domain property and verify it with a DNS record. | 10 minutes plus DNS time | Free |
| 4. Submit your sitemap | Indexing, Sitemaps, Add a new sitemap, Submit. | 2 minutes | Free |
| 5. Ask Google to crawl key pages | URL Inspection, Test live URL, Request indexing for your homepage and core pages. | 1 minute per page | Free |
| 6. Earn your first links | Profiles, directories in your niche, partners, a Google Business Profile. | Ongoing | Free |
Step 1: Make your website crawlable
Google can only index what Googlebot can fetch. Before anything else, check three things:
- robots.txt does not block the site. Open
yourdomain.com/robots.txt. ADisallow: /line underUser-agent: *blocks everything. Many site builders and staging setups add it, and it often survives the launch. - No noindex tag on public pages. View the page source and search for
noindex. Site builders have a "hide from search engines" or "discourage search engines" setting (in WordPress it is under Settings, Reading); make sure it is off. - Pages are public. A password page, a "coming soon" mode or a login wall stops Googlebot exactly like it stops visitors.
Step 2: Publish a few real pages first
A site with only a placeholder homepage gives Google nothing to index. Before you ask Google to look, publish a homepage that says what you do, an about or contact page, and 3 to 5 core pages, each about one clear topic: your main services, products or guides. Give each page a specific title, a short readable URL (/pricing, /wedding-photography) and links to the other pages, so every page is reachable from the homepage in a few clicks.
Step 3: Add your website to Google Search Console
Google Search Console is Google's free tool for site owners. It is where you tell Google about your site and see what Google sees.
- Open Search Console and sign in with your Google account.
- Click the property selector at the top left, then Add property.
- Choose Domain and enter your domain without
https://(for exampleexample.com). A Domain property covers every version of the site:http,https,wwwand subdomains. - Click Continue. Search Console shows a TXT record. Copy it.
- Add the TXT record in your domain registrar's or DNS provider's settings, then come back and click Verify.
If you cannot edit DNS, choose URL prefix instead. It offers other ways to verify: an HTML file, an HTML tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager or your domain name provider. Whichever method you use, leave the record or tag in place after verification; removing it can cost you access later.
Step 4: Submit your sitemap
Your sitemap lists every page you want on Google. Most platforms create one for you at /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml. In Search Console, open Sitemaps under Indexing, enter the sitemap URL in Add a new sitemap and click Submit. The full walkthrough, including what each status means, is in our guide on how to submit a sitemap to Google. Not sure the file is valid? The free sitemap checker finds it and checks the XML before Google reads it.
Step 5: Ask Google to crawl your key pages
A sitemap tells Google which pages exist. To ask Google to crawl a specific page now, paste its URL into the URL Inspection search bar, click Test live URL to confirm nothing blocks it, then click Request indexing. Start with the homepage, then your core pages. There is a daily quota, so spend it on the pages that matter most. Our URL Inspection tool guide explains every field the tool shows you.
Step 6: Earn your first links
Google finds new sites mostly through links from pages it already knows. A brand-new domain with no links anywhere is the hardest case. Get a handful of real ones:
- Your own social profiles (LinkedIn, X, YouTube, GitHub) with your website in the bio.
- A free Google Business Profile if you serve customers locally.
- Directories and communities that are specific to your industry or city.
- Partners, suppliers, clients and anyone who already knows your work.
Do not buy links. Google's guidance on getting your site on Google says plainly not to pay anyone to link to you, since that can violate its spam policies.
How long does it take to get a website on Google?
Google's own documentation says it can take a few weeks for Google to notice a new site. In practice, once the site is crawlable, verified and has a sitemap, individual pages often show up within days.
Here is our own data. We took the 21 posts this blog published between December 2025 and May 2026 and counted the days from the day each post went live to its first impression in Google Search, according to our Search Console.
| Days from going live to first Google impression | Posts |
|---|---|
| 0 to 1 day | 6 |
| 2 to 3 days | 5 |
| 4 to 7 days | 6 |
| 8 to 21 days | 1 |
| 22 to 41 days | 3 |
The median was 2 days, and 17 of the 21 posts were showing in Google within a week. The 3 slow ones went live in April 2026 and took 22, 23 and 41 days. Keep in mind that indexmachine.co is not a brand-new domain: it already had links and a crawl history. A domain registered last week starts at the slow end of that table, which is why steps 3 to 6 matter most for new sites. For timelines by site type, see how long Google takes to index new pages.
How much does it cost to get your website on Google?
Nothing. Getting your website into Google's search results is free, and Google states that it does not accept payment to crawl a site more frequently or rank it higher. Search Console is free, sitemaps are free and Request indexing is free.
What costs money is optional: Google Ads (a paid ad above the results, not a place in the results themselves), a domain and hosting, and tools that save you time by doing the repetitive parts for you.
How to get your business website on Google and Google Maps
A local business has two separate things to set up. The steps above put your website in Google Search. A free Google Business Profile puts your business on Google Maps and in local results, with your hours, reviews, photos and a link to your website. Do both: the profile can show up for searches with your business name or "near me", and it links to your website.
Still not on Google after a week?
Inspect the page with URL Inspection in Search Console. The reason it shows ("URL is unknown to Google", "Crawled - currently not indexed", a noindex tag, a robots.txt block) points straight to the fix.
When nothing blocks the page and it is still waiting, our guide to speeding up indexing once you are set up covers internal links, structured data and the other levers that get a page crawled sooner.
Keep every new page getting on Google automatically
Steps 4 and 5 are not one-time jobs. Every new page and every page that drops out of the index needs the same treatment: notice it is missing, ask Google to crawl it, check again a few days later, repeat. By hand, that is one URL at a time in URL Inspection, every day, within the daily quota.
IndexMachine does that for you. It imports your sites from Search Console, picks up new pages from each sitemap automatically, and its Chrome extension presses Google's own Request indexing button in your Search Console, on autopilot, every day, for the pages Google has not indexed yet, using your full daily Google quota on every site. Every other engine (Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver) gets unlimited IndexNow. You get 404 alerts, daily reports in the dashboard and a weekly email report, and you can pay once for lifetime access or subscribe.
Find out which of your pages are not on Google
Create a free IndexMachine account and sign in with Google: it imports your Search Console sites and shows which pages Google has not indexed. When you want them on Google, turn on daily Request Indexing in your own Search Console plus unlimited IndexNow.
FAQs
How do I get my website on Google for free?
Make the site crawlable, publish a few real pages, verify it in Google Search Console, submit your sitemap, use URL Inspection to ask Google to crawl your key pages, and get a few genuine links. Every one of those steps is free.
How do I add my website to Google?
Verify the site in Google Search Console, then submit your sitemap there. Google can also find sites through links on its own. Telling Google about your pages directly, and seeing what Google sees, gets a new site on Google sooner.
How do I get a new website on Google quickly?
Do steps 1 to 5 on launch day, starting with the homepage in URL Inspection, and get a few links from profiles and partners the same week. Then check URL Inspection every few days and ask again for any key page still not on Google.
Why is my website on Google but not on the first page?
Being on Google means the page is indexed. Ranking on the first page depends on how well the page answers the search compared with every other page. New sites usually rank first for their own brand name and for specific, low-competition searches.
Can I pay Google to get my website listed?
No. Google does not take payment to crawl, index or rank a site. Google Ads buys ad placements, which are separate from the search results.