Every few weeks someone sends me the same message: "We paid for a website last year and we're still invisible on Google. Is the site broken?"
Usually the site isn't broken. It's just doing nothing — which, to be fair, looks identical from the outside. When I open Search Console and start digging, the diagnosis lands on a shortlist that hasn't changed much in years. Here it is, roughly in the order I check things on a real audit.
1. Google hasn't indexed you at all
Before worrying about ranking, check whether you exist in Google's index. Search for site:yourdomain.com.au — if nothing comes back, ranking advice is pointless; Google doesn't know the pages exist yet.
Common causes I keep finding: a leftover "discourage search engines" setting from the development phase, a noindex tag someone forgot to remove, or simply a brand-new site nobody ever submitted. The fix is free: set up Google Search Console, submit your sitemap, and request indexing on your key pages. I've seen sites sit invisible for six months over a checkbox the developer forgot.
2. Your Google Business Profile is unclaimed or half-done
For local searches — "removalist near me", "chimney sweep melbourne" — the map pack often matters more than the website itself. If your Business Profile is unverified, thin, or has an old address, you're forfeiting the most visible real estate on the page. Claim it, verify it, fill every field, and keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear online. Inconsistent details genuinely confuse Google's understanding of who you are.
3. There's nothing on the site for Google to rank
This is the one nobody wants to hear. A five-page site where every service gets two sentences is competing against businesses that dedicate a full, useful page to each service — and losing on content depth alone.
The fix isn't "more words" — it's more answers. One page per service you actually want enquiries for, written the way you'd explain it to a customer on the phone.
4. Your pages are fighting each other
The strangest case I've worked on: a migration agency whose rankings kept sliding even as they published more content. The audit showed 63 blog posts about partner visas — dozens of near-identical articles all competing for the same searches. Google couldn't tell which one mattered, so none of them did. We consolidated 63 posts down to 22 with redirects, gave each topic exactly one owner page, and the slide reversed.
It's called keyword cannibalisation, and it's shockingly common on sites that have been "doing content" for years without a map.
5. The site is slow or breaks on phones
Most Australian local searches happen on a phone. If your site takes five seconds to paint or the menu doesn't work on mobile, Google notices — and so does everyone who bounces before it loads. Test your own site on your own phone, on mobile data, not office Wi-Fi. That experience is your actual first impression.
6. You're new, and nobody links to you yet
Google leans on signals from the rest of the web: directory listings, industry mentions, links from suppliers or local associations. A brand-new domain with zero mentions is starting from a standing start. Fixable — consistent local citations, a few genuine industry listings, being mentioned where your customers already look — but it takes months, not days. Anyone promising page one in a fortnight is selling you something.
7. Reviews — or the lack of them
Reviews mostly influence the map pack rather than classic blue-link rankings, but for a local service business the map pack is the game. Ask every happy customer. A steady trickle of genuine reviews beats a suspicious burst of twenty in one week — and never buy them; fake reviews get filtered and can get a profile suspended.
8. You're measuring the wrong thing
Owners often tell me "we don't show up" when they mean "we don't show up for the one phrase I typed." Search Console shows what you actually appear for — often the picture is better (or differently broken) than you think. Maybe you rank fine for your brand but nothing commercial. Maybe you're on page two for something valuable, which is a very fixable place to be. Data first, panic later.
Where to start if this all sounds like you
- Set up Search Console and check what's indexed. (Free, 20 minutes.)
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile. (Free, an afternoon plus the verification wait.)
- Pick the three services that make you the most money and give each a proper page.
- Fix the phone experience before anything cosmetic.
- Then — and only then — think about content and links.
That order matters. I've watched businesses spend on backlinks while their best service page was two sentences long. Foundation first.
Questions I get asked every week
How long until a new website shows up on Google?
Indexed: days to a few weeks, if the site is clean and submitted via Search Console. Ranking well enough to bring customers: months. Anyone who quotes you a fixed short timeline for rankings is guessing or lying — Google makes no such promises to anyone.
Will running Google Ads improve my organic ranking?
No — the two systems are separate, and Google has been clear about that for years. Ads rent visibility while you pay. Organic builds visibility you keep. (Mkista doesn't sell ads at all — that's a deliberate choice, and you can read why on our services page.)
Can I do this myself or do I need to hire someone?
The first two fixes on the list — Search Console and your Business Profile — you can absolutely do yourself, and you should. Content structure, cannibalisation cleanups and technical problems are where it usually pays to bring someone in who's seen the pattern before.