Do I have to pay Google to appear?

No. Search Console is free, and Google says you don’t need to sign up for it at all to be included in results; it helps you understand how Google sees your site. Ads are a separate, paid product.

How long until my site shows up?

Google speaks of a few days to a few weeks for crawling, and from a few hours to several months for a change to take effect. No one can guarantee you a date.

I search for my business name and don’t appear. What now?

Start with site:yourbusiness.com. No results means Google hasn’t indexed the site yet: check the domain is verified and the sitemap was read, then wait. If pages appear, they’re indexed, and where they rank is up to Google.

Does a one-page site need a sitemap?

Not strictly: Google says a small, well-linked site may manage without one. Submitting it does no harm, and it tells Google where your pages are.

Should I use “Request indexing”?

For a handful of pages, the URL Inspection tool is what Google suggests, within a quota. Use it once per page; repeating the request doesn’t make Google crawl sooner.

Get your website on Google

This is for anyone whose site is live, ideally on its own domain, and who wants Google to find it and show it. Google finds most sites on its own. Search Console, a free Google service, tells it your site exists and shows you what Google sees.

Time: 10 minutes
Cost: Free

By the end, your domain is verified in Search Console, your sitemap is in, and you know how to check whether your pages are in Google’s index. Setting it up takes minutes. Appearing in results takes longer, and nobody can promise you a date.

Before you start

A Google account that will stay with the business, since access to Search Console belongs to it.
Your domain connected and the site loading on it. With only a .pages.dev address, read the section on choosing a property first.
Access to the domain’s DNS; for a domain on Cloudflare, that’s your Cloudflare account.
The address of your sitemap, usually yourbusiness.com/sitemap.xml. A Promti download includes one if you gave your domain in the wizard; if you didn’t, add it there and download again.

Step by step: show up on Google

Go to search.google.com/search-console and add your site (Add property). Choose Domain and type yourbusiness.com.
Google asks you to prove it’s yours with a DNS record, a line of text. For some domains it offers to add it for you; if not, add it yourself — on Cloudflare: DNS → Records → Add record, type TXT.
Once it’s verified, open Sitemaps, type your sitemap’s full address — https://yourbusiness.com/sitemap.xml — and submit it. (Your download has a sitemap if you gave your domain in the wizard.)

At the end: Google knows your site exists. Showing it can take from a few days to a few weeks, with no guarantee: search site:yourbusiness.com to see what it has.

Domain or URL prefix?

Search Console offers two kinds of property. A Domain property covers every subdomain and both http and https, and it can only be verified through DNS. A URL-prefix property covers only the addresses that begin exactly as you typed, and it accepts other proofs, such as an HTML file.

With your own domain, choose Domain, as the steps do: one property then covers www and everything else. Without a domain yet, add your .pages.dev address as a URL prefix and verify it with Google’s HTML file.

Either way, the proof has to stay in place. Delete the DNS record or the file and the property loses its verification. On Pages, every upload replaces the whole site, so keep Google’s file in your folder.

How long it takes

Google says crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and that requesting it doesn’t guarantee a page will be included, soon or at all. Asking again for the same page won’t speed it up.

A sitemap helps Google discover your pages but doesn’t guarantee they’ll be crawled or indexed. Google says a small site, about 500 pages or fewer, that’s well linked from its home page may not need one, while a new site with few links from other sites is a case where it helps.

To check, search Google for site:yourbusiness.com. If results point to your site, it’s in the index. For any change, Google suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether it worked.

Add the property early: Google starts collecting its data as soon as it’s added, even before you verify it.

When verification or the sitemap fails

Verification fails right after you add the record. Google says a new DNS record can take from a few minutes to a few days to become visible to it. Wait a day or two, then try again.

Your sitemap isn’t in the report. The report only lists sitemaps inside the current property, so check you haven’t mixed up www and non-www, or http and https.

The sitemap was read but the pages weren’t crawled. Google warns that crawling a sitemap’s URLs takes time, and that some may never be crawled.

What comes next

If customers visit you in person or you work in a local area, set up a Google Business Profile too. It’s free, separate from Search Console, and it’s what puts your business on Google Search and Maps.

Then give it time, and read Search Console’s reports after a few weeks rather than every day.

Questions

Do I have to pay Google to appear?: No. Search Console is free, and Google says you don’t need to sign up for it at all to be included in results; it helps you understand how Google sees your site. Ads are a separate, paid product.
How long until my site shows up?: Google speaks of a few days to a few weeks for crawling, and from a few hours to several months for a change to take effect. No one can guarantee you a date.
I search for my business name and don’t appear. What now?: Start with site:yourbusiness.com. No results means Google hasn’t indexed the site yet: check the domain is verified and the sitemap was read, then wait. If pages appear, they’re indexed, and where they rank is up to Google.
Does a one-page site need a sitemap?: Not strictly: Google says a small, well-linked site may manage without one. Submitting it does no harm, and it tells Google where your pages are.
Should I use “Request indexing”?: For a handful of pages, the URL Inspection tool is what Google suggests, within a quota. Use it once per page; repeating the request doesn’t make Google crawl sooner.