How to get your new website on Google
A new website doesn't appear on Google by itself straight away. What to set up in the first week, what helps a local business most, and what to ignore.
To get a new website on Google, add it to Google Search Console and submit its sitemap, set up your Google Business Profile with a link to the site, and make sure every page has a clear title and description. Google usually finds a new site within a few days to a few weeks.
You've launched, you search for your business name, and... nothing. That's normal. Google has to find a new site, read it and decide where it fits, and that can take from a few days to a few weeks. Here's how to help it along, in order of what matters most for a small business.
The first week
1. Add your site to Google Search Console
Search Console is Google's free tool for site owners. It tells you whether Google can read your pages, which searches you appear for, and what's broken. Add your domain, verify it, and submit your sitemap (usually /sitemap.xml). On Prooflive.ai this is done for you: the SEO Wizard verifies each live site, adds it to Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and submits the sitemap.
2. Set up your Google Business Profile
For a local business this matters more than anything on the website itself. It's the panel that appears in Maps and local results. Fill in every field, add real photos, and link to your website.
3. Check each page's title and description
The title is the blue link in Google's results; the description is often the text under it. Each page should say what it's about and, for local businesses, where: "Sourdough bakery and café in Kendal" beats "Home".
What helps most over time
- Reviews. Ask every customer, not just the happy ones, and never offer anything in return. In the UK, incentivised or cherry-picked reviews can break consumer law.
- Specific pages. A page for each main service, written in your words, with prices or examples, does far more than one page listing everything.
- Consistent details. The same name, address and phone number everywhere: your site, your Business Profile, directories.
- Links from real places. Your trade body, local business groups, suppliers, the local paper. A few genuine links beat hundreds of junk ones.
- Speed and phones. Most visits are on a phone. A fast, readable mobile site is the baseline.
AI assistants and search
More people now ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Copilot for recommendations. They lean on the same signals: clear facts on your site, structured data, your Business Profile and reviews. Prooflive.ai adds structured data to every page (your business type, address, hours and so on), lets the main AI search bots read your site, and tells Bing and others about every change as soon as you publish.
What to ignore
- Anyone who guarantees "page one" or "#1 on Google". Nobody can.
- Paid link packages and directories you've never heard of.
- Pages stuffed with your town name forty times.
- Hundreds of AI-written pages that say nothing new. Google treats mass-produced pages as spam.
Be patient, then check
Give it a few weeks, then look at Search Console: which searches show your site, which pages get clicks, and any pages Google couldn't read. Fix the problems, improve the pages that nearly rank, and keep going. If you haven't built the site yet, start with how to build your own website with AI.
Build yours with Prooflive.ai.
Paste one prompt into your AI agent with a few lines about your business, your old website or a design. Free to build and check; from £24 a month when it goes live, with your first 30 days free.