Christine Darby // Published: June 2021 // Updated: April 2024

Did your website “disappear” from Google search? If your personal brand or portfolio site used to rank, but is no longer visible on Google—yet is visible on Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo—you are not alone.

This article addresses a specific, long-standing problem that affects legitimate personal brand sites. The sites below ranked for branded searches for years, then for all practical purposes abruptly disappeared from Google search. These sites did not experience a drop in Google rankings or get deindexed—they simply no longer surfaced in the SERPs.

If your website “vanished from Google,” it can seem as if the site disappeared from the internet altogether. But more than likely, your site still shows on other search engines.

The good news: sites can recover and regain usual positioning—sometimes within a day—even when they’ve been missing from Google SERPs for a year or longer.

IMPORTANT: (1) The very specific issue outlined below for personal brand sites is not caused by any of the “usual” culprits blamed in other SEO articles: new site, manual penalties, security problems, URL removals, noindex directives, low-quality content, robots.txt issues, generic brand name, ads, algorithm update, etc. (2) Also some small businesses asking why a “homepage is not ranking for brand name,” could be dealing with this same issue—but we suggest you first rule out the “usual” reasons.

In 2019, we experienced a number of requests on this issue in quick succession, which brought it to our attention as a tangible, documentable problem. As of 2024, site owners still report this Google Search Console indexing issue.

NOTE: If a new website is not showing up on Google, you need to allow time for Google to crawl the site. This said, when built and launched correctly, almost any new site should be findable for brand name or personal name within a week or two. If you are struggling with a new site or an algorithmic traffic drop, schedule an SEO consultation.

Affected Sites Share These Traits

Several years ago, a pattern emerged when we received multiple requests related to “why did my website disappear from Google” and “my Squarespace site disappeared.” Each of the sites had ranked for their personal name or brand for years, but now the sites couldn’t be found for brand name searches. Surfacing at the top of Google should not have required any intervention and the sites deserved to rank. Commonalities include:

Domain active for years. The individual or business is well-established in their field. Site represents the expected, trustworthy, relevant result when searching for the person or brand. UPDATE: We’ve now seen newer domains encounter this issue, but new site owners without search experience tend to assume their struggle is a “normal” part of the SEO learning process—it is not.
Site is in Google’s index as expected. site:example.com
Site historically ranked in Google (usually position one) for a branded search, but then experienced a sudden disappearance from Google search.
Site missing ONLY from Google search results. Sites continue to rank for brand queries on other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo.
Common, broad-stroke SEO answers do not apply. Manual penalties, security issues, URL removals, pages marked noindex, robots.txt, etc. are not factors.
Portfolio site or personal brand website. These types of sites often have minimal text and the usual SEO advice given to image-oriented sites by forum “experts” and well-meaning friends includes “add more content,” but more text is not needed to fix this issue.
Note, it is likely that the issue impacts all sorts of sites, but business sites are often professionally maintained, and this alone could keep the problem at bay or the issue might be so short-lived that it goes undetected. And/or if other URLs rank well for non-branded searches, then issues with brand name search might be missed.
Site hosted on Squarespace with no previous issues. Update: Since writing this article, sites built on other platforms have turned up. Creatives and smaller businesses often opt for the Squarespace platform, which likely explains the greater number of “my Squarespace site disappeared from Google” complaints.

Why do sites disappear from Google search?

The site owners are not to blame. They’d built simple sites that historically performed well for branded searches. After realizing there was a problem, the DIY site owners attempted to sort through common SEO advice found on checklists and forums. But the guidance they received—write more content, optimize images, give it time, etc—wasn’t necessary or effective. These factors are not why the sites went missing from Google search.

Note, forum advice is often well-intentioned but can be inaccurate. If you are struggling with SEO issues, learn how to find an experienced SEO.

Based on the initial timing of requests and because Google was the only search engine with the issue, we originally assumed the problem was a result of known Google indexing problems in 2019, but later examples disproved this theory.

Squarespace is less transparent regarding platform problems. That said, after writing this article, we’ve heard from sites built on platforms other than Squarespace, meaning the problem seems to be squarely in Google’s corner.

Each time we believe we’ve identified a possible cause, a new case emerges that challenges our assumptions. The exact cause may be unclear, but the issue can be fixed.

Examples of Excluded Sites

All sites we’ve assisted resumed normal and expected ranking position in Google search. See examples below, dates indicate when we worked with the website owner:

February 2020: Liz Markus (artist)
March 2020: Jo Carkner (production designer)
July 2020: Steven Yavanian (landscape architect). This request played a key role in our decision to document the similarities among affected sites. A forum search at the time turned up two more sites matching the exact same profile, both long-time professional photographers.
January 2021: Field Kallop (artist). The site owner reported the site was missing from Google search for a year: “I tried re-indexing my site and doing a few other things suggested by the SEO optimization tutorials on Squarespace, but nothing has worked. I would like some help fixing this so that people interested in my work can find my site more easily.”
June 2021: Jesse Heath (filmmaker). The site owner reported the site was dropped from Google SERPs in July 2020. The advice he received in Squarespace forums was to “add more text,” but word count is irrelevant for SEO and this site demonstrates that “more copy” is not needed to solve the issue.
July 2021: August D'Angelo (screenwriter). This site was built on Squarespace 7.1 and was newer than other examples (launched early 2020). Without a successful track record in search or a known “brand name,” the site owner didn’t have the same conviction as others that his personal site should be findable.
September 2021: Nina Djacic (director of photography)
June 2022: Nancy Pollock (fiber artist)
January 2023: Marlena Maduro Baraf (author). This site was of particular interest because it is a site we built back in 2016. The issue came to our attention (and we brought it to the site owner’s attention) when we attempted to reference the site during a training call. This example clearly demonstrated that the Google issue is not due to a site migration, a redesign, stagnation, or implementing SSL.

Outcome: The Problem is 100% Fixable

The site owners understood we can’t guarantee outcomes, but we assured each one that by all normal measures their site should be visible on Google for brand name—in spite of platform, template choice, subpar site structure, sparse text, etc.

All sites we’ve helped resumed normal and expected ranking position in Google search. But again, no interaction should have been necessary for these long-established sites to remain visible or regain visibility. Unfortunately for these sites, Google—and only Google—required human intervention.

What not to do? Don’t assume it will work itself out. Many people have reported their site was missing for months or even years. As of Q1 2024, we continue to learn of sites facing the on-going issue.

What to do? Read through Google’s documentation on related issues as it can be useful to DIY efforts. That said, if you’ve attempted to fix the problem without success, we provide a nuanced experienced approach.

Other Impacted Sites

There are more small businesses and individuals still missing out on Google visibility due to this issue. Why? Some site owners simply do not realize their brand vanished from search. And others give up out of sheer frustration.

The site owners we’ve helped knew, without a shadow of doubt, that they should be searchable and findable. But less experienced creatives or newer brands might not push for an answer if they lack the same certainty about their name recognition or reputation.

When we first wrote this article, quick forum searches turned up more sites. We researched each one and all matched the same criteria:

An illustrator was missing from Google SERPs for at least 3 years: “Squarespace website missing from only Google results.”
A production designer said: “Domain not appearing on Google search but first result on Bing and Yahoo.”
A fine art photographer asked: “My website disappeared from Google search.”
A graphic designer asked: “Why has my website stopped appearing on Google search results?”
A small business outside the creative realm also was impacted: “Website shows in site: but not in Google search results.” Again, it is likely that the issue affects all sorts of sites, but for the reasons listed above, business sites might not see it as often.

What to do?

If your site lost visibility or stopped appearing on Google, start with Google Support documentation. And if your site is on Squarespace, refer to the resources below: