If your site is slow, not showing up in search, broken on mobile, or just not performing the way you expected, this page will help you find out why. Most website problems fall into a small number of categories and the fixes are more straightforward than they look. Start with the issue that matches what you are seeing.
Short answer
Most website problems come down to one of eight things: indexing, page speed, mobile display, broken links, missing images, a Google penalty or algorithm update, a security warning, or simply normal lag after a recent change. Find the symptom that matches what you are seeing below, each one names the most likely cause and the fastest way to confirm and fix it. If you would rather get a full diagnosis in one pass instead of checking each item manually, run a free audit and get a prioritized list of exactly what is wrong.
Quick diagnosis
| What you’re seeing | Most likely cause | Jump to fix |
|---|---|---|
| Site doesn’t show up on Google at all | Not crawled yet, blocked from indexing, or too new and thin | Fix indexing |
| Site loads slowly | Uncompressed images, too many third-party scripts, or weak hosting | Fix speed |
| Layout breaks or text overlaps on a phone | Custom CSS or a third-party widget not built for mobile | Fix mobile |
| Links lead to dead pages | Deleted or moved content, or a URL that changed without a redirect | Fix broken links |
| Images show as broken or missing | File deleted or moved, wrong file path, or a migration that broke image URLs | Fix missing images |
| Traffic dropped sharply after an update | Usually an algorithmic adjustment, rarely a manual penalty | Check for a penalty |
| Browser shows a “not secure” warning | Expired or missing SSL certificate | Fix the security warning |
| You fixed something and nothing changed yet | Google hasn’t recrawled and reranked the page yet | Understand the timeline |
Indexing
My site is not showing up on Google
This is usually one of three things. Either Google has not crawled your site yet, a page is accidentally blocked from being indexed, or your site is too new and thin for Google to have ranked it for anything yet.
The first step is to open Google Search Console and check whether your pages are indexed. If they are not, submit your sitemap from inside Search Console and request indexing for your most important pages. If they are indexed but not ranking, the issue is more likely content and competition than a technical problem. Read the get found on Google guide for what to do next.
Performance
My site loads slowly
Page speed affects both your visitors and your search rankings. Google measures loading performance through Core Web Vitals, and a slow site signals a poor user experience.
The most common causes on smaller sites are large uncompressed images, too many third-party scripts loading on every page, and cheap or overloaded hosting. Start by running your URL through Google PageSpeed Insights, which is free and shows you exactly what is slowing the page down. Fix the image sizes first, as that alone resolves the majority of speed issues on most sites. For a deeper walkthrough, see the website loading slowly guide.
Mobile
My site does not work properly on mobile
Google ranks the mobile version of your site. If your layout breaks, text overlaps, or buttons are hard to tap on a phone, that directly affects your rankings.
Open your site on a real phone rather than a browser preview. Check every page you care about. Most modern website builders handle mobile layouts automatically, but custom CSS or third-party widgets can break things. If your builder has a mobile preview mode, use it every time you make layout changes.
Broken links
My site has broken links
Broken links frustrate visitors and waste the crawl budget Google spends on your site. A link that goes nowhere signals poor maintenance.
You can find broken links for free using Google Search Console under the Coverage or Pages report, or run a free crawl using a tool like Screaming Frog’s free tier. Once you have the list, either update the links to the correct URL or set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the right destination. See the broken links guide for the full process.
Missing assets
My images are not loading
Missing images are almost always caused by one of three things: the image file was deleted or moved, the file path in the page code is wrong, or the image hosting service has changed.
Check whether the image file still exists at the URL it is being called from. If you recently migrated your site or changed platforms, image paths often break in the process and need to be updated manually.
Algorithm & penalties
My site was penalised by Google
If your traffic dropped sharply after a Google algorithm update, it does not necessarily mean a penalty. Most drops after updates are algorithmic adjustments, not manual penalties. A manual penalty is rarer and will show up as a notification inside Google Search Console.
For algorithmic drops, the most common causes are thin content, over-optimised pages that read as written for search engines rather than people, or a sudden influx of low-quality backlinks. Read the off-page SEO guide for more on backlinks, the on-page SEO guide for content quality signals, and the Google penalty guide for the full recovery process.
Security
My site has a security warning
If visitors are seeing a “not secure” warning or a browser alert when they visit your site, the most likely cause is an expired or missing SSL certificate. Your site should be served over HTTPS.
Most website builders and hosting providers include SSL certificates for free. Check your hosting dashboard and renew or reactivate the certificate. If the warning says your site may be harmful, check Search Console for a manual action and run a malware scan through your hosting provider.
Timing
I made changes and nothing improved
SEO changes take time to show results. Google does not reindex and rerank pages instantly after you make changes. Small sites can wait several weeks before seeing any movement.
If you made on-page changes, check that the page has been recrawled by requesting indexing in Google Search Console. If you made technical changes, verify they are actually live on the published site and not just in a draft or preview.
Go deeper
These guides cover the specific areas in more detail.
Key takeaways
- Most website problems fall into eight categories: indexing, page speed, mobile display, broken links, missing images, algorithm updates or penalties, security warnings, and normal lag after a recent change.
- Before assuming a Google penalty, check Search Console for a manual action notice. Most traffic drops after an update are algorithmic, not a penalty, and a true manual penalty is rare.
- Image size is the single most common cause of a slow site, and fixing it resolves the majority of speed issues without touching anything else.
- Google ranks the mobile version of your site, so a layout that looks fine on desktop but breaks on a phone will directly hurt your rankings.
- SEO and indexing changes are not instant. Small sites can wait several weeks after a fix before seeing any movement, so confirm the change is live and recrawled before assuming it did not work.
- If you want a single prioritized list instead of checking each symptom by hand, a full site audit will surface the same issues in one pass.
Free tool
Want a diagnosis instead of guesswork?
Run a free audit and get a prioritized, platform-specific list of exactly what is wrong, speed, mobile, indexing, security, and more, plus what to fix first. No account needed.
FAQs
It’s almost always one of three things: Google hasn’t crawled your site yet, a page is accidentally blocked from being indexed, or the site is too new and thin to have ranked for anything yet. Check Google Search Console first to see whether your pages are actually indexed before assuming it’s a bigger problem.
A manual penalty will always show up as a notification inside Google Search Console. If you don’t see one there, your drop is almost certainly an algorithmic adjustment rather than a penalty, and the fix is usually improving content quality or backlink profile rather than filing a reconsideration request.
Large, uncompressed images. On most smaller sites, resizing and compressing images resolves the majority of speed issues on its own, before you need to touch hosting, scripts, or anything else.
Yes. Google ranks the mobile version of your site regardless of where your traffic actually comes from, so a layout that breaks on a phone directly hurts your search rankings even if very few visitors ever see it that way.
Small sites can take several weeks to show movement after a fix, since Google needs to recrawl and rerank the page rather than updating instantly. Before waiting it out, confirm the change is actually live on the published site and request indexing in Search Console to speed up the recrawl.