Published by NewsPR Today | July 2025
Google indexing issues can be really frustrating, especially if you’ve just made a new website. You spend days or even weeks writing good content, making the design look nice, and fixing all the technical stuff.
Then you launch the site and wait, hoping people will find it. But nothing happens. You keep checking your traffic, and no one is visiting. It feels like your website doesn’t even exist.
Here at NewsPR Today, we’ve seen this happen countless times. We’ve heard the frustration from clients and colleagues. So, we decided to get our own hands dirty and run a live experiment to find a definitive answer to the question: why does Google sometimes flat-out ignore a brand-new, high-quality website?
Related Article: SEO is Dying. Meet GEO, the New Rule for Getting Found Online
We built a site, Newsprtoday.site, and for 25 gruelling days, we documented its journey. The result was a textbook case of being ghosted by Google. This is the story of our experiment, the hidden trap of domain extensions, and the simple fix that finally made Google pay attention.
First, Let’s Talk Digital Real Estate: Your Domain Is Your Address
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of our experiment, let’s get one crucial thing straight, because it’s the key to this whole story. Your domain extension—the .com, .org, or .site at the end of your URL—is not just a technical label. In Google’s eyes, it’s your address. And just like in the real world, some neighbourhoods have a better reputation than others.
Think of it this way:
- The Established Suburbs (.com, .org, .net): These are the original neighborhoods of the internet. They’ve been around for decades, and they’re home to the world’s most trusted brands and institutions. When you set up a new site with a .com address, Google sees you moving into a reputable area. You might be the new kid on the block, but you have good digital curb appeal. You start with a baseline of trust.
- The New, Unproven Developments (.site, .xyz, .online, .club): These newer domain extensions are like massive, brand-new housing tracts. While there are plenty of good people moving in, these areas have become notorious because their low cost attracted a lot of spammers, scammers, and fly-by-night operations. Because of this, Google’s algorithm acts like a cautious neighborhood watch. When it sees a new site at a .site address, it’s immediately suspicious. It assumes you might be in trouble until you spend a long time proving you aren’t. You are, in a sense, guilty by association.
Understanding this “digital neighbourhood” theory was the key that unlocked our entire problem.
Related Article: ChatGPT Search & RRF: Skyrocketing SEO Success with Topical Authority
The Experiment: Building the Perfect Site That Nobody Could Find
For our test subject, newsprtoday.site, we didn’t cut any corners. We were determined to build a site that Google should have loved.
We rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We wrote our fingers to the bone, publishing deeply researched, original articles about digital marketing. Each one was a beast—well over 1,500 words, packed with unique insights, and designed to be genuinely helpful. We dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t’ of on-page SEO, from title tags to schema markup. The site’s structure was clean, the navigation was intuitive, and we submitted a perfect XML sitemap.
Technically, the site was flawless. So we submitted it to Google Search Console and waited for the magic to happen.
And for a moment, it did. Googlebot came by and crawled every single page. But then… nothing.
In our Search Console dashboard, we saw the same soul-crushing message for every article: “Crawled—Currently Not Indexed.” It was the ultimate digital cold shoulder. Google had read our work and essentially decided to leave it on read. It saw our pages but chose not to show them to anyone. We were invisible.
The Breaking Point and the “Aha!” Moment
For weeks, we tried everything. We manually requested indexing. We tweaked our internal linking. We re-validated our code. The result was always the same. We were stuck in indexing limbo.
The frustration in our office was palpable. We knew our content was good. We knew the site was technically sound. What gives?
That’s when we circled back to our “digital neighbourhood” theory. We were living in a sketchy part of town, and Google was treating us like it. Our high-quality content was trapped inside a low-trust container. It didn’t matter how nice our house was on the inside; the address was holding it back.
So, we decided to move.
The Great Migration: Fleeing from .site to .com
The plan was simple but drastic. We bought the newsprtoday.com domain. Then, we executed a meticulous site migration. We set up permanent 301 redirects for every single URL. This is non-negotiable. A 301 redirect is the internet’s official change-of-address form.
It tells Google, “Hey, that page you used to know at .site now lives permanently over here at .com. Please forward all its mail and its reputation.”
We updated our new .com property in Search Console, submitted the sitemap, and held our breath.
And then, it happened. It wasn’t a slow trickle. It was a floodgate opening.
Within 24 hours, our articles started appearing in Google’s index
The “Crawled—Currently Not Indexed” warnings vanished, replaced by the glorious green checkmark of an indexed URL. We were finally on the map.
How to Fix Google Indexing Issues and Get Your Website Noticed
If your website feels like it is stuck and Google is not noticing it, you are not the only one. Many people face the same issue, especially when starting a new website. The good news is that there is a way to fix this. We went through the same situation, and here is what we learned that might help you too.
First, try to choose a good domain name from the beginning. It might seem like a small detail, but it makes a big difference. If you are serious about your website, it is worth paying a little more to get a .com. If that is not available, a .net or .org can also work well. Google seems to trust these more, and it gives your site a better chance. On the other hand, using uncommon domain endings like .site or .xyz might make it harder for your site to gain trust, especially if it is new.
If you already have a domain that is not working well and you decide to move to a better one, make sure you do it the right way. Do not just redirect everything to your new homepage. That usually does not help. You need to redirect each page on your old site to the same page on your new site. This tells Google that your content has moved to a new location and helps keep the value of the pages you already created.
Also, it is not just about writing content. You need to build your reputation, too. Google wants to see that your content comes from someone with real experience. So write in your own words and share your knowledge. Try to be helpful. Join conversations in your topic area and create useful content. If others naturally link to your pages, that is a good sign to Google that your site matters.
Finally, be patient but stay alert. Search engine progress takes time, especially for new websites. But if you are creating good content and doing everything right, and months go by without any results, then it might be time to look deeper. Maybe the problem is not your content. It could be your domain name that is holding you back. That is what we found when we ran our test. Once we moved to a stronger domain, things started improving.
