Is My Website Working? How to Check

"Is my website working?" is a fair question to ask when you paid for a site, it's live, and you still can't tell whether it's doing anything. A website doesn't tell you on its own whether anyone found it, clicked through, or left again in three seconds flat. There's a free way to check, built by the company that decides whether your site shows up on Google in the first place, and it needs no redesign and usually no developer to switch on.

Is my website working?

You can't tell from how the site looks or how proud you are of it. What tells you is three separate things: whether Google is showing it to anyone, whether the people it's shown to actually click through, and whether the ones who land on it then do something, ring you, fill in a form, or leave. The first two are free to check and take minutes once they're set up. The third one is the harder half, and it comes later in this guide.

What does Google Search Console actually show you?

Search Console is Google's own free tool for exactly this. Its Performance report shows four numbers for your site: clicks, impressions, average click-through rate and average position, according to Google's own documentation. Clicks are how many times someone actually tapped through to your site from a Google search. Impressions are how many times your site appeared in results at all, whether or not anyone clicked. Average position is roughly where you tend to sit on the results page for the searches you're appearing in.

Put together, those numbers answer the question a lot of business owners actually mean when they ask whether their website is working: is Google showing it to anybody, and if so, are they interested enough to click.

How do you set up Search Console for your own site?

You add your website as a "property" in Search Console, then prove you own it. Google lists six ways to do that: an HTML file uploaded to the site, an HTML tag added to the page code, an existing Google Analytics or Tag Manager snippet, a Google Sites or Blogger connection, or a record added through your domain provider's settings. If the site already has an analytics tag running, that route is the quickest. If not, the domain-provider route needs a couple of minutes in whoever's control panel manages the domain, which for a lot of small businesses is the same person who built the site.

Data doesn't appear the moment you finish verifying. Google's own guidance says it takes a few days to start building up, so the honest plan is to set it up now and look properly in a week or two, not refresh it the same afternoon.

Which numbers actually matter for a local trade website?

Most of what Search Console shows is noise for a business that only needs to answer one question. The parts worth looking at:

• The queries tab. This lists the actual words people typed before they saw your site. It tells you whether you're being found for your business name, for "plumber" plus your town, or for something else entirely you didn't expect.
• Your position for the searches that matter to you. Not every search, just the ones a genuine customer would type: the trade plus the area you cover. A low position there is worth more attention than a high one for your own business name, which people only search once they already know you.
• Clicks against impressions, over time. A site that appears often but is rarely clicked has a different problem to one that barely appears at all, and they need different fixes.

What if people are clicking through but the phone isn't ringing?

Then the problem has moved past what Search Console can see. Clicks measure whether people arrive. What happens after that, whether the page loads fast enough to hold them, whether the offer is clear, whether there's an obvious next step, is a different question, and it's usually where the real drop-off happens.

Page speed is one common culprit, especially on the mobile data someone's using standing outside a job rather than on office wifi. This guide covers how to check your own site's speed for free and what actually slows a small business site down. If the site is fast and the clicks are real, the next place to look is the page itself: does it say clearly what you do, where you cover, and how to actually get in touch, or does a visitor have to hunt for the phone number.

Do you need Google Analytics as well?

Search Console only sees Google Search. Analytics tools go further and show what happens across your whole site, including visits that arrived from social media or a direct link rather than a search. That's useful, but it isn't free of small print: adding an analytics script means you're collecting data about visitors, which under UK rules usually needs a genuine cookie banner, not just a link buried in the footer. The legal side of that is covered here. For most local service businesses, Search Console alone answers the question that actually matters, whether Google is showing the site and whether anyone's clicking, without adding another thing to keep compliant.

Every site we build is set up with the structured data and page speed this all depends on from the start, rather than bolted on afterwards. Setup is from £495 with hosting, security, backups and edits from £69 a month. Get a private preview before anything is owed.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Search Console actually free?

Yes. Google Search Console is a free service with no paid tier, and the only requirements are a Google account and the ability to prove you own the site. There's nothing to buy and nothing to upgrade to later.

How long after I set it up does the data appear?

Google's own help pages say data starts being collected as soon as you add the property, even before you finish verifying it, but it takes a few days to actually build up into anything readable. Check back after a week rather than the same afternoon.

Do I need a developer to set up Search Console?

Not usually. Google offers six ways to verify you own a site: an HTML file, an HTML tag in the page code, a Google Analytics or Tag Manager snippet if one is already installed, a Google Sites or Blogger link, or a record added through your domain provider. If your site already has an analytics tag, verifying takes a couple of clicks. The domain-provider route needs whoever manages your domain settings, which might be you, your host or whoever built the site.

What if my website doesn't show up in Search Console at all?

It usually means Google hasn't indexed the site yet rather than anything being broken. A brand new site, or one that's been live for a while but never submitted a sitemap, can sit invisible to Google search until it's crawled. Search Console has a URL Inspection tool that checks a specific page and tells you directly whether Google has it.

Does Search Console tell me about phone calls or enquiries?

No, and that's worth knowing before you rely on it for the whole picture. It only measures what happens on Google Search itself: clicks, impressions and position. What a visitor does once they land on your page, whether they ring you, fill in a form or leave, isn't something Search Console sees.