Google does not index any URLs from the site.

Hetneo said:
The old favicon is the tell everyone's walking past. Google isn't slow-crawling your site, it's still serving the OLD entity from cache -> it hasn't even refreshed the one page it kept indexed. That's not a technical fault on your end, that's a reborn-domain quarantine: the domain died, changed hands (maybe), came back as a different site, and Google reset its crawl priority to near zero until it re-earns trust.

Three things I'd actually do, in order:

  • Check the Wayback snapshots for the year you didn't own it. "Someone snapped it up, or so I believe, I'm not 100% sure" is the loudest sentence in your post. If the interim owner parked it or ran junk on it, that's your reset explained. Still fixable, just slowly.
  • Forget the Indexing API for this. Google's own docs restrict it to pages with job posting or livestream structured data. The "success" response means the request was accepted, not that a crawl was scheduled. For a normal SaaS site it does nothing.
  • Make the crawl paths physical: a Sitemap: line in robots.txt (the GSC submission clearly isn't being read), hard internal links from the one indexed homepage to your money pages, and a few real external links pointing at INNER pages, not the homepage. Inner-page links are what force discovery when the front door is cached.

Timeline honesty: two weeks is nothing for this situation. I've watched reborn domains sit in the penalty box for 30-90 days with everything technically perfect. Watch your server logs for Googlebot on inner URLs, that's the only signal that matters right now. The day it starts fetching /prices is the day the clock starts.
Click to expand...
I checked, and there was no other owner; it expired and GoDaddy took ownership. After the domain's redemption period ended, it became available for registration again, and I registered it.

From what I’ve read, there was a Google update in 2024 that quarantined expired domains that were re-registered—a measure to prevent spam. These domains spend a few weeks in a low-priority indexing queue, and I believe that’s exactly what happened here. However, another page got indexed today, so I’m fairly certain that’s the situation.

I just never expected this to happen to me, since it’s a personal project and the domain doesn't have strong metrics; the algorithm ought to focus on expired domains with good metrics that are bought specifically to build PBNs.

I’m working on internal linking and making improvements... but I believe things will return to normal soon. I also set up a low-budget Google Ads campaign just so Google sees the project is legitimate; I think that should help.

SalwaCelina said:
If the pages are marked as indexable, i'd check server logs to confirm googlebot is actually crawling them, not just relying on GSC statas.
Click to expand...
I’ve analyzed it, and everything looks good. I even checked the response headers for robots, articles, and the sitemap; they are all correct. I also checked the Cloudflare logs and left them without any specific rules for bots.

Ranking Pilot said:
As you say your homepage is already indexed so I don't think google is completely ignoring your site. I suggest to wait at that time and keep checking GSC because sometimes it takes time for google to pick the rest of the pages.
Click to expand...
The root URL was already indexed; I didn't submit it for indexing after re-acquiring the domain—it was already indexed when I re-registered it in GSC. The problem lies with the other URLs.

On second thought, I have an idea: it might be Google's DNS cache. Perhaps, from their perspective, the URLs still point to the old Firebase Hosting setup—where everything 301-redirected to '/' because it was just a single landing page—whereas now I've built a multi-page site. That could be the cause, but then why does the "Test Live URL" tool show the correct content, including the HTML?
 
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At new update google Update All new domains only Old only high authority domain are stable otherwise low authority domain are remove form google
 
Have you checked history? What happened with the website during this year? Any signs of some generic shops or chinese spam?
 
uniteddare said:
Have you checked history? What happened with the website during this year? Any signs of some generic shops or chinese spam?
Click to expand...
GoDaddy was the owner; I registered it later when I returned. Apparently, there was no other owner in the interim.
 
Digital Overseer said:
Have you checked the domain history after it expired? Sometimes old ownership changes can leave trust issues or other signals behind even if anything looks clean now. I would also check server logs to see if googlebot is actually crawling the URL. If it is not getting crawl activity then the same issue may be before indexing. Since GSC says the pages are indexable. I would focus on crawl signals, internal links and giving google some time to rediscover the site.
Click to expand...
GoDaddy was the owner; I registered it later when I returned. Apparently, there was no other owner in the interim.
 
FabioSelau said:
Yes, but I was the original owner. It expired and I didn't renew it—since it was an inactive project, I didn't want to pay the GoDaddy fee. I let it go back on the market and then picked it up again. After that, I rebuilt everything, from the platform to the site itself.
Click to expand...
Did the site had rankings before it expired
 
moonshine7000 said:
Did the site had rankings before it expired
Click to expand...
No, it’s a personal project—though I’m about to make it more professional. It had a few backlinks and some impressions—around 300 a month—nothing too advanced.
 
FabioSelau said:
I also set up a low-budget Google Ads campaign just so Google sees the project is legitimate
Click to expand...
First, the good news you kind of buried: a second page indexed today. That's the quarantine cracking, not luck. The clock I mentioned just started. From here, watch whether crawl frequency on inner URLs climbs. That trend is the whole story now.

Two things to save you budget and false hope.

The "low metrics, so why me" part. The 2024 re-registration filter isn't metric-gated. It doesn't care that yours is a small personal project. It quarantines basically every expired domain that changes hands, because the spammers hide in the boring low-profile drops too, not just the juicy high-DR ones. Google never singled you out. You walked into a blanket net. Nothing personal, nothing you did wrong.

The Ads campaign. Drop any indexing hope pinned to it. Paid and organic are walled off inside Google. Googlebot doesn't crawl or index a page faster because the Ads account is spending. "Show Google the site is legit" is one of those beliefs that feels true and quietly eats budget. If the ads bring you real visits and a bit of brand search, keep them for that. Just not as an indexing lever, because they don't touch it.

The only dial that's live right now is inner-page discovery: a Sitemap line in robots.txt, hard links from the indexed homepage down into /prices and /features, and a couple of real external links pointing at those inner URLs instead of root. You're a dev, so your server log tells you the truth GSC won't. The day Googlebot fetches an inner URL, you've won.
 
Have you checked the site's history? Did anything change this year? Any signs of generic shops or Chinese spam?
 
FaizanSEO24 said:
Have you checked the site's history? Did anything change this year? Any signs of generic shops or Chinese spam?
Click to expand...
No, no one else picked up the domain after it expired. Looking at the timeline and doing the math: after it expired, GoDaddy held ownership for a few months, and then there was another period before it became available for registration again—which is when I re-registered it. The only issue I noticed is that GSC shows a history of `robots.txt` blocking; presumably, when GoDaddy applied their DNS settings after expiration, their default `robots.txt` blocked all GoogleBot indexing. My challenge now is getting through Google's "quarantine" phase so it sees the project is active and trustworthy.

I’ve started sharing links on social media, and I also received some great reviews from sellers I really like, such as @nigunim and @Stan Fox . The links are gradually getting indexed.
 
uniteddare said:
For the whole year? Are you sure? Have you checked webarchive?
Click to expand...
yup, The domain is in my language—Portuguese—so it isn't as competitive as it would be in English. GoDaddy held onto it for months; it went through the ICANN release period, and I registered it as soon as it became available.
 
Hetneo said:
First, the good news you kind of buried: a second page indexed today. That's the quarantine cracking, not luck. The clock I mentioned just started. From here, watch whether crawl frequency on inner URLs climbs. That trend is the whole story now.

Two things to save you budget and false hope.

The "low metrics, so why me" part. The 2024 re-registration filter isn't metric-gated. It doesn't care that yours is a small personal project. It quarantines basically every expired domain that changes hands, because the spammers hide in the boring low-profile drops too, not just the juicy high-DR ones. Google never singled you out. You walked into a blanket net. Nothing personal, nothing you did wrong.

The Ads campaign. Drop any indexing hope pinned to it. Paid and organic are walled off inside Google. Googlebot doesn't crawl or index a page faster because the Ads account is spending. "Show Google the site is legit" is one of those beliefs that feels true and quietly eats budget. If the ads bring you real visits and a bit of brand search, keep them for that. Just not as an indexing lever, because they don't touch it.

The only dial that's live right now is inner-page discovery: a Sitemap line in robots.txt, hard links from the indexed homepage down into /prices and /features, and a couple of real external links pointing at those inner URLs instead of root. You're a dev, so your server log tells you the truth GSC won't. The day Googlebot fetches an inner URL, you've won.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comment. I mentioned Google Ads because, if it were a Google penalty, the ads wouldn't be accepted; that’s the logic I’m following—if the ad was approved, it means the domain isn't blacklisted. I’ve actually had several impressions on Ads and haven't spent anything so far. I don't know why—I even clicked on an ad myself in incognito mode using 4G, and it didn't cost a thing.
 
Submit it to Bing using their console

Use Wordpress plugins that interface with Google Tools - jetpack and those analytics ones

Buy two indexer packages from BHW vendors. Find the guy that publishes his results. It looks good

Submit to Archive.org

Add articles and education white papers and youtube links to your site

Buy BHW SEO packages to link to your site and your articles.

Don't forget your merch shop

Have a book Ghostwritten on Fiverr in your niche. Publish it on Amazon. Link the amazon page to your website
Link the Amazon Author page also to your site. It creates AUTHORITY

Sincerely,

The Eye
 
FabioSelau said:
Hi. Four years ago, I started a project but put it on hold. Last year, I didn't renew the domain and someone else snapped it up (or so I believe—I'm not 100% sure); I’ve since re-registered it and added it to Google Search Console. The original backlinks I built are still there—meaning there are no new backlinks, nor any spam issues. I rebuilt the entire platform, including the landing page, blog, and tools.

It’s been two weeks since I registered the site in GSC, yet only the homepage has been indexed—which is the only page that remained indexed throughout. Interestingly, the icon that appears in the URL bar when I search `site:mywebsite.com` is an old one (an important detail).

I built a SaaS website featuring pages for features, functionalities, and tools, plus a blog with about five optimized articles. I generated the sitemap and `robots.txt` file, and everything looks correct.
However, any URL I submit to GSC returns the error: "The page is not indexed: Google does not recognize the URL." Even the sitemap I submitted returns the message: "No reference sitemap was detected." It’s as if Google refuses to even crawl the sitemap or the URLs.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

- Increasing the sitemap priority and resubmitting it
- Testing the `robots.txt` file (everything checks out)
- Manually requesting indexing via GSC
- Submitting requests via the Google Indexing API (all return a success status)
- Creating backlinks on other high-quality sites (the content on those sites gets indexed, but Google still won't index mine)
- Checking for—and finding no—warnings or manual actions

In my 10 years of doing SEO, I’ve never encountered this before; even low-quality sites usually get indexed by Google, unlike this high-quality site I’ve built. I’d like to know if anyone else is in this situation, has any advice, or knows if this might be related to recent Google algorithm updates. I initially thought it was a Cloudflare block, but upon analysis, nothing seems to be wrong. In fact, using the "Test the published URL" option in GSC—if there were a DNS or Cloudflare error, it would show an error, right? Instead, it says "The page is indexable."
Click to expand...
You've already done a lot of the right things, especially resubmitting your sitemap and requesting indexing through Google Search Console. One thing I'd add is strengthening your internal linking. I know you've been building external backlinks, which are important, but internal links help Google better understand your site structure and distribute authority between your pages.

I'd also take a look at the content itself. Even if you didn't intentionally copy anything, it's possible the page is very similar to content that's already been published elsewhere. In cases like that, Google may choose to index the older version instead. I actually ran into this with a client years ago. Before I started working with them, one of their pages was nearly identical to a competitor's page that had been published first. Google consistently ignored our version until we rewrote the content to make it unique. Once we did, the page indexed without any further issues. It's definitely something worth checking if everything else looks right.
 
Updated: Google has started indexing the URLs; just today, there were 10 different ones. It looks like the "quarantine" period is over, and the crawler has started running for the domain.
 
Send me those URL. I could explore the force index approach if you’ve tried literally all things to get indexed .
 
FabioSelau said:
yup, The domain is in my language—Portuguese—so it isn't as competitive as it would be in English. GoDaddy held onto it for months; it went through the ICANN release period, and I registered it as soon as it became available.
Click to expand...
But usually the holding period is a month or two. So strange it kept it for a whole year
 
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