I run a few small sites. Every time one of them goes live, someone eventually asks the same question: "Google still hasn't indexed it — should I buy backlinks?" Usually, no. Most of the time the problem is visible in Google Search Console within ten minutes, and it is not about authority at all. This is the checklist I actually run, in this order. Confirm the sitemap is a sitemap Submitting a sitemap in GSC feels like a finish line. It is a starting line. Check two things before ...