Vibe-coded site not indexed by Google: how to fix it

What it means in plain English

Google has to find a page, crawl it, render it, and then decide to index it. Google's JavaScript SEO guide says Googlebot first "checks if you allow crawling" in robots.txt, then queues pages with a 200 status for rendering "unless a robots meta tag or header tells Google not to index the page." A headless Chromium then "renders the page and executes the JavaScript."

Most AI builders produce single-page apps that build the page in the browser. Google can render those, but it only follows real links, and it may skip pages that look like errors.

Likely causes

• The site isn't public. Lovable says "only publicly published apps can appear in search results," and that projects with restricted website access and branded workspace URLs "never appear in search."
• robots.txt blocks crawling, or a noindex tag or header is on every page.
• There's no sitemap. Lovable says it creates a robots.txt with every new project, "but not always a sitemap."
• Links are not <a> elements with an href, or routes use #/ fragments. Google says it "can only discover your links if they are <a> HTML elements with an href attribute" and to "use the History API instead of fragments."
• Deep links return a 404 on refresh, so Google sees an error instead of the page.
• The site is new. Lovable says "new pages can take days, and sometimes longer."

How to fix it, step by step

1. Open the live site in a private window. Make sure it's public and that deep links load directly.
2. Open /robots.txt and check that it doesn't disallow your pages.
3. View the page source and response headers. Remove any noindex you didn't mean to set.
4. Make sure the site serves a sitemap.xml that lists your public pages with full URLs.
5. Verify your domain in Google Search Console and submit the sitemap. On Lovable, run the SEO & AI search review and connect Search Console from the Google searches card. Lovable then verifies the site and submits the sitemap.
6. Use URL Inspection on your most important pages and Request indexing. Make sure each important page is linked from somewhere on your site.
7. For single-page apps, use real links and History API routes, and return a proper error for missing pages. Google suggests a noindex robots meta tag on client-side error pages to avoid soft 404s.
8. If deep links 404 on refresh, fix the host's fallback first. See Vercel 404 NOT_FOUND on page refresh.

How to check it worked

• URL Inspection says the page is on Google, or that it can be indexed, with no robots or noindex block.
• The sitemap shows as read in Search Console, and the Pages report starts listing indexed pages.

Lovable notes that apps created from 13 May 2026 (22 June 2026 on Enterprise plans) use TanStack Start with server-side rendering, and older React + Vite apps are pre-rendered for verified crawlers, so neither needs an outside pre-rendering service.

Questions people ask

How long does Google take to index a new site?

Lovable says it depends on Google's crawl schedule and your site's authority, and new pages can take days or longer. Submitting a sitemap and requesting indexing in Search Console helps Google find updates.

Can Google index a single-page app built with React?

Yes. Google says Googlebot renders pages with a headless Chromium and runs the JavaScript, but links must be anchor elements with an href attribute, and routes should use the History API rather than URL fragments.

Why is my Lovable app not showing in Google?

Lovable says only publicly published apps can appear in search results. Unpublished projects, apps with restricted website access, and branded workspace URLs never appear in search.

Sources

• https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics (opens in a new tab)
• https://docs.lovable.dev/features/seo-aeo (opens in a new tab)