Sites built with AI or Wix: why Google can't see them

With AI site builders (Lovable, v0, Bolt...) or tools like Wix, you can now publish a good-looking website in an afternoon. For a prototype, that's great. The problems start when you want to be found on Google, and I'll show you two real cases I reviewed.

The good part: fast and attractive

These tools deliver what they promise: modern design, no code, and a site online within hours. To validate an idea or show a project to a partner, they're an excellent choice. But a site that looks good on your screen is not the same as a site Google can read, understand and index.

Real case 1: a commercial cleaning company in Houston (Lovable)

In September 2026 I audited the website of a commercial cleaning company in Houston, built with Lovable. At first glance, flawless. Under the bonnet, this:

• The wrong official address: every page declared the builder's temporary subdomain (xxx.lovable.app) as its official address (the "canonical" tag) instead of the company's .com. The sitemap and robots.txt also pointed to the temporary address. Result: Google showed the temporary address first and had only 4 pages indexed, some of them from the old site.
• Empty HTML: what Google received was essentially this, with all the text added later by JavaScript (a "single-page app"):

<body>
  <div id="root"></div>
</body>

Google can run JavaScript, but it does so later and not always. Other bots and many AI assistants often don't run it at all: to them, the page is blank.

• The same title on every page in the raw HTML.
• A security (SSL) error on the "www." version of the domain.
• Non-existent pages answering "200 OK" instead of a 404 error (a so-called "soft 404"). That's why the previous site's old URLs stayed indexed instead of redirecting to the new ones.
• All services on a single page, when each service deserves its own page to rank.

<!-- wrong -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://xxx.lovable.app/">
<!-- right -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.yourcompany.com/">

Real case 2: a holiday accommodation in Caburgua (Wix)

Another example, closer to home: a holiday accommodation in Caburgua, near Pucón, with its site on Wix. The problems were different, but the effect was the same:

• On a phone, the site doesn't adapt: the title and menu are cut off.
• The homepage has no H1 heading, the tag that tells Google what the page is about.
• No online booking or payment: visitors have to write in and wait.
• Spanish only, in an area that welcomes many foreign tourists.

Check your own site in 5 minutes

1. View the page source (Ctrl+U in your browser). Is your text there? If you only see an empty container, that's what Google gets too.
2. Search Google for "site:yourdomain.com". How many pages show up, and under which address?
3. Use the URL inspection tool in Search Console to see how Google sees each page.
4. Open the site on your phone: menu, headings and buttons should display in full.
5. Look for the canonical tag in the source (Ctrl+F "canonical") and check that it points to your domain.

Keep the builder or move to a custom site?

This isn't a war against these tools. It's a matter of stage: what works to get started doesn't always work to grow. If you're weighing up platforms, you may also like my article on WordPress security versus a custom website.

In short

A site built with AI or Wix can look perfect and still be almost invisible to Google. The most common causes (wrong canonical, empty HTML, repeated titles, pages that never return a 404) are technical, but quick to spot. If Google isn't showing your pages, also read the 8 reasons Google isn't indexing a site. And if you'd rather I check it for you, that's exactly what my SEO service is for.