Diagnosing a page that Google has not indexed
In-depth guideA missing result is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Separate discovery, crawling, indexing and ranking before changing content. Each stage has a different remedy.
Read the guide ↗All insights/ Technical SEO
Technical SEO
Make important pages discoverable, understandable and dependable.
In-depth guides
Worked examples, decision tables and troubleshooting to help you apply the ideas.
Choosing a canonical URL for duplicate pages
In-depth guideChoose the URL that should represent a page, then make your links and sitemap agree with that choice. Canonical markup is a signal; contradictory signals make diagnosis harder.
Read the guide ↗Fixing a retired page without redirecting everything home
A redirect should preserve the visitor's purpose. Send an old page to a replacement only when that replacement answers substantially the same need.
Read the guide ↗Building an XML sitemap that reflects the live site
A sitemap is an inventory of preferred public URLs. It should describe the site you actually serve, rather than every route your software can generate.
Read the guide ↗Testing robots.txt without accidentally hiding content
Robots rules govern crawler access, not authentication. Treat every rule as a scoped operational change and test the specific URLs it affects.
Read the guide ↗Why a noindex page still needs to be crawlable
A search engine generally needs to retrieve a page to see its noindex instruction. Blocking the same page in robots.txt can prevent that instruction from being processed.
Read the guide ↗Finding orphan articles in a growing blog
An article is effectively orphaned when readers cannot reach it through normal navigation. A sitemap alone does not create a useful reading journey.
Read the guide ↗Designing pagination for a large article library
Pagination should give every article a stable, discoverable route while keeping the index usable. Search and filtering are enhancements, not the only access method.
Read the guide ↗Writing page titles that reflect search intent
A useful title names the subject and the decision the page helps make. It should set a promise that the content can fulfil without exaggerated outcomes.
Read the guide ↗Writing meta descriptions without unsupported promises
A description is a concise invitation to the page. Explain the practical value and audience, while remembering that search engines may choose a different snippet.
Read the guide ↗Checking JavaScript-rendered content for search visibility
A page can look complete in a browser yet provide a poor initial document or fail during rendering. Test both the response and the rendered experience.
Read the guide ↗Reducing redirect chains during a website migration
Every unnecessary redirect hop adds complexity and potential failure. A migration map should connect each old URL directly to its final relevant destination.
Read the guide ↗Distinguishing soft 404s from useful empty states
A page can return success while effectively telling the visitor that nothing exists. Search engines may treat these responses differently from meaningful content.
Read the guide ↗Prioritizing Core Web Vitals work on service pages
Performance work should start with the journeys that matter and the problems users experience. A high laboratory score is not a substitute for usable pages on real devices.
Read the guide ↗Choosing image dimensions to prevent layout movement
Reserve space for images before they load. Stable layout helps readers keep their place and makes nearby controls less likely to move unexpectedly.
Read the guide ↗Making navigation links understandable without surrounding text
Link text should tell a reader where it leads. Descriptive links also make a page easier to scan with assistive technology or a crawler.
Read the guide ↗Preventing staging pages from appearing in search
A staging environment needs deliberate access controls and release checks. Search exclusion is useful, but it does not make a publicly reachable staging site private.
Read the guide ↗Planning a URL change before publishing it
Changing a slug affects links, history and measurement. Make the decision based on clarity and maintenance, then preserve the old route when a relevant replacement exists.
Read the guide ↗Testing structured data against visible content
Structured data should describe what a visitor can actually see. Valid JSON is only the first check; the meaning and eligibility also matter.
Read the guide ↗Building a release checklist for technical SEO
SEO regressions often come from ordinary releases: template changes, routing updates or content imports. A small repeatable check catches them early.
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