Technical SEO Notes for Non-Developers

The front door: can Google get in?

There are two different locks. robots.txt tells crawlers which URLs not to fetch. noindex tells Google not to keep a page in results. Google says robots.txt is not a way to keep a page out of Google: a blocked URL can still show up (without a description) if other sites link to it. To keep a page out, use noindex, and let Google crawl the page so it can see the tag. Or put the page behind a password.

The classic mistake: a site built with WordPress's 'Discourage search engines from indexing this site' box ticked, or a staging noindex tag, then launched without switching it off. The site looks fine to humans and is invisible to Google.

5-minute check: open Search Console > Indexing > Pages. Look at 'Why pages aren't indexed'. 'Excluded by noindex tag' or 'Blocked by robots.txt' on a page you want found is a real problem. Many other reasons, like 'Page with redirect' or 'Alternate page with proper canonical tag', are normal. Then run URL Inspection on your most important page and confirm 'URL is on Google'.

The AI side of the door: other AI search tools send their own crawlers (for example OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot). Your robots.txt can allow or block each one by name. For Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode there is no separate crawler to allow: Google says the page just needs to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, with no extra technical requirements.

The hallways: links between your pages

Google finds most pages by following links. A page no other page links to (an orphan) is hard to find, even if it's in your sitemap. Google says links need to be real <a> elements with an href to be crawled reliably. A button that only works with JavaScript, with no href, may not be followed.

Anchor text matters. Google's link best practices say the words in a link help it and users understand the page you link to. 'Emergency plumbing in Austin' says something. 'Click here' says nothing.

5-minute check: list your 5 most important pages. From your homepage, can you reach each one in 2 to 3 clicks using normal text links in the menu or body? If not, add a link from a related page. (The 2-3 clicks rule is practical advice, not a Google number.) Then open Search Console > Links > Internal links and see which of those pages have the fewest links pointing to them.

The foundation: mobile and speed

Google uses the mobile version of your site, crawled with its smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking. If your mobile site hides content the desktop shows, Google may not see it. Keep the same main content, titles, meta descriptions, robots tags and structured data on both.

Speed is measured with Core Web Vitals: LCP (main content shows) 2.5 s or less, INP (page reacts to a tap) 200 ms or less, CLS (layout jumps) 0.1 or less, at the 75th percentile of real visits. INP replaced the old FID metric in 2024. Google says Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems, but it still tries to show the most relevant page even when page experience is weaker. Relevance comes first.

5-minute check: run your homepage in PageSpeed Insights on Mobile. Then open Search Console > Experience > Core Web Vitals for real-user data across the site. A group of URLs takes the status of its worst metric, so one template fix can clear many pages at once.

The address: sitemaps and canonical URLs

A sitemap is a list of the pages you want found. Use full URLs (https://...), keep each file under 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed, and submit it in Search Console > Sitemaps. Google ignores priority and changefreq, and only uses lastmod if it's consistently accurate. Most CMS tools (WordPress with an SEO plugin, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace) make one for you.

Canonical means 'the one true address'. http and https, www and non-www, or tracking parameters can make one page look like several. Google's strongest signals are redirects and rel="canonical"; listing a URL in a sitemap is a weak hint. Don't use robots.txt or noindex to pick a canonical.

5-minute check: type http://yoursite.com, http://www.yoursite.com and https://yoursite.com into the browser. All should end up on the same single version. Then use URL Inspection on a key page and compare 'User-declared canonical' with 'Google-selected canonical'. If they differ, Google thinks your page is a copy of another one.

The name tag: structured data

Structured data is code (Google recommends JSON-LD) that says 'this is a business, these are the hours, this is the price'. It must match what's visible on the page. It can make you eligible for rich results, but Google doesn't guarantee them.

Don't chase FAQ stars. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search from 7 May 2026 and removed that documentation in June 2026. FAQ sections can still help readers; they just no longer get a special look in results. Google also says you don't need special schema to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.

5-minute check: put your homepage into Google's Rich Results Test, then the Schema Markup Validator (validator.schema.org). Fix errors first, warnings later. A small business usually needs only Organization or LocalBusiness on the homepage and BreadcrumbList site-wide to start.

Symptom finder: what you see, where to look, who fixes it

When something looks wrong, find the closest row. The last column tells you whether to do it yourself or email a developer.

Copy-paste: the email to your developer

Developers fix things faster when you name the report and the URL. Fill in the blanks and send.

Subject: SEO fix needed: [problem] on [number] pages

Hi [name],

Google Search Console is flagging a problem I need your help with.

Report: [e.g. Indexing > Pages > Excluded by noindex tag]
Example URLs:
1. [url]
2. [url]
3. [url]
What I expect: these pages should be indexable (no noindex tag, not blocked in robots.txt, returning status 200).
What I see: [paste the exact message from URL Inspection]

When it's fixed, please tell me and I'll click 'Validate fix' in Search Console.

Deadline: [date]. These pages bring [leads/sales], so this is a priority.

Thanks,
[you]

Date: ____
Front door: robots.txt OK? Y/N   Money pages indexed: __ of __
Hallways: important pages more than 3 clicks deep: ____
Foundation: mobile LCP __ s  INP __ ms  CLS __   CWV Poor URLs: __
Address: one domain version? Y/N   Sitemap status: ____   Canonical mismatches: __
Name tag: Rich Results Test errors: __
Top fix for next quarter: ____

Common mistakes (check you're not making these)

• Using robots.txt to hide a page from Google

  It blocks crawling, not indexing. The page can still show up. Use noindex instead.

• Adding noindex AND blocking the page in robots.txt

  If Google can't crawl the page, it never sees the noindex tag.

• Launching a new site with 'Discourage search engines' still ticked

  The most common launch-day disaster. Check it the same hour you go live.

• Chasing a 100/100 PageSpeed score

  The lab score is a diagnosis. Google uses real-user Core Web Vitals, and relevance still comes first.

• Putting every URL in the sitemap, including redirects and 404s

  List only the final, canonical pages that return status 200.

• Menus or buttons that only work with JavaScript

  Google crawls <a href> links. Links without an href may not be followed.

• Schema that says things the page doesn't show

  Markup must match visible content. Misleading markup can lead to a manual action.

• Requesting indexing again and again for the same URL

  Google says repeat requests don't speed it up, and there is a quota.