01 — Discoverable
Search engines need a route to the page through crawlable links, sitemaps or other valid discovery paths.
TECHNICAL SEO · INDEXING · AEO · GEO
Technical SEO that helps search engines find, understand and index the right pages.
OJC Labs audits and improves the technical structure behind search visibility: crawling, indexing, canonicals, internal links, rendering, structured data and page architecture.
We work across WordPress, Next.js, headless CMS platforms and custom sites, from technical SEO audits to implementation.
Technical SEO audits · Indexing diagnostics · Architecture · Implementation
SEARCH FOUNDATION
SEO starts before a page ranks.
A page cannot compete for a useful search if Google or Bing cannot reliably discover it, access it, understand which URL should represent it or connect it to the rest of the site.
Technical SEO deals with that foundation. Content strategy, on-page optimisation, authority and newer search experiences depend on it.
02 — Indexable
The page must be accessible, return the right status and avoid conflicting signals that tell search engines not to keep it.
03 — Understandable
Titles, content, internal links, structured data and page relationships help search engines interpret what the page represents.
Only after those conditions are met does ranking become the useful question.
OFFICIAL SOURCE · GOOGLE SEARCH CENTRALGoogle Search technical requirements →
CRAWLING & INDEXING
A page goes through several technical stages before rankings even become relevant.
A ranking problem is not always a ranking problem. Sometimes the page has not been discovered correctly. Sometimes Google selected another URL. Sometimes rendering, internal links or directives make the page difficult to process.
01 — Discovery
CauseGoogle needs a crawlable route to the URL.
ConsequenceA page that exists only behind a search form or inaccessible interface may never enter the normal crawl path.
02 — Crawling
CauseGooglebot must be able to request the URL and required resources.
ConsequenceBlocking critical resources can change what Google is able to process.
03 — Processing & indexing
CauseGoogle evaluates the content, canonical signals, directives and relationships.
ConsequenceA technically accessible URL can still remain outside the index.
04 — Retrieval & ranking
CauseThe indexed page must then be relevant enough for an actual query.
ConsequenceIndexing is eligibility, not a ranking guarantee.
OFFICIAL SOURCE · GOOGLE SEARCH CENTRALCrawling and indexing →
GOOGLE / TECHNICAL REALITY
Some SEO “rules” are not actually how Google works.
Several technical SEO mistakes come from treating common advice as if it were a Google requirement. The documentation is more precise.
Blocking a URL from crawling does not reliably remove it from Search.
Google uses robots.txt to control crawling. If a blocked URL is discovered through other links, the URL may still appear without Google crawling its content.
If the goal is to keep a crawlable page out of Search, use an appropriate noindex implementation instead.
rel="canonical" is a strong signal, not an order.
Google can select another canonical URL when other content or technical signals indicate that another version is more appropriate.
Canonicals, redirects, internal links and sitemap URLs should tell the same story.
Submitting a sitemap does not force crawling or indexing.
A sitemap helps Google discover important or updated URLs, but Google does not promise to crawl every sitemap URL immediately or include every URL in the index.
The sitemap lastmod value should represent a significant page change, such as main content, structured data or important links, not a cosmetic timestamp update.
The Google Indexing API is not a shortcut for normal pages.
Google's Indexing API is restricted to supported JobPosting pages and livestreaming events using BroadcastEvent in VideoObject.
Normal service pages, articles and product pages still depend on the standard discovery and crawling process.
Most normal sites do not need a crawl-budget project.
Google's own guidance focuses crawl-budget management on very large or frequently changing sites. A smaller site with indexing problems should first investigate discovery, rendering, internal links, status codes, canonicals and directives.
TECHNICAL SEO AUDIT
Fix the source of the indexing problem, not only the reported symptom.
“This page is not on Google” can have several causes. A useful technical SEO audit works backwards from the symptom until the actual restriction or conflicting signal is identified.
Access
- Crawlability
- Status codes
- robots directives
Identity
- Canonicals
- Redirects
- Duplicate URLs
Structure
- Internal links
- Sitemap
- Architecture
Interpretation
- Rendering
- Metadata
- Structured data
A technical SEO audit should identify which layer is failing before recommending a fix.
FROM GOOGLE'S DOCUMENTATION
Googlebot does not fetch an unlimited document.
Google's current Googlebot documentation applies a fetch-size limit to supported file types: the first 2MB of a supported file, and the first 64MB of a PDF. Content beyond that cutoff is not passed forward for indexing consideration.
This is rarely a problem for normal pages, but it matters when debugging abnormally large generated documents, inline payloads or technical output.
OFFICIAL SOURCEGoogle Search Central — Googlebot →
SEO AUDIT
An SEO audit should tell you what to fix first.
A list of warnings from an SEO tool is not a strategy. OJC Labs reviews the site, validates the findings and separates issues that materially affect search visibility from items that simply appear in automated reports.
Diagnosis
What is actually preventing discovery, indexing or correct interpretation.
Impact
Which templates, URLs or search opportunities are affected.
Priority
What should be fixed now, what should be monitored and what can wait.
Implementation path
Which corrections OJC Labs can deploy directly and which require another part of the stack.
TOOLS & EVIDENCE
SEO tools find signals. We still have to decide what they mean.
Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, crawlers, analytics platforms and SEO software can expose useful evidence. None of them should be treated as a substitute for understanding the site.
Search engine evidence
Search Console · Bing Webmaster Tools
Crawling evidence
Crawler output · logs · HTTP behaviour
User evidence
Analytics · conversions · real behaviour
Market evidence
Queries · intent · competing pages
The tool reports an observation. The SEO decision still needs context.
OFFICIAL SOURCESGoogle Search Console documentation → · Bing Webmaster Guidelines →
SITE ARCHITECTURE
Make it clear which page should answer which search.
Sites become harder to understand when several URLs compete for the same role, important pages sit too deep in the structure, or internal links do not reflect the relationships between services, topics and supporting content.
OJC Labs structures pages around clear search intent and uses internal links to connect related information without making every page compete for the same query.
- One primary roleImportant pages should have a clear search and user purpose.
- Supporting relationshipsInternal links connect related detail without forcing every page to compete for the same intent.
- Consistent signalsCanonicals, sitemap inclusion, navigation and internal links should not disagree about which URL matters.
AI SEARCH · GOOGLE
Google's generative search still starts with the Search index.
Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same Search foundation: the page still needs to be discoverable, indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet.
Google may then use techniques such as query fan-out to run multiple related searches and retrieve supporting pages for a more complex response.
Search index
The page must first be eligible for Google Search.
Retrieval
Google can retrieve different supporting pages for different parts of a complex question.
Generative response
Those sources may then support links or information shown in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
There is no separate technical doorway into Google's AI results.
OFFICIAL SOURCESGoogle Search Central — AI features and your website →
SEO · AEO · GEO
Google does not require a second SEO stack for AI Search.
AEO and GEO can be useful names for work focused on answer and generative experiences. But Google's current guidance treats optimisation for its generative Search features as part of SEO rather than a separate technical system.
You do not need
- A special AI schema
- A Google-specific llms.txt
- Tiny “AI chunks”
- A separate rewritten version of every page
- Dozens of pages for every fan-out query variation
You still need
- Crawlable pages
- Useful internal links
- Indexable content
- Clear information
- Accurate structured data where relevant
- Strong page experience
- Original, useful content
- Evidence people can trust
For Google Search, AEO and GEO do not bypass SEO. They inherit it.
OFFICIAL SOURCERead Google's generative Search guidance →
GOOGLE MYTH CHECK
Google says llms.txt does not improve visibility in Google Search.
Google's current generative Search guidance says it does not use llms.txt or other special AI text files as a visibility requirement. Creating one for another service is fine, but Google Search does not give it special ranking or AI visibility value.
SEARCH CONSOLE · GENERATIVE AI
AI visibility can now be measured separately in Search Console.
Google introduced a dedicated Generative AI performance report in Search Console in 2026, listed separately under Performance, giving site owners a distinct view of visibility from AI Overviews and AI Mode: impressions by page, country, device and date.
That changes the conversation from “Did an AI system mention us?” to actual first-party Search visibility data — though today it covers impressions only, with no click, CTR or query data yet.
Visibility
Are pages appearing in generative Search experiences?
Pages
Which URLs are receiving that exposure?
Change over time
Is generative visibility growing, falling or shifting after technical and content changes?
OFFICIAL SOURCEGoogle Search Central — Generative AI performance report →
SEARCH & AI
AI changes the search interface. It does not remove the search foundation.
AI-generated search can change how people ask questions and how results are assembled, but Google still retrieves information from its Search systems.
The useful SEO question is therefore not whether traditional blue links disappear. It is whether your information remains discoverable, retrievable and worth using across the interfaces people choose.
How to Build an AI Content Pipeline →See how we keep SEO structure inside an AI-assisted publishing workflow.
SOURCE QUALITY
Technical eligibility gets the page into the system. It does not make the page useful.
Technical accessibility gets a page into the conversation. The page still needs useful information and enough evidence for people and search systems to understand why the source is worth using.
Experience
Evidence that comes from actually doing or observing the work where first-hand experience matters.
Expertise
Information that demonstrates real subject understanding.
Authority
Clear topical relationships and references that make the source easier to place in context.
Trust
Transparent ownership, defensible claims and information that can be verified.
E-E-A-T is not a score that OJC Labs can “increase to 95”. It is a quality framework, not a dashboard metric.
OFFICIAL SOURCEGoogle guidance on helpful, reliable, people-first content →
IMPLEMENTATION
The audit only matters if the right fixes reach production.
OJC Labs can move from diagnosis to implementation across the website stack instead of stopping at a spreadsheet of recommendations.
Next.js
Metadata, routing, rendering, sitemaps, canonicals, structured data and internal-link behaviour.
WordPress
Templates, indexing directives, metadata, plugin output, page structure and technical configuration.
Headless CMS
Rendering, CMS/front-end separation, preview, metadata and search-critical output.
Custom applications
Technical SEO requirements integrated into the actual application architecture.
CASE STUDY
Multilingual search architecture for MIC.
MIC moved to a multilingual headless architecture where language routes, canonicals, hreflang, structured data, sitemaps and rendering had to remain coherent across the new frontend.
FIELD NOTES
Technical SEO decisions, explained in context.
Site structure
How to Structure a Website for SEO at Scale
How URL roles, site architecture and internal relationships affect search at scale.
Read the guide →CMS architecture
Headless CMS vs WordPress for SEO
Why rendering and implementation matter more than the CMS label itself.
Read the guide →Headless
When to Move to Headless Architecture
The migration risks around redirects, internal links, rendering and structured data.
Read the guide →Content systems
How to Build an AI Content Pipeline
How SEO research, metadata and internal linking remain part of an AI-assisted publishing workflow.
Read the guide →OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION
What Google and Bing actually document.
Bing
Bing's current Webmaster Guidelines explicitly connect normal crawling, indexing, canonicalisation and content clarity with eligibility for Bing/Copilot grounding and citations.
Bing treats normal SEO foundations as part of Copilot visibility too: crawl efficiency, indexing accuracy, URL consolidation, content clarity and authority also support eligibility for grounding results and citations. Bing also recommends IndexNow for notifying participating search engines when URLs are added, updated or removed.
CONNECTED SYSTEMS
The work around this system matters too.
Web & CMS
The frontend and CMS determine what search engines actually receive.
Explore the system →Content Operating Systems
Publishing architecture determines whether useful content can be produced and maintained consistently.
Explore the system →Growth Engineering
Search traffic still needs to turn into useful commercial action.
Explore the system →Automation & Data
Search and content workflows can be connected to publishing, monitoring and enrichment systems.
Explore the system →
FAQ
Questions about technical SEO.
What does a technical SEO audit include?+
It depends on the site, but OJC Labs can review crawling, indexing, canonicals, redirects, metadata, internal links, structured data, rendering, performance and other technical signals included in the agreed scope.
Can you implement the recommendations after the audit?+
Yes. OJC Labs can take implementation into scope when we have access to the relevant website, CMS or codebase.
Why is my page not indexed by Google?+
There is no single cause. Discovery, crawlability, canonical signals, directives, rendering, duplication and page quality can all affect whether a URL is indexed. The first step is identifying which stage is failing.
Do technical SEO fixes guarantee rankings?+
No. Technical SEO removes barriers and improves the foundation. Rankings also depend on relevance, competition, content quality, authority and other signals.
Does structured data guarantee rich results?+
No. Structured data can help search engines understand supported content types, but eligibility does not guarantee a rich result.
Will AI replace SEO?+
No. Search interfaces are changing, but web content still needs to be accessible, understandable and useful before search or AI systems can make effective use of it.
Do I need llms.txt for Google AI Overviews or AI Mode?+
No. Google's current guidance says Google Search does not use llms.txt or special AI text files as a requirement for visibility in its generative Search features.
Can I use Google's Indexing API for normal pages?+
Not as a general indexing shortcut. Google's Indexing API is documented for supported job posting and livestreaming event pages.
NEXT STEP
Turn technical SEO findings into a working plan.
Bring us the site, the issue or the audit you already have. OJC Labs can identify the technical priorities, explain what matters and implement the agreed fixes.