Skip to content

The Technical SEO Reference

Companion volume to ../seo-checklist.md — every mechanism verified against the authoritative primary source

Status: drafted 2026-08-04 · V2 whole-book adversarial audit pending (see ../technical-seo-book-plan.md §5) · evidence standard: STYLE.md · citation map with fetch dates: ../research/citations/

The playbook answers what to check and in what order. This book answers how the machinery works, why the check exists, and how to diagnose it when it breaks. Start from a symptom (Ch 21 §21.5, the master index) or from the pipeline below.

Part I — Foundations

  • Ch 1 — Foundations: the pipeline one level deeper; the three rulebooks; the evidence legend; how to read this book

Part II — The crawl layer

  • Ch 2 — Crawling infrastructure: Googlebot mechanics; ⚠️ the 2MB/64MB fetch limits; crawl budget; HTTP status handling; soft 404s; Crawl Stats; HTTP caching; indexable file types
  • Ch 3 — robots.txt: the full spec — Google implementation vs 📘 RFC 9309; the availability behavior matrix; what robots.txt can never do
  • Ch 4 — Hosting, CDN, WAF & DNS: challenge-page failure modes; edge SEO; wildcard DNS; DNSSEC; subdomain takeover (crawl side)
  • Ch 5 — AI crawlers & bot management: the full Google crawler taxonomy; Google-Extended's exact scope; verifying Googlebot (+ Web Bot Auth); the third-party AI crawler inventory; llms.txt; the blocking tradeoff

Part III — The render layer

  • Ch 6 — Rendering & JavaScript: the two-queue pipeline; the WRS behavioral contract; the byte budget; the JS-injection rulebook (Dec 2025 rules); framework failure modes; CMP/consent walls; debugging

Part IV — The index layer

  • Ch 7 — Indexing controls: the robots-meta/X-Robots-Tag rule inventory; noindex mechanics; snippet controls × AI surfaces; the removal ladder; 404 vs 410; the Page indexing taxonomy
  • Ch 8 — Canonicalization: the signal stack (20+ signals); implementation methods and failure modes; HTTPS preference; syndication's changed guidance; GSC canonical statuses
  • Ch 9 — Sitemaps & discovery: protocol vs Google implementation; lastmod trust; extensions; the dead ping endpoint; the Indexing API's narrow truth; IndexNow non-support

Part V — Site design

  • Ch 10 — URLs, architecture & navigation: the URL rulebook; hierarchy-is-links; pagination; the Dec 2024 faceted-navigation doctrine; infinite spaces; architecture lore quarantined
  • Ch 11 — International: the hreflang spec in full; code traps; canonical×hreflang; ccTLD/subdomain/subdirectory; geotargeting after the report's death; locale-adaptive crawling
  • Ch 12 — Structured data: parsing contract; the general guidelines; the 2026 gallery; the dated deprecation graveyard; @graph reality check; validation; the manual action's exact scope
  • Ch 13 — The display layer: title-link generation (the full source list); snippet mechanics; date detection; site names; sitelinks
  • Ch 14 — Media: the image pipeline; formats; preferred-image (Mar 2026); licensable images; the removal toolbox; video's three-URL model + thumbnail gate; favicons; Discover; OG quarantined; news eligibility
  • Ch 15 — Performance, page experience & mobile: the exact ranking wording; LCP/INP/CLS mechanics; CrUX blind spots; lab-vs-field; optimization playbooks; mobile-first completion; prerender/bfcache

Part VI — Change events

  • Ch 16 — Redirects & site moves: the redirect taxonomy; alternate names; migration playbooks (with and without URL changes); Change of Address mechanics; A/B testing; planned downtime
  • Ch 17 — Security incidents: HTTPS doctrine archaeology; Safe Browsing; the Security Issues taxonomy; the three classic hacks; recovery + review timelines; DNS-level compromise
  • Ch 18 — Spam enforcement & recovery: the 16 named policies; the complete manual-actions taxonomy; site reputation abuse; reconsideration; algorithmic-vs-manual recovery forks

Part VII — Measurement & diagnosis

Appendices