Study first
Review the ideas behind the questions
Start here if you want the core SEO checks in one place: crawl access, search-result signals, internal links, and page usefulness.
How Google finds pages
Google uses crawlers to discover pages. A page can then be processed for indexing, where Google tries to understand its text, links, images, and other page signals.
- Google often finds pages by following links from pages it already knows.
- Internal links help users and crawlers move through a site.
- A sitemap can help Google find important URLs, especially on new or large sites.
- A sitemap does not guarantee that every URL will be crawled or indexed.
What appears in search results
Search results can include a title link, a snippet, and a visible URL path. These parts should help a searcher decide whether the page is useful.
- The title element is one of the main sources Google can use for a title link.
- Google usually creates snippets from page content, and may use the meta description when it is a better fit.
- Clear URLs can help users understand what a page may be about.
- Good link text tells users what they will find after opening a link.
Crawl and index controls
Some SEO checks are about access. Others are about whether a page should appear in search results. These are not the same task.
- Robots.txt tells crawlers which URLs they can access.
- Robots.txt is not the right method for keeping an HTML page out of Google Search results.
- For an HTML page that should not appear in Search, Google recommends noindex or password protection.
- A canonical link can point to the preferred URL when duplicate or very similar pages exist.
Content and page quality
Useful SEO starts with pages made for people. Google advises site owners to make content clear, original, current, and easy to use.
- Write content that helps the reader complete a real task.
- Use headings and short sections so the page is easy to scan.
- Avoid copying or lightly rewriting content from other sites.
- Do not repeat keywords in a way that makes the page worse for readers.