Pagination and SEO
rel="next" and a canonical pointing at page one are both contradicted by Google’s current documentation, in sentences you can read yourself.
Guides
Search problems with a checkable answer
Each of these quotes the documentation it rests on, so you can disagree with the source rather than with us. Where the honest answer is that there is no number, it says so.
Crawling and indexing
X-Robots-Tag
The noindex that lives in the HTTP header rather than the HTML. What it can say, where it comes from when nobody set it, and what silences it.
What is llms.txt?
A Markdown reading list for AI agents, proposed in 2024. Google says its Search does not use it, and it blocks nothing that robots.txt does.
robots.txt: disallow all
The snippet everyone copies carries two warnings from Google that nobody copies with it, and one of them makes the problem permanent.
Why your website is not showing in Google
Which of two completely different problems you have, and the free check that tells them apart. Google puts a crawl at a few days to a few weeks.
Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt
Google listed a page it was never allowed to read, and the obvious fix makes it permanent. What to do, in order.
Canonicals, redirects and hreflang
Alternate page with proper canonical tag
Search Console files it under pages that are not indexed and Google says there is nothing to do. The three statuses it gets confused with, side by side.
301 vs 302 redirect
Every guide explains it as link equity. Google’s redirect documentation never uses the phrase, and what it says instead changes the advice.
hreflang: no return tags
The error came from a Search Console report Google has retired. What it meant, and why the requirement outlived the screen that reported it.
hreflang x-default
The sentence every guide quotes is from a 2013 post Google now flags as outdated. What the current documentation says instead.
Canonical tags for duplicate content
A duplicate-URL decision table and a worksheet that separates the tag you changed from the canonical Google selected.
Canonical vs hreflang
Described everywhere as separate jobs. Google documents them as connected, and the connection is what breaks multi-language sites.
Titles, snippets and Search Console
How to track AI Mode traffic
Search Console counts AI Mode and AI Overview impressions in their own report, together and without clicks. Where to look, and what is missing.
High impressions, low clicks
Search Console counts an impression even when nobody scrolled to your result. The four checks to run, in order, before you rewrite anything.
SEO meta title
Google gives no character limit and may not show your title at all. The nine sources it reads, and the seven problems that make it replace yours.
og:image size
Every guide says 1200 by 630. The specification gives no size at all, and the one platform that states that pair calls it a minimum.
Search Console vs Analytics
They measure opposite sides of the same visit, so the numbers never match. What an impression and a click actually count.
Content, links and audits
SEO audit template
Every check with the free way to run it and what a pass looks like, as a CSV you can open in any spreadsheet.
How many internal links should a page have?
There is no number, and Google says so in its own documentation. What to check on your own site instead of counting.
What goes in an SEO content brief
The fields that change what gets written, a template you can copy, and the mistakes that make a brief useless.
Free tools
These run in your browser. The tools do not send your pasted input to our server or save it. Each explains what it checks and what remains unverified.
Twitter card validator
X’s own Card Validator now ends at a sign-in page. Reads the tags you paste and says what a card would carry, without an account.
Meta tag generator
Writes the head block from one title and description, measures them in pixels, and says that Google may replace the description anyway.
hreflang generator
Writes the block that goes on every page in the set, self-reference included, and reports the mistakes that stop a cluster being processed.
robots.txt generator
Writes the file, then reads it back with the parser this crawler obeys and tells you what it actually does.
Meta title and description length checker
Character counters cite a limit Google never published. This measures width, at a named font, and shows what it assumed.
robots.txt tester
Paste a robots.txt and an address to see whether it is allowed, which rule decided it, and every rule that rule beat.
Canonical tag checker
Inspect pasted HTML for conflicting canonical tags and resolve relative targets, without confusing a declared URL with Google’s choice.
Will my noindex work?
A noindex on a page robots.txt blocks can never be read. Check whether yours can be, before you wait a month for nothing.
What Google ignores in your sitemap
Paste a sitemap to see which parts Google reads and which it discards, with its own documentation beside each answer.