Does the first link to a page get special SEO treatment?
Check repeated links for clear labels, consistent destinations, and accessible ordering without relying on an undocumented ranking rule.
Read article →Field notes
Technical SEO field notes, page 2
Step-by-step checks, code examples, and explanations for technical SEO and tracking problems.
Internal link audits: menus, footers, and contextual links
Find important pages with weak internal links. Check their navigation paths, anchor text, redirects, and links from relevant content.
Read article →How to find and fix orphan pages
Compare your CMS, sitemap, and search exports with the links on your site. Then decide which isolated pages need links, redirects, or removal.
Read article →Soft 404s: fix missing pages without breaking empty categories
Compare the HTTP status with the content Google rendered. Treat missing pages, out-of-stock categories, and empty search results according to their purpose.
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How to verify Googlebot requests in your logs
Check the source IP of a request claiming to be Googlebot. Use Google’s published ranges or reverse-and-forward DNS before trusting crawler totals.
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Googlebot visited your page. That doesn’t mean it is indexed.
Use server logs for crawl checks, URL Inspection for indexing, and performance reports for search traffic. Each answers a different question.
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Why GA4, Google Ads, and your CRM show different conversions
Trace one form submission or purchase through GTM, GA4, Google Ads, and the CRM to separate broken tracking from reporting differences.
Read article →Technical SEO audit cost: what should you get for the price?
What affects the cost of a technical SEO audit, what the report should contain, and how to agree which fixes and checks are included.
Read article →How to run A/B tests without confusing Google
Choose the right URLs, redirects, and canonicals for an A/B test, then check assignment and caching before launch.
Read article →Why Google still shows the old canonical after a fix
Check that the canonical fix is live, compare it with Google’s last crawl, and investigate conflicting signals if the old selection remains.
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