SEO documentation

This documentation is provided as a reference for clients (though all are welcome).

If you're looking to hire an SEO, click here.

Broken links

A broken link is any hyperlink that points to a destination that no longer works — most commonly a URL that returns a 404 (Not Found), but also 5xx server errors, infinite redirect loops, or DNS failures. They occur on virtually every website at [...] Read more

3 min

"Article" schema

Article schema marks up news articles, blog posts, investigative reports, and other editorial content. It's one of the primary schema types for any publisher or content-driven site, because it tells Google who wrote the content, when, and on whose [...] Read more

2 min

Page indexing

Indexing is the process by which search engines store and organise web pages so they can be retrieved in response to search queries. A page that is indexed can appear in search results. A page that is not indexed cannot — no matter how good its [...] Read more

4 min

"areaServed" schema

The areaServed schema.org property declares the geographic area where a business provides a service or offers an item. It's a simple but useful piece of structured data for any business that serves customers across a region rather than only at a [...] Read more

4 min

Metadata, and metadata directives

Metadata is information about a page rather than the page's visible content. Directives are specific instructions to crawlers and browsers about how to handle that page. Both live in the <head> of an HTML document (or in HTTP response headers [...] Read more

5 min

"Offer" schema

The Offer schema describes a specific commercial offer to sell something — a price, currency, availability status, and the conditions of purchase. It is typically nested inside another schema type, most commonly Product or Service. Offer provides [...] Read more

2 min

Permalinks

A permalink is the full URL of a specific web page — designed to remain stable and unchanged over time. Permalinks are how content is referenced, shared, bookmarked, and indexed. Designing them well is a one-time investment that provides a [...] Read more

5 min

"SearchAction" schema

SearchAction declares that a website has its own internal search functionality and describes how to invoke it. Historically, it was paired with WebSite schema as the potentialAction to enable Google's Sitelinks Search Box — the search field that [...] Read more

2 min

4xx errors

4xx HTTP status codes are a server's way of saying "your request can't be delivered" — meaning the request itself was wrong, blocked, or unauthorised. They're distinct from 5xx errors (server problems) and 3xx codes (redirects). Common 4xx codes 400 [...] Read more

2 min

Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a Google tool that lets website owners see how their site performs in Google Search, along with any problems preventing it from being indexed and issues affecting its performance in search results. It is the primary [...] Read more

2 min