Get Started with Search: A Developer’s Guide

Making your site search-friendly is key to attracting relevant visitors through Google Search. If Google can’t understand your page properly, you could miss out on valuable traffic.

1. How Google Sees Your Site

• Use tools like URL Inspection and Rich Results Test to see your site from Google’s perspective.
  
• Googlebot (Google’s crawler) may not see everything users do — for example, some JavaScript features might hide images or content from Google.
  
• Make sure your important content is accessible without relying solely on unsupported JavaScript.

2. Check Your Links #

• Use crawlable <a> tags with meaningful text or alt attributes for images.
  
• Ensure all pages are reachable via links from other discoverable pages.
  
• Build and submit an XML sitemap to help Google find and prioritize your pages.
  
• For single-page apps, ensure each piece of content or view has a unique URL.

3. JavaScript and SEO #

• Google can run JavaScript but with some limitations — follow Google’s JavaScript SEO best practices.
  
• Watch out for rendering issues that might hide content or links from Google.
  
• Use available resources and videos from Google to understand how JavaScript affects crawling and indexing.
  

4. Keep Google Updated on Content Changes #

• Submit updated sitemaps regularly.
  
• Use Search Console to request recrawls for new or updated pages.
  
• Check server logs if pages are not indexed as expected.

5. Use Text Content Wisely #

• Googlebot can only index visible text.
  
• Provide textual context for images and videos (e.g., captions, descriptions).
  
• Use unique titles and meta descriptions for every page — they improve relevance and click-through rates.
  
• Use semantic HTML instead of plugins or canvas-rendered content, which Google cannot index.
  
• Avoid putting important text inside CSS-generated content (content: property) as Google ignores it.

6. Inform Google About Content Variations #

• If your site has multiple versions (mobile, desktop, language variations), use:
  
  • Canonical tags to consolidate duplicate URLs
    
  • hreflang tags for localized content
    
  • Ensure AMP pages are discoverable if used
    

7. Control What Google Can Access and Index #

• Use robots.txt to block crawling but not as a way to hide pages from search results.
  
• Use noindex meta tags or password protection to keep pages out of search results.
  
• Avoid conflicting rules by carefully combining crawl and index directives.
  

8. Troubleshoot Content Not Showing in Search #

• Use URL Inspection to check if Googlebot can access the page.
  
• Test your robots.txt to ensure you’re not accidentally blocking pages.
  
• Check your page for noindex tags that might prevent indexing.
  

9. Enable Rich Results #

• Add structured data (schema markup) to your pages to help Google create rich search results with enhanced visuals and features.
  
• Explore Google’s gallery of rich result types (like recipes, events, products) to see which fit your content.