Notes on
search & indexing
Opinions, postmortems and things we got wrong. If you want the reference material instead, the guides explain each Search Console report properly.
We Deindexed Our Own Site With One Line of Code
One line in the wrong file told Google that every page on this site was really the homepage. Google believed us.
- Playbook
7 SEO Mistakes Hiding in Your Next.js Starter Template
Every one of these passes the build, renders fine, and throws no errors. That is exactly why they survive to production.
9 min read - Comparison
Search Console vs Google Analytics: Which Tells You What
The click is the boundary. Search Console owns everything before it; Analytics owns everything after. Confusing the two is why their numbers never match.
7 min read - Opinion
How Often Should You Actually Check Search Console?
Different reports move at different speeds. Checking all of them daily teaches you to ignore all of them.
6 min read - Data
AI Overviews Are Taking Your Clicks. Here's How to Measure It.
Flat impressions, falling clicks, unchanged rank. That combination has one common explanation, and Search Console will not name it for you.
7 min read - Opinion
Core Web Vitals Won't Save a Page Nobody Wants to Read
Nobody has ever ranked first for being fast. Speed is worth fixing — just not before the things that actually decide whether you rank at all.
6 min read - Playbook
The First 90 Days of SEO for a Brand New Site
Most of what people do in month one is either premature or pointless. Here is the short list that isn't.
8 min read - Data
Your Search Console Data Expires in 16 Months
Sixteen months sounds generous until you try to compare this Black Friday to the one before last, and find that Google has thrown it away.
6 min read - Comparison
What a $99/Month SEO Tool Gives You That Search Console Doesn't
Paid tools are better at almost everything except the one thing that matters most — and no amount of money buys that thing.
8 min read - Playbook
Six Things Worth Building on the Search Console API
The web interface truncates at 1,000 rows and cannot alert you to anything. The API does neither.
8 min read