# Technical SEO and Website Health > Make sure search engines can crawl and index your important pages, and that those pages load quickly and work well on phones. Canonical: https://vassalmarketing.com/information/technical-seo/ **Maintained by Vassal Marketing** ยท Last updated on September 26, 2026 Reviewed at least quarterly and whenever a platform or rule it cites changes. General information, not legal or professional advice. Check rules that affect your business with a qualified professional. Fix anything that stops search engines from reading your important pages, then make those pages fast and stable on a phone. ## Why this matters Search engines cannot rank a page they cannot load, read, or match to the right URL. A stray "noindex" tag, broken links, duplicate URLs, long redirect chains, or server errors can hide a good page. Technical work also helps the visitor. A page that loads quickly, stays still while loading, and responds when tapped makes it easier to call or book. It supports rankings, but no audit score or speed number decides them. ## Recommended practices ### Control what gets crawled and indexed Keep an XML sitemap that lists only the pages you want in search. Use a "noindex" tag to keep a page out of results. Robots.txt only tells crawlers what not to fetch; it does not hide a page, and a blocked page cannot show its noindex tag. ### Choose one address for each page Pick one version of each URL: https, with or without "www", with or without a trailing slash. Redirect the other versions to it, point the canonical tag at it, and use the same version in the sitemap. ### Put the important content in the page itself Headings, text, links, and business details should appear without a click or tap. Google indexes the mobile version of a site, so the phone version needs the same content and markup as the desktop version. ### Understand Core Web Vitals Core Web Vitals are three Google measures of real visitor experience. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): how fast the main content appears; good is 2.5 seconds or less. Interaction to Next Paint (INP): how fast the page responds to taps; good is under 200 milliseconds. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): how much the page jumps while loading; good is under 0.1. ### Use structured data that still does something Structured data (schema markup) is code that labels facts such as your business name, address, and hours. It must match what visitors see. Some rich results are gone: HowTo was removed in 2023, and Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in May 2026. A business cannot earn review stars from reviews it collects or controls about itself. ## What to do next 1. Verify the site in Google Search Console and read the Pages (indexing) and Sitemaps reports. 2. Crawl the site to find broken links, missing titles, redirect chains, and accidental noindex tags. 3. Test your main page templates on a real phone over a mobile connection. 4. Make sure every important page is linked from another page and listed in the sitemap. 5. After each major website update, check the live pages and structured data again. ## Avoid these shortcuts - Blocking CSS or JavaScript files the page needs to display - Listing redirected, duplicate, private, or noindex pages in the sitemap - Adding markup for reviews, FAQs, or services that visitors cannot see - Chasing a perfect speed score while forms, calls, or content are broken ## Questions business owners ask ### Does a sitemap guarantee indexing? No. A sitemap helps Google find the pages you prefer, but Google still decides what to crawl and index. Keep it to live, final URLs. ### Do Core Web Vitals decide rankings? No. They are part of page experience. Improving them helps visitors and removes a possible disadvantage, but a fast page that does not answer the search will not outrank a useful one. ### Is structured data required for SEO? No. Pages can be indexed and ranked without it. Accurate markup helps search engines read your business details and can make a page eligible for some enhanced results. It must match what visitors can see. ## Primary guidance - [Google: Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals) - [web.dev: Interaction to Next Paint becomes a Core Web Vital](https://web.dev/blog/inp-cwv-march-12) - [Google: Robots.txt introduction](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro) - [Google: Review snippet structured data guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/review-snippet) - [Google Search Central: Latest documentation updates (HowTo and FAQ changes)](https://developers.google.com/search/updates) Search visibility, rankings, calls, leads, and revenue are not guaranteed. ## Go deeper - [Structured data for local businesses](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/structured-data-for-local-businesses.md) - [SEO audits](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/seo-audits.md) ## Related SEO guides - [SEO Audits That Produce Prioritized Work](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/seo-audits.md): Check technical health, content, search visibility, local listings, and tracking, then turn the findings into a short, ordered fix list. - [SEO-Safe Website Migrations and Redesigns](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/seo-migrations.md): Protect your search visibility through a redesign, platform move, or domain change with a page list, redirect map, testing, and monitoring. - [Internal Linking and Crawlable Site Architecture](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/internal-linking.md): Link your own pages together so people and search engines can find your most important pages and understand how they relate. [Explore all SEO guides](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/seo.md).