Web and SEO terms made simple
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Indexing – Glossary
Further reading
Overview of crawling and indexing topics, Google Search Central
High level index of crawling and indexing, links to sitemaps, robots.txt, canonicalization, and recrawling.
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing
Canonicalization, Google Search Central
How Google handles duplicates, how to specify a canonical URL, and how to fix canonical issues.
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls
Sitemaps, Google Search Central
What sitemaps do, formats and best practices, plus submission and debugging.
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview
robots.txt, Google Search Central
Write and update robots.txt, interpret directives correctly, avoid blocking important resources.
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro
Ask Google to recrawl URLs, Google Search Central
Request recrawls after fixes, confirm indexation with the URL Inspection tool.
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl
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About this glossary
I’m building this glossary to become a better developer and website strategist, in my ongoing quest to build clearer, better websites. It maps how terms relate, adds practical examples, and highlights best practices so I can communicate more clearly with clients. If it helps others too, great.
It’s a living resource, I aim to cite sources clearly. If you spot errors or omissions, please contact me so I can update it. Drafts may be assisted by AI, I review and fact check before publishing. For details on how I use AI, see AI Use at Webmarks.