Technical SEO: crawling, indexing & site health
Technical SEO makes sure search engines can crawl, render and index your site without friction. Covers sitemaps, robots.txt, mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, site speed, canonicals, structured data and Search Console.
Even great content fails if search engines can't crawl or index it. Technical SEO is the plumbing that lets everything else work.
Crawlability & indexing
Provide an XML sitemap and a robots.txt, ensure important pages are linked internally, and avoid blocking content you want indexed. Use Google Search Console to see what's indexed and to fix coverage errors.
Mobile-first & responsive design
Google indexes the mobile version of your site. The layout must adapt to small screens with readable text, tap-friendly controls and no horizontal scrolling — essential for Nepal's mobile-majority audience.
Site speed & Core Web Vitals
Fast pages rank and convert better. Optimise images, minimise JavaScript, use caching/CDN, and watch the Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS). See the dedicated Core Web Vitals guide.
HTTPS, URLs & canonicals
Serve everything over HTTPS, keep URLs clean and consistent (trailing-slash and case), and set canonical tags so duplicate or parameter URLs don't split your ranking signals.
Structured data
Add JSON-LD schema so engines understand your content and can show rich results — and so AI engines can extract facts. Validate with the Rich Results Test.
Sitemaps & monitoring
Keep your sitemap accurate and submitted, use a truthful lastmod, and monitor indexing, queries and Core Web Vitals in Search Console over time.
Key takeaways
- ✓Make the site crawlable and indexable: sitemap, robots.txt, internal links.
- ✓Be mobile-first and fast — Google indexes mobile and Nepal is mobile-majority.
- ✓HTTPS, clean URLs and canonicals protect your ranking signals.
- ✓Add and validate structured data; monitor in Search Console.
Technical SEO — FAQ
What is a sitemap and do I need one?+
An XML sitemap lists your important URLs so search engines can discover them. It's strongly recommended, especially as a site grows or has pages that aren't well linked.
What is robots.txt?+
A file at your domain root that tells crawlers which paths they may or may not crawl. Use it to guide crawlers — not to hide pages you actually want indexed.
Related guides
Sources & data note
These guides explain widely-accepted SEO, AEO and GEO practice as documented by Google Search Central, schema.org and current industry research. Search and AI systems evolve continually — treat specific thresholds (e.g. Core Web Vitals targets) as current guidance and verify against the latest official documentation. Examples are tailored to Nepal's market.