Crawlability, sitemaps & structured data
2 min read
Helping Google read your whole site
You can have great content, but if Google's bots cannot crawl or understand your site, none of it ranks. This lesson covers the technical pieces that let Google read you clearly.
Mobile-first and HTTPS — the non-negotiables
- Mobile-friendly: Google ranks the mobile version of your site first. If it looks broken on a phone, you lose. Use responsive design.
- HTTPS: the little padlock (a security certificate). Google prefers secure sites, and browsers warn users away from non-HTTPS pages. It is free and essential.
Sitemap & robots.txt — a map and a guide for bots
- A sitemap (
sitemap.xml) is a list of all your important pages. It hands Google a map so it finds everything quickly. - robots.txt tells bots which areas to crawl and which to skip (like a private admin page).
You usually submit your sitemap in Google Search Console so Google knows where it is.
Structured data (schema) — speaking Google's language
Structured data is special code that explains your content to Google in a format it loves — for example, marking up a recipe's rating, a product's price, or an article's author.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Learn JavaScript for Beginners",
"author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Your Name" }
}
</script>
Why bother? Because it can earn you rich results — those eye-catching stars, FAQs and images right in the search results that get far more clicks.
Be mobile-friendly and secure (HTTPS), give bots a sitemap + robots.txt, and use structured data to unlock rich results.