The knowledge bank Sources
All sources, and how much weight they carry
We distinguish between the providers' own documentation, open standards, details reported from conferences, and industry media. A claim about how a search engine works must always be traceable to here.
Official documentation · 82Open standard · 12Reported (conference) · 1Industry media · 4
01 Official documentation
82 sources
How Google Search works (overview)Google Search Central
Ask Google to recrawl your URLsGoogle Search Central
SitemapsGoogle Search Central
Introduction to robots.txtGoogle Search Central
Duplicate URLs and the canonical addressGoogle Search Central
Move a site with URL changesGoogle Search Central
Title links in search resultsGoogle Search Central
Snippets in search resultsGoogle Search Central
General structured data guidelinesGoogle Search Central
Creating helpful, reliable contentGoogle Search Central
Google's core updatesGoogle Search Central
AI features and your website (AI Overviews, AI Mode)Google Search Central
Google's crawlers, including Google-ExtendedGoogle Search Central
Search Console API: usage limits and quotasGoogle for Developers
The Performance report in Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console Help
The Removals toolGoogle Search Console Help
How Google determines local rankingGoogle Business Profile Help
Core Web Vitals and Google SearchGoogle Search Central
Web Vitals: metrics and thresholdsweb.dev (Google)
Chrome UX Report: methodologyChrome for Developers
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)web.dev (Google)
Time to First Byte (TTFB)web.dev (Google)
About PageSpeed InsightsGoogle for Developers
Keyword planning in the Google Ads APIGoogle for Developers
Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)Google for Developers
Bing Webmaster GuidelinesMicrosoft Bing
AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools (public preview)Bing Webmaster Blog
Where do DuckDuckGo's results come from?DuckDuckGo Help
Brave Search API (its own, independent index)Brave
OpenAI's crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User)OpenAI
Anthropic's crawlers (ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User)Anthropic
Perplexity's crawlers (PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User)Perplexity
Agentic Commerce Protocol in Stripe's documentationStripe
Crawling and indexing frequently asked questionsGoogle Search Central
Remove information from GoogleGoogle Search Central
The Manual Actions reportGoogle Search Console Help
Understand JavaScript SEO basicsGoogle Search Central
Webmaster support and indexing timesMicrosoft Bing
Why is my site not in the index?Microsoft Bing
Overture Maps: PlacesOverture Maps Foundation
Common Crawl: open web archiveCommon Crawl
How Google's Knowledge Graph worksGoogle Knowledge Panel Help
Get verified on Google (claim a knowledge panel)Google Knowledge Panel Help
About knowledge panelsGoogle Knowledge Panel Help
Structured data for organisations (Organization)Google Search Central
Provide a site name to GoogleGoogle Search Central
Guidelines for representing your business on GoogleGoogle Business Profile Help
Spam policies for Google web searchGoogle Search Central
Meta tags and attributes that Google supportsGoogle Search Central
Influencing title links in search resultsGoogle Search Central
Tell Google about localized versions of your pageGoogle Search Central
Images in Link SharesMeta for Developers
Make your website shareable on LinkedInLinkedIn Help
Meta Pixel: Get startedMeta for Developers
Meta Pixel: General Data Protection RegulationMeta for Developers
Handling duplicate Pixel and Conversions API eventsMeta for Developers
Analyze existing tag configurations (tag ID prefixes)Google for Developers
[GA4] Measurement IDGoogle Analytics Help
Install a web containerGoogle Tag Manager Help
Use Tag Manager with a Content Security PolicyGoogle for Developers
Access the partner ID for your LinkedIn Insight TagLinkedIn Help
How to create and access TikTok Pixel IDTikTok Ads Help
Clarity Content Security PolicyMicrosoft Learn
What is UET and how can it help me?Microsoft Learn
Google tag gateway for advertisersGoogle for Developers
Swedish Electronic Communications Act (2022:482), chapter 9, section 28The Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen)
CookiesSwedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS)
IMY criticises companies' cookie bannersSwedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY)
Consent as a legal basisSwedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY)
Report of the work undertaken by the Cookie Banner TaskforceEDPB
Help with the EU user consent policyGoogle
Consent mode overviewGoogle for Developers
Obtain user consentGoogle Ads Help
FAQ: UET and user consentMicrosoft Learn
Clarity Cookie Consent API: ConsentV2Microsoft Learn
Image SEO best practicesGoogle Search Central
Image metadata in Google Images (IPTC)Google Search Central
Image sitemapsGoogle Search Central
Fix lazy-loaded contentGoogle Search Central
The performance effects of too much lazy loadingweb.dev (Google)
Fetch Priority: load the most important things firstweb.dev (Google)
Optimize Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)web.dev (Google)
02 Open standard
12 sources
IndexNow: documentationIndexNow.org
RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion ProtocolIETF
schema.org/LocalBusinessSchema.org
llms.txt: a proposed standardllmstxt.org
Model Context Protocolmodelcontextprotocol.io
Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocola2a-protocol.org
Agentic Commerce Protocol (OpenAI and Stripe)agenticcommerce.dev
IndexNow: frequently asked questionsIndexNow.org
Wikidata: the requirements for being included (notability)Wikidata
schema.org/OrganizationSchema.org
The Open Graph protocologp.me
IPTC Photo Metadata StandardIPTC
03 Reported (conference)
1 source
04 Industry media
4 sources
Google shows how long crawling, indexing and recovery can takeSearch Engine Journal
Google shares data on how long crawling, indexing and serving takeSearch Engine Land
Google's Martin Splitt: We Do Not Use Exif Data For RankingSearch Engine Roundtable
Does geotagging photos help Google Business Profile rankings?Search Engine Land
Knowledge bank updated 15 October 2026. Found something that is not right? Tell us and we will correct it.