Author
Menj Villalobos
Founder & editor, SEOtest.app
Menj Villalobos builds and maintains SEOtest.app, including every tool on it. The site started as a set of internal utilities — a character counter that measured pixel width instead of guessing, a redirect tracer that showed the whole chain — built while working on other projects, and published once they turned out to be more reliable than the free tools already out there.
Most of what ends up in these guides comes from running SEO on a portfolio of independent web products rather than from client work: shipping pages, watching them get indexed or not, and tracing the difference back to something concrete in the markup. The recommendations here reflect what actually moved rankings on those sites, which is also why they sometimes disagree with the conventional advice.
Tools and guides are checked against current Google documentation and live search behaviour before publishing, and re-dated when they change. Corrections are welcome and get fixed rather than argued with.
Guides by Menj Villalobos
How to Get Your Site Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
AI answer engines cite pages they can find, read, and lift a clean answer from. The concrete levers that get you into ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, minus the hype.
· 9 min read
GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot: Every Major AI Crawler and How to Control It
A reference table of the AI bots hitting your site right now, what each is actually for, and how to opt out of training without cutting off the crawlers that put you in AI answers.
· 9 min read
Technical Reference: Optimizing Meta Property OG Tags
The lookup table to keep open while wiring up Open Graph: every og:* property that platforms actually read, whether it's required, an example value, and the catch.
· 6 min read
LLMs.txt: Preparing Your Website for AI Search Engines
llms.txt is a proposal, not a standard, and no major AI company has confirmed reading it. What it is, its real status, and what genuinely helps AI cite your content.
· 6 min read
What Is an SEO Test? How to Test a Website's SEO Step by Step
What an SEO test actually checks, a 10-minute sequence you can run on any page, and how to tell a real problem from a warning you can safely ignore.
· 8 min read
Canonical Tags: Stop Duplicate Content from Hurting Your SEO
Canonical tags consolidate duplicate URLs, but they're a hint Google can overrule, not a command. How rel=canonical works, and the targeting mistakes to avoid.
· 6 min read
Twitter Card Meta Tags: The Complete Implementation Guide
X reads its own twitter:* tags before your Open Graph. The card types, the tags each needs, how the OG fallback works, and why a card sometimes won't unfurl.
· 6 min read
og:type Values Explained: website, article, product, and Beyond
og:type is the switch that decides which other Open Graph properties are even legal on the page. The values that matter and what each one unlocks.
· 5 min read
Open Graph Image Size & Format: 2026 Best Practices
Nearly every broken link preview is the image. The one size to use, the file-size ceilings per platform, which formats actually work, and the two tags that fix a blank card.
· 6 min read
HowTo Schema Markup: Still Worth It After Google's 2023 Change?
HowTo rich results are gone, but the schema isn't dead. When it still earns its keep for AI and parsers, plus the full step-by-step JSON-LD.
· 6 min read
Product Schema Markup for E-commerce: A Step-by-Step Guide
The one schema type whose rich result is still very much alive. Required fields, the star-rating and merchant-listing wins, and the GSC errors that disqualify pages.
· 7 min read
FAQ Schema Markup Tutorial: Code, Examples, and Common Mistakes
Copy-paste FAQ JSON-LD, the real timeline of Google retiring FAQ rich results, and a straight answer on whether it's still worth adding.
· 6 min read
Schema Markup Types Explained: Article, Product, FAQ, HowTo, and More
Schema.org has 800+ types; you'll use about ten. Here's each one, its key fields, and whether it still earns a visible rich result.
· 6 min read
Choosing an SEO-Friendly Domain Name (Without Keyword-Stuffing)
Exact-match domains lost their ranking edge in 2012. What actually matters when picking a domain - brandability, TLD, length, hyphens - and what to ignore.
· 6 min read
How to Use a Business Name Generator (Without Hurting SEO)
A generator gives you volume; the filter is the real work. The memorability-vs-keyword tradeoff and a four-gate test for trademark, domain, search, and pronounceability.
· 6 min read
Meta Description Length: Pixel Width, Character Count, and CTR
Google ignores the description you wrote about 70% of the time. Here is the pixel-based length that survives, and why it lifts clicks but never rankings.
· 6 min read
Title Tag Length: The Pixel and Character Guide (with Counter)
There is no character limit on title tags; Google clips by pixel width. Here is the real range, why wide letters cost you, and how to survive a rewrite.
· 6 min read
SVG vs PNG vs WebP vs AVIF: Which Image Format Wins for SEO?
Which image format to reach for per image, and why it's an LCP decision, not a magic ranking lever. SVG, AVIF, WebP, PNG, and JPG compared, with picture and srcset patterns.
· 6 min read
Free SVG Logo Maker: Design a Scalable Brand Mark in Minutes
Design a scalable SVG logo or wordmark that works at favicon size: why SVG wins, color and type rules, optimizing with SVGO, dark mode, and reusing it for favicon and social cards.
· 8 min read
How to Make a Favicon: PNG, ICO, SVG, and Apple Touch Icons
The correct 2026 favicon set is a handful of files, not the old 14-file kit. ICO vs PNG vs SVG, the apple-touch-icon, the manifest, and the minimal HTML block.
· 7 min read
Favicon SEO: How Favicons Affect Search, Branding, and CTR
A favicon isn't a Google ranking factor, but it shows next to your result in mobile search. Here's what Google requires and why the grey globe appears instead of your icon.
· 7 min read
alt vs title vs caption: When to Use Each Image Attribute
Three ways to attach text to an image, three different jobs. What alt, the title attribute, and a caption each do, who receives them, and why title is nearly useless.
· 5 min read
30 Image Alt Text Examples for E-commerce, Blogs, and SaaS
Bad-vs-good alt text pairs across product photos, blog images, charts, and logos, with the reasoning behind each choice for both e-commerce and blog contexts.
· 6 min read
How to Fix Redirect Chains and Loops (Step-by-Step)
A single request quietly bouncing through four URLs wastes crawl budget and inflates LCP. Here's how to trace every hop, flatten chains to one, and break loops without losing your backlinks.
· 7 min read
301 vs 302 Redirects: Which Status Code Should You Use?
To a browser, a 301 and a 302 look identical. To Google they're opposite instructions. Which to use for migrations, A/B tests, maintenance, and HTTPS, and what choosing wrong actually costs.
· 7 min read
Open Graph SEO: How Social Meta Tags Impact Search Visibility
Open Graph tags aren't a Google ranking factor, but they decide how many people ever click through to your page. The mechanism, platform-by-platform rendering, and a two-minute debugging flow.
· 6 min read
Guide to Meta OG Tags: Optimizing Social Metadata
The five-minute starter version of Open Graph: the four tags that actually matter, a copy-paste block, and how to check the card before you share.
· 5 min read
Mastering the Open Graph Protocol for Enhanced SEO
A conceptual look at the Open Graph protocol: its Facebook origins, RDFa foundations, and where it sits relative to Twitter Cards and schema.org.
· 6 min read
Complete On-Page SEO Checklist for 2025
The pillar checklist for on-page SEO: every element from crawl control to Core Web Vitals, one sentence each, linked to the deep-dive post that covers it.
· 6 min read
How to Write SEO-Friendly Meta Descriptions That Get Clicks
A meta description is ad copy, not SEO copy. Here is how to write one that earns the click: intent-first, value front-loaded, with a concrete differentiator.
· 6 min read
Heading Structure for SEO: H1-H6 Best Practices Guide
Multiple H1s are valid HTML5, but one is clearer. Headings are an accessibility map and a structure signal, not a direct ranking factor or a place to stack keywords.
· 6 min read
Robots.txt Guide: How to Control Search Engine Crawling
robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing; a disallowed URL can still be indexed. The syntax, the crawl-vs-noindex distinction, and the mistakes that take sites down.
· 6 min read
XML Sitemap Guide: Why Every Website Needs One
A sitemap helps search engines discover your pages but never guarantees indexing. Learn exactly what to include, the size limits, and why honest lastmod beats faked dates.
· 6 min read
Image Alt Text: Complete SEO & Accessibility Guide
Alt text is for people who can't see the image first, and search engines second. How screen readers and Google actually use it, plus length, empty alt, and the stuffing trap.
· 6 min read
Internal Linking Strategy: Boost Your SEO Rankings
Internal linking is how authority and crawl attention flow through your site. The mechanics of PageRank flow, click depth, anchor text, and fixing orphan pages.
· 6 min read
Open Graph Meta Tags: Social Media SEO Guide
The do-it-properly guide to Open Graph: complete tag set, framework code for Next.js, WordPress and raw HTML, dynamic per-page cards, and the client-side injection trap.
· 7 min read
Schema Markup Guide: Rich Results & Structured Data
The plain-English overview of structured data: pick JSON-LD, understand what Google does (and doesn't) do with it, and where each type fits.
· 6 min read
Redirect Checker: How to Audit URL Redirects for SEO
Most redirect problems are invisible until you read the raw hop chain. A practical guide to auditing redirects: reading status codes in context, catching HTTPS downgrades and meta-refresh, and knowing when to fix versus leave it.
· 7 min read
Free SEO Tools: 16 No-Signup Tools That Cover a Full Site Audit
A working set of sixteen free, no-signup SEO tools grouped by the job they do, what each one replaces in a paid suite, and an honest note on what they can't check.
· 8 min read
Plain-English SEO Glossary: 60 Terms Without the Jargon
Sixty SEO terms in plain English, grouped by theme, with the occasional note on which ones are real and which are vendor metrics dressed up as Google signals.
· 9 min read
Page Not Indexed? What Each Search Console Reason Means and How to Fix It
The Pages report lumps every unindexed URL under a handful of reasons. Some are real problems, some are Google working as intended. Here's how to tell which is which.
· 9 min read
How to Do a Full SEO Audit for Free (Tool-by-Tool Walkthrough)
A free SEO audit you can run in an afternoon, in the right order: Search Console first, then indexing, metadata, headings, schema, redirects, and social cards.
· 8 min read
How to Get Google to Index Your Site Faster (What Works in 2026)
Indexing is discovery plus a quality decision, and only a few levers move the discovery part. Here are the ones that work and the ones that waste your afternoon.
· 8 min read
How to Check Any Page's SEO Without Leaving Your Browser
The 60-second workflow for reading any page's on-page SEO with tools already in your browser, and an honest line on where the browser stops being enough.
· 7 min read
How to Preview a Link Before Sharing It (Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Discord)
Before your launch post goes live, see the card exactly as each platform will render it. One preview for all platforms, plus the official debuggers and what each one crops.
· 6 min read
Breadcrumb Schema: Get Your Site Structure into Google Results
BreadcrumbList markup replaces the raw URL in your search result with a readable path. The position and item rules, whether the visible breadcrumb has to match, and the two errors that break it.
· 6 min read
How to Do Keyword Research for Free (No Ahrefs, No Semrush)
You can do real keyword research with nothing but free Google tools and a bit of reading. Here's the stack, a worked example, and how to prioritize without paid volume numbers.
· 8 min read
SEO for a New Website: What Actually Matters in the First 30 Days
A realistic first-month SEO plan for a new site, week by week, plus an honest account of what won't happen yet and what to stop worrying about.
· 8 min read
Do 404 Errors Hurt SEO? When to Fix, Redirect, or Just Ignore Them
Google says 404s are a normal part of the web and don't drag down your other pages. The real question isn't whether they hurt, it's which ones to fix.
· 8 min read
Anchor Text: How to Write Link Text That Helps Both Users and Rankings
Anchor text is the visible, clickable words in a link. The types, why 'click here' fails both readers and screen readers, and why the over-optimization rules differ for internal and external links.
· 7 min read
Core Web Vitals Explained: LCP, INP, and CLS in Plain English
Three metrics, three thresholds, one honest take on how much they matter for rankings. LCP, INP, and CLS explained with analogies you'll actually remember.
· 7 min read
LocalBusiness Schema: The Markup That Backs Up Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile drives the map pack; LocalBusiness schema corroborates it. The properties that matter, why NAP must match exactly, and how to pick the right subtype.
· 7 min read
Does a Small Website Need an XML Sitemap? An Honest Answer
Google's own guidance says a small, well-linked site probably doesn't need one. Here's the honest version, plus why you should add one anyway.
· 7 min read
12 SEO Mistakes We Keep Seeing on Small Websites
Twelve SEO mistakes that show up over and over when auditing small sites, each with the fix and the specific free tool that catches it.
· 8 min read
The Ideal robots.txt for WordPress (Copy-Paste Examples)
WordPress ships a virtual robots.txt that is fine for most sites. What to actually put in yours, the things you must not block, and copy-paste variants for WooCommerce and staging.
· 7 min read
Link Preview Not Showing? How to Fix Broken Social Cards on Any Platform
A link preview that won't show is almost always one of four symptoms, each with a specific cause. Diagnose yours, then apply the fix and force each platform to re-scrape.
· 7 min read
How to Optimize SVG Files for the Web (Smaller, Cleaner, Faster)
A raw export from Illustrator or Figma can be five times bigger than it needs to be. What actually bloats an SVG, how to clean it without breaking it, and which optimizations to skip.
· 7 min read
SEO-Friendly URLs: How to Structure Slugs, Folders, and Parameters
Good URLs are short, readable, and stable. Most URL advice is fussier than it needs to be. Here's what actually affects SEO and what's just tidiness.
· 8 min read
How to Test Structured Data: Rich Results Test, Validator, and Search Console
There are three tools for testing structured data, and they check different things. Here is what each one tells you, what the errors mean, and why a preview can pass while your live page fails.
· 7 min read
WWW vs Non-WWW: Which to Choose and How to Redirect the Other
It doesn't matter for rankings. It matters that you pick one and send every other variant to it in a single hop. The choice, the edge cases, and the config.
· 8 min read
How to Check if a Business Name Is Taken (Domain, Trademark, Social)
Checking a name is more than a domain search. The order matters: trademark before you buy a domain, because a taken mark can undo everything else.
· 7 min read
Multiple H1 Tags: Does More Than One H1 Hurt SEO?
Google says multiple H1s are fine. Why one H1 is still the sensible default anyway, and how to find pages with missing or duplicate H1s.
· 6 min read
How to Add Schema Markup to Any Website (With or Without Plugins)
Schema markup is a block of JSON-LD you paste into your page. Here is exactly where it goes on each platform, one worked example, and the mistakes that stop it from validating.
· 8 min read
SEO Character Limits: One Cheat Sheet for Titles, Descriptions, URLs, and OG Tags
The working limit for every field you fill in, in one table, plus the edge cases (wide characters, emoji, brand suffixes) that make the numbers lie.
· 7 min read
How to Open an SVG File on Any Device (No Software Required)
An SVG is a text file, so every web browser already opens it. Here's the drag-and-drop trick, when you need a real editor, and how to fix the wrong-app problem on Windows and macOS.
· 6 min read
How to Make a Logo for Free (No Design Skills, No Watermarks)
You can make a genuinely usable logo for free, but the routes that hand you a watermark-free SVG are narrower than the ads suggest. Here's what actually works.
· 7 min read
How to Submit a Sitemap to Google (and Confirm It Actually Worked)
The submission takes thirty seconds. The part most guides skip is reading the Sitemaps report afterward so you know Google actually fetched it.
· 7 min read
How to Add Meta Tags in HTML, WordPress, Shopify, and Next.js
Meta tags all live in the head, but how you get them there depends on your stack. The actual code and menu paths for four platforms.
· 7 min read
Robots.txt vs Noindex: Which One Actually Removes Pages from Google
The most common technical SEO trap: people block a page in robots.txt to hide it from Google, and it stays indexed. Why that happens and which tool to reach for instead.
· 7 min read
How to Add a Favicon to Your Website (HTML, WordPress, Shopify, Next.js)
The modern minimal favicon setup is two files and two link tags, not the twenty-icon bundle old generators produce. Here's the clean version, then per-platform steps.
· 7 min read
ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS: What Causes the Redirect Loop and How to Fix It
The browser gave up after bouncing between the same URLs about twenty times. Here are the real causes, ranked by how often we see them, and how to find yours.
· 8 min read
The Meta Tags Every Page Needs (and the Ones You Can Skip)
The six meta tags that earn their place in your head, and the four dead tags people still paste in that do nothing.
· 6 min read
How Search Engines Work: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking in Plain English
The four stages every page goes through before it can rank, explained without jargon, with the checkpoint tool for each stage and where AI answer engines slot in.
· 8 min read
Favicon Not Showing in Google Search? 9 Causes and How to Fix Each
The favicon renders in your browser tab but Google shows a generic globe. Almost always one of nine specific causes, most of them fixable in a few minutes.
· 8 min read