Search Off the Record

Should you panic when your Search Console indexing report is showing pages that aren't indexed? Is a 404 error code always a sign of a broken website?
In this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin Splitt and John Mueller from the Google Search Relations team dive deep into the Page Indexing report in Google Search Console. They unpack why treating this report as a static inventory checklist to "fix" things is the wrong response, how to spot massive SEO-ruining hosting or CDN traps, and why a healthy website doesn't actually need a 100% index rate.
In this episode, you'll learn:
The Indexing Report Shift: Insights from the Search Console team's Hillel on why you should look for trend lines and systemic patterns rather than treating the report as a giant list of errors.

When 404s are Good: Why expected 404 errors are technically correct for deleted content, and how to survive the "boss panic" of numbers that won't go down.

The Domain Property Advantage: How setting up a domain property handles canonical shifts, www vs. non-www tracking, and performance data much cleaner.

The Site Query vs. Search Console: Why the site: query is an artificial tool that might show old domain moves or hreflang swaps for years, making Search Console your only true source of truth.

Hosting & CDN Traps: How aggressive bot protections, hidden interstitials, and "Soft 200" error pages completely destroy your crawl data and lead to malicious canonicalization.

Discovered vs. Crawled: What it actually means when pages sit in "Discovered/Crawled - currently not indexed," and how to recognize holistic site quality issues over technical bugs.

Key Takeaways for SEOs & Developers:
Patterns over Inventories: Use the report to verify that your intentional changes (like site migrations or page removals) are processing correctly over time.

Forget the Ratio: There is no magic metric for indexed vs. non-indexed pages. Even Google's own developer documentation has a massive chunk of non-indexed content due to intentional choices.

Watch Out for Soft Blocks: Ensure your security layers or CDNs aren't serving "Are you a bot?" challenge screens to Googlebot with a 200 success code.

Computers Fail (And That's Fine): Minor server blips, failed DNS requests, or temporary 500 errors happen. Google's systems are resilient and will just try again later.

 
Chapters
0:00 - Introduction: The Search Central Live coverage report confusion.

1:45 - Shifting perspectives: Treating Search Console as a pattern tracker, not a checklist.

4:36 - Tracking site migrations and processing data delays.

6:25 - Why 404 errors can be a good thing 

8:00 - Handling canonical shifts and the value of Domain Properties.

11:12 - Why the site: query isn't telling you what you think it does (Domain moves and hreflang bugs).

13:38 - CDN bot protection and the absolute nightmare of soft error pages.

17:49 - How to use "marked as fixed".

20:32 - Discovered vs. Crawled Not Indexed: Is it a technical or site quality issue?

25:31 - Debunking the indexed-to-non-indexed ratio myth.

27:48 - Final verdict: How to stop fearing your Indexing Report.

Resources Mentioned:
Google Search Central: https://developers.google.com/search

Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console

Search Central Live Events: https://developers.google.com/search/events 

 
Are you actively stressing over your non-indexed page counts, or are you tracking the big trend lines? Let us know in the comments!
Episode transcript →  https://goo.gle/sotr112-transcript
 
Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt 
Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral
 
Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.
 #SOTRpodcast #SEO #GoogleSearch #SearchConsole
Speakers: Martin Splitt, John Mueller

Should you convert your website into Markdown to help Large Language Models (LLMs) understand your content better? Is "llms.txt" worth the effort for SEO?
In this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin Splitt and John Mueller from the Google Search Relations team dive deep into the history of Markdown, its rise in the AI era, and whether it holds any real weight for search engine discovery.
In this episode, you'll learn:
The Origins of Markdown: From John Gruber and Aaron Swartz to its status as the "language of GitHub."
Markdown vs. HTML: Why the "cleanliness" of Markdown is tempting for developers but potentially risky for site structure.
LLMs & Markdown: Do AI crawlers actually prefer Markdown, or are they already experts at parsing HTML?
The "Parallel Version" Trap: Why creating a separate text/Markdown version of your site for AI can lead to the same maintenance nightmares as dynamic rendering.
Use Cases that Make Sense: When Markdown is actually superior (like developer documentation) and when it's totally unnecessary (like your shoe catalog).
Key Takeaways for SEOs & Developers:
Crawlers are built for the "messy" web: Google and other engines have decades of experience parsing HTML.
Don't sacrifice discovery: Headers, footers, and sidebars in HTML provide critical context for site structure that a raw Markdown file might lack.
Maintenance is king: Avoid the complexity of maintaining two versions of the same content.
Chapters
0:00 - Introduction: Should we all be using Markdown?
3:45 - The history and purpose of Markdown.
7:15 - Why developers love it: Separation of style and content.
11:20 - Do crawlers need Markdown to understand your site?
14:50 - The danger of "parallel versions" and dynamic rendering lessons.
17:30 - Discussing the "llms.txt" proposal and AI agents.
21:00 - Where Markdown actually makes sense (Developer Docs).
24:00 - Final verdict: Stick to HTML for the web.

Resources Mentioned:
Google Search Central: https://developers.google.com/search
Are you using Markdown for your site's frontend or just as a backend source? Let us know in the comments!
Episode transcript →  https://goo.gle/sotr111-transcript
Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt
Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral 
Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.
 #SOTRpodcast #SEO #GoogleSearch
Speakers: Martin Splitt, John Mueller

In this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin Splitt and John Mueller from Google's Search Relations team dive deep into the world of AI-assisted development. They explore the reality of "Vibe Coding", the process of building apps and websites using natural language instead of manual syntax. Whether you're a developer looking to offload tedious setup tasks or an SEO expert trying to understand how AI-generated sites impact search, this conversation is for you.
In this episode, you'll learn:
* What is Vibe Coding? Understanding the shift from writing syntax to "talking" to your IDE.
* The Developer's Trap: Why you still need technical knowledge (like linters, deployment scripts, and GitHub Actions) to prevent AI from breaking your project.
* SEO & AI Architecture: Why you can't just "add SEO" at the end—and how to guide AI to build with canonicals and sitemaps from day one.
* Tooling Breakdown: Martin and John share their experiences with AI Studio, Gemini CLI, Firebase, and GitHub.
* Testing with AI Agents: How to use AI to remote control browsers (like Chromium) for automated testing.
Chapters
00:00 – Intro: What exactly is "Vibe Coding"?
01:32 – Martin's experiment with AI Studio and client-side JS.
03:30 – The "English as a Programming Language" allure.
06:00 – Why the AI makes assumptions (and why that's dangerous).
08:51 – "Sprinkling SEO" vs. Building for SEO from the start.
12:40 – Can AI test itself? Using browser agents for QA.
20:27 – The technical debt of AI: Refactoring and maintainability.
25:42 – Moving to the terminal: Gemini CLI & Cloud Code.
31:34 – Using AI to skip the setup work.
Resources Mentioned:
* Google AI Studio
* Firebase Hosting
* Gemini CLI / Cloud Code
* GitHub Actions for CI/CD
What's your experience with Vibe Coding? Let us know in the comments!
Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr110-transcript 
Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt
Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral 
Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.
 #SOTRpodcast #SEO #GoogleSearch
Speakers: Martin Splitt, John Mueller

In this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin speaks with Nikola Todorovic (director of Software Engineering at Google Search) about how AI is changing Google Search. They discuss the evolution from traditional search to AI Overviews and AI Mode, how Google tests and launches search changes, and why query behaviour is becoming more conversational and complex.
Nikola also explains the role of machine learning in Search, how features are evaluated before launch, and what site owners and SEOs should focus on as AI becomes a bigger part of the search experience. If you work in SEO or web development, this episode offers a clear look at how Google approaches AI in Search and what it means for the future of search visibility.
Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr109-transcript
Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt  
Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral 
Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.
 #SOTRpodcast #SEO #GoogleSearch
Speakers: Martin Splitt, Nikola Todorovic

In this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin and Gary turn a simple robots.txt question into a data‑driven deep dive using HTTP Archive, WebPageTest, custom JavaScript metrics, and BigQuery. They explore how millions of real robots.txt files are actually written in 2025–2026, which directives and user‑agents are most common, and what that means for modern crawling and AI bots.
Perfect for beginner to mid‑level developers and SEOs, you'll learn how large‑scale web measurement works (HTTP Archive, Chrome UX Report, Web Almanac), and how to turn raw crawl data into actionable SEO insights. Subscribe for more candid conversations about crawling, indexing, and the data behind how Google Search and the web really work.
Resources:
Web Almanac →  https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2025/
Robotstxt custom metric for the HTTP Archive → 
https://github.com/HTTPArchive/custom-metrics/pull/191
robots.txt parser change → https://github.com/google/robotstxt/commit/4af32e54b715442bb04cd0470e99192f0ffb9792#commitcomment-178586774
Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr108-transcript

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt  
Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral
Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.
 #SOTRpodcast #SEO #GoogleSearch
Speakers: Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes