Technical SEO is the work that makes sure Google can find, crawl and index your website, so your pages are allowed into the race at all. If a page is blocked, broken or never indexed, no amount of good writing will make it rank. Fix these foundations first and everything else you do in search starts to count.
I’m Apar, a designer in Bharatpur who also looks after search visibility for clients in Nepal and abroad. This article sits under my main guide to SEO in Nepal and how local businesses get found, and it goes deep on one question: what stops Google from seeing your site, and how do you fix it?
What is technical SEO, and how is it different from the rest of SEO?
Technical SEO is the part of SEO that deals with how your website is built, hosted and connected, rather than what the words on each page say. On page SEO decides what a page tells Google. Technical SEO decides whether Google can reach and store that page in the first place.
Think of two steps. First Google visits your page and downloads it, which is called crawling. Then it reads the page and decides whether to keep it in its index, which is called indexing. Only indexed pages can appear in results. I explain the full journey in the pillar guide, so here I will stay with what goes wrong and how to repair it.
Why does technical SEO matter if your website already looks good?
It matters because a page that is not indexed cannot rank, cannot earn clicks and cannot be shown as a link in AI answers. A beautiful site with a hidden fault is like a shop in Narayangadh with the shutter half down. People walk past without knowing you are open.
The AI part is newer. Google’s page on AI features and your website, updated in December 2025, says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. So an indexing problem now hides you twice. My guide to AEO and GEO for ChatGPT and AI Overviews covers the rest of that story.
How do you check whether Google has indexed your website?
The reliable way is Google Search Console, which shows exactly which of your pages are indexed and why the others are not. A quick search for site:yourdomain.com gives a rough idea, but it is not a full count, and I never use it for a diagnosis.
This is how I set it up for a client:
- Add a Domain property. It covers every version of your address, with and without www, on http and https.
- Verify ownership. Add the TXT record Google gives you in your DNS settings. If you are unsure where those live, my guide to .com.np domains and hosting in Nepal explains the setup.
- Submit your sitemap under the Sitemaps menu. I explain sitemaps further down.
- Inspect your key pages. Paste your homepage and your main service page into the URL Inspection tool to see whether each is on Google.
After that, open Search Console about once a month, which is also what Google suggests. Ten minutes is enough to catch a problem before it costs you a season of enquiries.
What does the Page indexing report in Search Console tell you?
The Page indexing report shows how many of your URLs Google has crawled and indexed, and lists a reason for every URL it left out. Google’s help page for the Page indexing report, as it reads in 2026, explains each reason.
Two lines on that page calm most clients down. Google says “Don’t expect every URL on your site to be indexed” and that “Your goal is to get the canonical version of every important page indexed.” So a long list of excluded URLs is normal. What matters is whether your important pages sit on the indexed side.
| Reason shown in the report | What it means | What I usually do |
|---|---|---|
| Crawled, currently not indexed | Google crawled the page but chose not to index it | Improve or merge thin pages, and link important ones from the menu |
| Discovered, currently not indexed | Google found the page but has not crawled it yet | Wait on a new site; if it lasts, check internal links and server health |
| URL marked noindex | The page tells Google not to index it | Remove the tag if the page matters |
| Duplicate without user selected canonical | Google sees near copies and picked one itself | Set a canonical, merge or redirect the copies |
| Not found (404) | The address no longer exists | Redirect it if it had links or visitors, otherwise leave it |
| Page with redirect | The address forwards somewhere else | Normal, but point your own links at the final address |
| URL blocked by robots.txt | A robots.txt rule stops crawling | Remove the rule if the page should be found |
| Server error (5xx) | Your server failed when Google visited | Raise it with your host and check heavy plugins |
These are the technical errors I find most often on Nepali business websites.
Most problems I see come from the build and launch stage, not from anything a business owner did. Here are the four that turn up again and again.
The site is still set to discourage search engines after launch.
WordPress has a setting under Settings, Reading, that asks search engines not to index the site. Developers tick it while building, then forget it. The fix takes one click, but I have seen sites sit hidden for months because nobody checked.
A staging copy of the site was indexed instead of the real one.
Many developers build on a test address such as dev.yourdomain.com. If that copy is open to the public, Google can find it and treat it as a duplicate of your live site. Put a password on staging sites, and delete or redirect them after launch.
One page is reachable at several different addresses.
The same page might load with and without www, on http and https, or with tracking codes added to the address. Each version looks like a separate page to Google. Pick one main version, redirect the others to it, and use a canonical tag to name the version you want indexed.
A redesign changed every address without redirects.
When a new site replaces an old one, old service and product addresses often vanish. Any links pointing at them now land on a 404. Before launch, I list every old address that had visitors and redirect each one to its closest new page.
Do you need an XML sitemap for a small business website?
A small, well linked site can be indexed without a sitemap, but I add one to every site because it costs nothing and can help a new site get discovered. A sitemap is a file listing the pages you want Google to know about.
Google’s guide to sitemaps, updated in December 2025, says you may not need one if your site has “about 500 pages or fewer” and is well linked internally. It also says a site may need one when it is new and has few external links, which describes many Nepali business sites in their first year. Plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math create one automatically. Just remember that a sitemap does not guarantee every listed page gets indexed.
What does robots.txt do, and what does it not do?
A robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which parts of your site they may visit, but it does not keep a page out of Google. Many people mix those two up.
Google’s introduction to robots.txt, updated in December 2025, says it is used mainly to manage crawler traffic and “is not a mechanism for keeping a web page out of Google”. A blocked address can still appear in results, just without a description. To keep a page out, use a noindex tag and let Google crawl it so it can see the tag. For most small sites, the default WordPress robots.txt is fine. Edit it only when you have a clear reason.
Why do HTTPS and the mobile version of your site count as technical SEO?
They count because Google judges your site through what its crawler actually receives, and today that is the mobile version, loaded over a secure or insecure connection. Google’s page on mobile first indexing, updated in December 2025, says “Google uses the mobile version of a site’s content, crawled with the smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking.”
So if your mobile layout hides text, drops a menu or leaves out product details that appear on desktop, Google may never see them. Check your key pages on a phone, not just on the office laptop. Speed belongs here too, and I cover it separately in why websites are slow on Nepali mobile data.
For HTTPS, my rule is simple: every site I build runs on it. Install an SSL certificate, redirect every http address to https, and fix any images still loading over http.
In what order should you fix technical SEO problems?
Fix whatever blocks Google completely first, then whatever confuses it, and leave polishing for last. This is the order I work in:
- Remove anything that blocks indexing: the WordPress discourage setting, stray noindex tags and robots.txt rules.
- Fix server errors and broken HTTPS.
- Submit a sitemap and link every important page from your menu or homepage.
- Clean up duplicate addresses with redirects and canonical tags.
- Improve the mobile layout and speed.
On product catalogue sites like the ones I worked on for Health Tech Nepal’s on page SEO, many similar product pages make duplicates the main risk. On a ten page clinic site, the first step is usually all it needs. Most of these fixes take hours, not weeks. If you want to know what ongoing SEO work costs, see how much SEO costs in Nepal.
These are the questions clients ask me most about technical SEO.
How long does it take Google to index a new website?
It usually takes from a few days to a few weeks. Google’s guide on asking Google to recrawl your URLs says crawling “can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.” Google’s guide to getting started with Search Console says submitting a sitemap “might speed up your site’s discovery”, and linking the site from your Business Profile and social pages gives Google more ways in.
Does clicking Request Indexing again make Google index a page faster?
No, it does not. Google says requesting the same URL multiple times will not get it crawled any faster, and there is a quota on individual requests. Ask once, then spend the time improving the page.
Will a website redesign hurt my Google rankings?
A redesign only hurts rankings when addresses change without redirects or when content disappears. Keep your important pages, map every old address to a new one, and check the Page indexing report in the weeks after launch.
Do I need a developer to fix technical SEO problems?
Not always. Settings like the discourage option, a sitemap or a stray noindex tag can be fixed in the WordPress dashboard. Server errors, broken redirects and staging problems usually need your developer or host.
Is technical SEO a one time job?
The setup is one time, but checking is ongoing. Plugin updates, new pages and redesigns can all break things quietly. That is why I fold a monthly Search Console check into website maintenance.
Here is what I would do next if I were you.
Open Search Console today and look at the Page indexing report. If your important pages are missing, or the list of reasons makes no sense, that is exactly the kind of problem I sort out as part of my search and AI visibility service. Send me your website address through my contact page and I will tell you what I see.
These are the sources I used for this article.
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website
- Search Console Help: Page indexing report
- Google Search Central: Learn about sitemaps
- Google Search Central: Introduction to robots.txt
- Google Search Central: Mobile site and mobile first indexing best practices
- Google Search Central: Get started with Search Console
- Google Search Central: Ask Google to recrawl your URLs