Failure modes
Failure modes covers 6 of the SEO for Soloschecklist's implementation checks. The specific ways each mechanism backfires. Every item here is something that looked like an improvement on the day it shipped.
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Failure modes
The specific ways each mechanism backfires. Every item here is something that looked like an improvement on the day it shipped.
Watch for over-indexation of a thin tier dragging down the whole domain5/M
Why it matters
Quality signals are evaluated at the site level as well as the page level. A thousand thin pages can suppress the fifty good ones.
How to verify
In Search Console, compare indexed count against the count of pages with at least one impression in 90 days. A large gap in one tier is the signal.
Watch for FAQ schema being treated as spam4/S
Why it matters
Marking up questions that are not visible, or stuffing a FAQ onto every page regardless of relevance, is a documented manual action trigger.
How to verify
Check Search Console Manual Actions, and confirm every FAQ question in schema appears verbatim in the rendered HTML.
Watch for canonical chains and loops5/M
Why it matters
A canonical pointing at a URL that canonicalises elsewhere creates a chain. Google follows one hop and gives up on the second, so the page falls out of the index entirely.
How to verify
For each template, fetch the canonical target and confirm its own canonical points at itself: `curl -s $(curl -s URL | grep -o 'canonical" href="[^"]*' | cut -d'"' -f3) | grep canonical`.
Watch for the IndexNow key leaking into a public repository3/S
Why it matters
Anyone holding the key can submit arbitrary URLs on your host, which is a way to have your domain associated with content you never published.
How to verify
git log -p --all -S "$INDEXNOW_KEY" | headThen confirm the key has never been committed.
Implementation snippet
The tested implementation from kit/seo/indexnow.ts, plus the test that fails if it regresses.
Unlock with the Code Kit$14930 day refund, no questions.Watch for a programmatic tier being classified as doorway pages5/M
Why it matters
The classification is site-level and it is not appealable by argument, only by deletion. This is the failure that ends a programmatic strategy rather than slowing it.
How to verify
Apply the strip-the-entity-name test quarterly, not just at launch. Content decays as source data goes stale.
Watch for a tightened CSP silently breaking analytics or checkout3/M
Why it matters
A CSP violation fails silently in production for most users. The funnel keeps rendering and stops reporting, which looks like a traffic drop rather than a bug.
How to verify
Deploy the policy in report-only mode for one release, collect violation reports, and confirm zero reports involve your own scripts before enforcing it.
Implementation snippet
The tested implementation from kit/config/headers.ts, plus the test that fails if it regresses.
Unlock with the Code Kit$14930 day refund, no questions.