Reference module Realm IV, volume 43 of 47
Primary source register
Research snapshot: 9 September 2026. These 52 primary sources were consulted for the stated scopes: 50 search, analytics, web platform and agent sources, plus two sources for the proposed CI workflow.
Reference recordScope stated in document
Research snapshot: 9 September 2026. These 52 primary sources were consulted for the stated scopes: 50 search, analytics, web platform and agent sources, plus two sources for the proposed CI workflow. A source supports only its stated claim, not every recommendation in the library. Operational workflows and acceptance gates are proposed agency practices, not undisclosed ranking rules.
Older live documentation can lag a dated update. In particular S04/S05 supersede S03 on dedicated AI reporting; S01 supersedes S21 on FAQ eligibility. S48 is intentionally version pinned, not represented as the latest MCP security contract. No source publication date is invented when unavailable.
S01 Google Search documentation updates§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-09-08
FAQ retirement; 2026 policy, feature and documentation changes. Changelog dates distinguish documentation changes from feature launches.
S02 AI optimization guide§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
No special AI file or schema requirement for Google Search; llms.txt has no special Search role.
S03 AI features and your website§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2025-12-10
Search eligibility and snippet controls. Its older reporting paragraph is superseded by S04/S05 for dedicated AI reporting.
S04 Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-06-03
Announcement updated with worldwide rollout on 2026-08-31; dedicated reports coexist with overall performance data.
S05 Generative AI performance report (Search)§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
AI Overviews/AI Mode impressions; page, country, device and date dimensions. Availability requires sufficient data. No dedicated clicks or prompt dimension asserted.
S06 Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools§
Publisher: Microsoft Bing · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-02-10
Public preview AI citation reporting.
S07 New AI visibility insights: Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare§
Publisher: Microsoft Bing · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-06-16
Citation Share is relative to all cited sites for a grounding query; topic/intent classifications and period comparisons.
S08 Overview of OpenAI crawlers§
Publisher: OpenAI · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Separate OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User and OAI-AdsBot roles; published verification feeds and user fetch caveat.
S09 Publishers and Developers FAQ§
Publisher: OpenAI · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
ChatGPT referral UTM convention; search access guidance.
S10 Does Anthropic crawl data from the web?§
Publisher: Anthropic · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-04-07
ClaudeBot training, Claude-SearchBot search and Claude-User retrieval; published robots behavior and IP information link.
S11 Perplexity crawlers§
Publisher: Perplexity · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
PerplexityBot search and Perplexity-User user directed fetch; IP feeds and robots caveat.
S12 Google common crawlers§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-07-14
Google-Extended is a robots product token, not a separate HTTP user agent; Gemini training/grounding scope, not Google Search.
S13 Verify requests from Google crawlers and fetchers§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Published IP ranges and reverse/forward DNS verification procedures.
S14 JavaScript SEO basics§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Google can render JavaScript; rendering, HTTP, canonical and initial noindex considerations.
S15 How to specify a canonical URL§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Canonicalization methods are signals with different strengths, not a universal mandate or a guarantee.
S16 Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet and X-Robots-Tag§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Page level indexing and snippet controls; crawl access is needed to read directives.
S17 How Google interprets robots.txt§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Robots group matching and crawl directives; robots is not authentication.
S18 Spam policies for Google web search§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Doorway, scaled content, hidden content and reputation abuse; policies also cover manipulation of generative Search responses.
S19 Creating helpful, reliable, people first content§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
People first evaluation and quality questions, not an engine exposed numeric E-E-A-T score.
S20 General structured data guidelines§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Visible content accuracy, feature eligibility, validation and no guaranteed rich result.
S21 Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2023-08-08
Updated 2023-09-14: HowTo retirement effective 2023-09-13. Old FAQ eligibility is superseded by 2026 retirement in S01.
S22 Review snippet structured data§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Authentic visible reviews; no fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews; self serving LocalBusiness/Organization review star restriction.
S23 Merchant listing structured data§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Product/Offer eligibility, sale duration fields and truthful commercial data. Not a promise of AI citations.
S24 Creating a React app§
Publisher: React · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Frameworks can support client rendering, prerendering and server rendering according to route needs.
S25 generateMetadata§
Publisher: Next.js / Vercel · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-08-25
Metadata API, streaming behavior and framework version specific usage.
S26 Metadata and OG images§
Publisher: Next.js / Vercel · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-08-25
App Router metadata and social image implementation.
S27 htmlLimitedBots configuration§
Publisher: Next.js / Vercel · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2025-10-03
Option introduced in 15.2; custom regex replaces default list; all bot blocking changes streaming behavior.
S28 Web Vitals§
Publisher: Google web.dev · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2024-10-31
Current LCP, INP, CLS thresholds and 75th-percentile field methodology; lab is not field evidence.
S29 GEO: Generative Engine Optimization§
Publisher: Aggarwal et al. / arXiv · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Benchmark and deployed engine experiments; findings depend on setup, domain, metric and model. Not a 2026 Google production ranking specification.
S30 IndexNow documentation§
Publisher: IndexNow · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Changed-URL submission, ownership verification, batches up to 10000; success acknowledges receipt, not indexing.
S31 Indexing API quickstart§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Restricted to JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in VideoObject, not a universal website indexing endpoint.
S32 Guidelines for representing your business on Google§
Publisher: Google Business Profile · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Real business representation, address/service area eligibility and location restrictions.
S33 Manage service areas for service area and hybrid businesses§
Publisher: Google Business Profile · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Service areas versus customer facing addresses; avoid invented storefronts.
S34 Influencing title links§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Descriptive titles, automated selection and display truncation; no fixed character count requirement.
S35 Control snippets in search results§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Meta description selection and truncation; no fixed character count requirement.
S36 Default channel group§
Publisher: Google Analytics · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Current AI Assistant channel; Google AI Overviews/AI Mode remain Organic Search; event/session/first user scopes differ.
S37 Avoid sending personally identifiable information§
Publisher: Google Analytics · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
PII exclusion from URLs, titles, user inputs and campaign/event fields. Legacy UA code on this page is not adopted.
S38 Site moves and migrations§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
URL mapping, redirects, monitoring and move sequencing.
S39 Managing faceted navigation crawling§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Control unnecessary filter URL crawling; decide which facets need search visibility.
S40 Tell Google about localized versions§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Hreflang implementation alternatives and reciprocal alternate relationships.
S41 Regional differences in Google Search§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Region-, query- and feature specific eligibility; documented on 2026-09-08.
S42 Update to the site reputation abuse policy§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-08-28
Changes beginning 2026-08-30 distinguish EEA treatment; not permission to pursue abuse.
S43 Search Console platform properties and social/video guide§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-07-29
Global platform properties for supported social/video platforms; Search visibility differs from native platform analytics.
S44 Analyze social and video content performance§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Connected/verified platform property workflows and Search performance interpretation.
S45 Preferred Sources guide for web publishers§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
User driven publisher preferences and button implementation; not a universal ranking guarantee.
S46 Googlebot crawling size clarification§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-03-31
Googlebot fetch size guidance: 2 MB for supported files except PDF, with headers included; separate resources fetched separately.
S47 Model Context Protocol specification 2026-07-28§
Publisher: Model Context Protocol · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-07-28
Versioned agent integration protocol; implementation must negotiate supported version and enforce security.
S48 MCP security best practices, 2025-11-25§
Publisher: Model Context Protocol · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2025-11-25
Version pinned threat guidance: authorization, untrusted servers, SSRF and token/session risks; not the latest protocol contract.
S49 MCP tools, 2026-07-28§
Publisher: Model Context Protocol · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: 2026-07-28
Tool interface metadata and human control; older examples can need migration.
S50 Video SEO best practices§
Publisher: Google · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Watch page eligibility, stable media resources and differences between video and ordinary web indexing.
S51 actions/checkout official README§
Publisher: GitHub Actions · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Current checkout@v7 example and read only repository permissions; proposed workflow only, not executed on GitHub.
S52 actions/setup-python official README§
Publisher: GitHub Actions · Observed: 2026-09-09 · Document/announcement date: not assigned
Current setup-python@v7 usage and Python version selection; proposed workflow only, not executed on GitHub.