How do my site pages appear to indexing bots and users?

This page answers a question worth asking directly: how does a page look to an indexing bot, and what can be done about it? The answer is a checklist that mixes presentation and machine legibility, because in Yandex’s view they are the same problem.

Organising content

• Main semantic section on the first screen, visible without scrolling.
• A real heading hierarchy — H1, H2, H3 — used for structure rather than for size.
• Meaningful paragraphs, with lists, tables and CSS doing the work of making text readable.
• Images and video, with alt and title attributes so the bot knows what they show.
• No bloat — unnecessary code and heavy media slow the page, and speed feeds both indexing and behaviour.
• HTML without serious errors, rendering correctly across browsers and devices.

The two meta tags

title names the page — shown in browser tabs, summarising the content for people and robots alike. description gives the bot a general description. Both are editable through the visual editor in most content management systems, which is Yandex’s way of saying this does not require a developer.

The JavaScript caveat

Stated as a standing instruction rather than an aside: if pages use JavaScript, check how the bot indexes them and confirm that all the content you care about is included. The page check and the rendering tool answer this; assuming it works because the page looks right in a browser does not.

Why presentation and indexing are one subject

Every item on the list serves both audiences. A heading hierarchy helps a reader skim and tells the bot what the sections are. An alt attribute serves someone whose image failed to load and tells Yandex Images what the picture is. Content above the fold answers the visitor immediately and puts the substance where the engine expects to find it. Work that helps only one of the two audiences is usually work that helps neither.