Guides & deep-dives

The IndexWolf Blog

Plain-English guides on AI-era SEO — what's actually changing, what to do about it, and how to use our free tools to keep up.

URL slugs: what they are and how to write one that lasts

A URL slug is the readable tail of a web address. Here is what a slug is, the rules every slug follows, the choices you have to make, and the habits that keep a slug useful for years.

URL encoding and Base64: what they do and when to use each

URL encoding makes a string safe to put inside a URL. Base64 makes any bytes safe to put inside text. Here is what each one does and when to reach for which.

What a JSON parser changes about your data (and what stays the same)

A standard JSON parser quietly transforms a few things on every round trip. Four cases, with examples and how to spot them.

What is llms.txt? A plain-English guide for site owners

A new web standard tells AI assistants what your site is about. What it does, why it matters, and how to add one in five minutes.

How to control AI crawlers on your website

A complete walkthrough of the AI crawlers visiting your site today, what each one does, and exactly how to control each.

The complete JSON-LD schema guide for 2026

Stars, prices, FAQ dropdowns, recipe cards — search engines' rich results in 2026. What's new, what's worth adding, and common mistakes.

The complete meta tags guide: title, description, Open Graph, X

Every meta tag that matters in 2026 — what each one does, the right length, and copy-paste examples.

How search results truncate titles and descriptions (pixels, not characters)

Search engines measure by pixel width, not character count. Here's how the math actually works on desktop and mobile, and how to write tags that survive.

301 Redirects: when to use them, when to avoid them, and how to set them up

301 vs 302, when to redirect and when not to, and copy-paste rules for Apache, nginx, Cloudflare, and Netlify.

Hreflang tags explained: when and how to use them

A practical guide to hreflang for multilingual and multi-region sites. When you need it, the format, and common mistakes.

UTM parameters explained: how to actually use them

What each UTM tag does, naming conventions that don't break, and common mistakes that distort analytics reports.

Text analysis for writers: word counts, reading time, and the six formulas

What word counts, reading time, and readability formulas actually measure — and what to ignore.

Sitemap.xml: what it is, why it matters, and how to build one

What a sitemap does, when you need one, the fields that matter, and the mistakes that make search engines ignore it.