Technical SEO for Microsites (2025) — Fast, Clean, Indexable
Crawl
Indexation
Core Web Vitals
Schema
Security
This practical guide to technical SEO for microsites gives you copy-ready snippets and a lean checklist to launch pages that index quickly, pass CWV, and avoid duplicate/redirect traps.
1) Crawl & robots
Keep robots lean. Never block CSS/JS that render content. Allow admin-AJAX and expose your sitemap URL.
# robots.txt (minimal)
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: https://incomeorbit.website/sitemap_index.xmlDon’t “nofollow” internal navigation. Use it to steer crawl to hubs and money pages.
2) Indexing & sitemaps
- Submit your
sitemap_index.xmlin GSC; resubmit after structure changes. - Use
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">only on thank-you/test pages. - Inspect & Request indexing for hub + top pages after publish.
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow,max-snippet:-1,max-image-preview:large,max-video-preview:-1">
3) Performance & Core Web Vitals
Quick wins
- Serve modern formats: WebP/AVIF for hero and UI graphics.
- Preload main font; avoid layout shift (set width/height).
- Defer non-critical scripts; remove unused plugins.
Cache rules (.htaccess)
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/webp "access plus 6 months"
ExpiresByType image/avif "access plus 6 months"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 6 months"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 month"
</IfModule>
4) Duplicates, canonicals & redirects
<link rel="canonical" href="https://incomeorbit.website/technical-seo-for-microsites/">
# Force HTTPS + prefer non-www (Apache)
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.incomeorbit\.website$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://incomeorbit.website/$1 [R=301,L]Keep 301s live ≥ 12 months. Audit for chains/loops after launches.
5) Structured data (safe)
Use Article + optional FAQ only for visible content. Avoid competing page-types on one URL.
{
"@context":"https://schema.org",
"@type":"Article",
"headline":"Technical SEO for Microsites (2025) — Fast, Clean, Indexable",
"author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Income Orbit"},
"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://incomeorbit.website/technical-seo-for-microsites/"},
"image":"https://incomeorbit.website/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/IMG_3335.jpeg",
"datePublished":"2025-09-13",
"dateModified":"2025-09-13"
}Common mistakes: multiple competing page types (e.g., Article + HowTo), ratings without real visible reviews, marking hidden content (FAQs not on page).
6) Security & headers
# Apache HSTS (force HTTPS)
Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains" env=HTTPS
# Basic Content-Security-Policy (relaxed)
Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self' https: data: 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'"
Also enable SSL, keep plugins updated, and remove directory listings.
7) Logs & monitoring
- GSC coverage: new errors, soft 404s, alternate page with selected canonical.
- Core Web Vitals (field): Largest Contentful Paint & CLS after changes.
- Error log & uptime alerts; crawl your site monthly for broken links.
8) Copy-ready templates
# RankMath / Redirection — enforce lowercase /about/
Source: ^/about/?$|^/About/?$
Target: /about/
Regex: on | Ignore Case: on | Status: 301