Shalin Siriwardhana

Shalin Siriwardhana

Search, growth, and digital strategy notes.

Personal notes on SEO, AI search, content strategy, and durable organic growth.

A close-up shot of a computer monitor displaying a generic "Application Error" message in a browser window, with a hand resting on a mouse beside the screen.

Notes / SEO / Sep 20, 2026

Google Responds to Cross Domain Canonical De Indexing Report

The Redditor referenced canonical content. It's unclear what they meant by that, but it sounds like they may have been referring. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read
A close up shot of a person's hand holding a smartphone displaying a search result page, with a physical notebook and a pen resting on a wooden table beside it.

Notes / SEO / Sep 20, 2026

State of Search 2027: What to Stop, Measure & Fund

For years, traffic served as shorthand for SEO success. That shortcut is breaking down. A likely explanation is a change in the. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read
A close-up shot of a person's hand holding a smartphone, displaying a website's robots.txt file with a clear block of text wrapped in Cloudflare markers.

Notes / SEO / Sep 20, 2026

Cloudflare Will Write Your Robots.txt, and It Has a Point

Cloudflare's announcement of Bot Preference Sync says that "when your stated preferences and your enforced rules disagree, some. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

7 min read
A close up shot of a person holding a smartphone in a European city street, showing a Google search result with two distinct side by side business units.

Notes / SEO / Sep 20, 2026

Google Adds Local Businesses to EEA Search Result Units

Google's changelog entry gives one line of explanation: "The aggregator unit and supplier unit now support local business. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read
A person in a European city holds a smartphone showing a Google search result with two distinct side-by-side business listing units while standing on a cobblestone street.

Notes / SEO / Sep 20, 2026

Google Adds Local Businesses to EEA Search Result Units

Google's changelog entry gives one line of explanation: "The aggregator unit and supplier unit now support local business. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read
A close up shot of a person's hand holding a smartphone displaying a chatbot interface with a single URL listed as a source.

Notes / SEO / Sep 20, 2026

Checking a Page Is Part of a Retrieval Pipeline for AI

Yes! In the above example, it proved unambiguously that ChatGPT with search tooling can return that URL. Whichever search source. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read
A close up shot of a person's hand holding a smartphone displaying a chat interface with a specific URL cited in the response, resting on a wooden table.

Notes / SEO / Sep 19, 2026

Checking a Page Is Part of a Retrieval Pipeline for AI

Yes! In the above example, it proved unambiguously that ChatGPT with search tooling can return that URL. Whichever search source. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read
A close-up shot of a person's hand holding a smartphone displaying a Google Search result with an AI Overview, while a physical credit card rests on the table beside it.

Notes / SEO / Sep 19, 2026

Google AI Payment Pilot, Search Profiles at 10,000, SEO Pulse

Google's John Mueller said that search has evolved beyond the traditional position one to ten model, and it's quite a challenge. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read