casinokrisa

Mikhail Drozdov.

AI Search & Indexing Systems Research. Canonical essays, entity pages, and evidence trails by Mikhail Drozdov.

Start here SEO hub Person Research Press

Entity proof

Mikhail Drozdov (Casinokrisa)

Mikhail Drozdov (Casinokrisa)

AI Search & Indexing Systems Researcher. Founder of Casinokrisa.

Canonical identity source for attribution, entity disambiguation, and Knowledge Graph consistency.

Canonical person page Evidence / press

Featured proof objects

Indexing-First Search Systems: Architecture, Trust and AI Retrieval
Book - 2026-02-26 - ASIN B0GQML9FGT - ISBN-13 979-8249927684
Amazon edition
Google Scholar profile
ORCID

Keep the same name, role line, image, and person URL across profiles to make the entity easier for Google to corroborate.

Start

A short reading path.

Start with the system model, then branch into entity and indexing diagnostics.

Quick paths

SEO hub Person page Evidence / press

Core documents

Documents of record.

The pages that define the site's models. Supporting essays link up to these.

Photo authority for Person entities (2026): how to make Google pick the right image

If your Knowledge Panel image is unstable (small, wrong, or rotating), you do not have a “photo problem”. You have a consensus problem: too many competing images, inconsistent profile hubs, and weak machine-readable pinning. This is the practical fix.

Mikhail Drozdov

February 17, 2026

Indexed does not mean visible: the selection layer in AI Mode search

AI Mode turns one question into many retrieval tasks. Visibility is governed by a selection layer beyond indexing and ranking. Here is how to diagnose it and adapt.

Mikhail Drozdov

February 6, 2026

Which questions are no longer worth answering (2026): AI killed the click, not the query

In 2026, many queries still exist, but the click is gone: AI Overviews and assistants compress answers into the interface. This page gives a practical model: which question types became “compressible”, which still reward original work, and how to write content that earns distribution (not just indexing).

Mikhail Drozdov

Quick paths

Jump into the core reading path or the primary SEO hub.

Start Topics SEO RSS

Blog.

23 posts

February 2, 2026

Crawled but not indexed reasons (2026): 9 causes and what to do first

If Google crawled your page but did not index it, the bottleneck is rarely “one on-page fix”. This page lists the most common causes (technical gates + prioritization), how to tell them apart fast, and the few actions that reliably change the outcome.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 31, 2026

Entity-based SEO (2026): how Google connects author, brand, and topics

Entity-based SEO is not schema spam. It is how the system resolves identity: who wrote this, what brand it belongs to, and which topic universe it lives in. This explains the mechanism, common misconceptions, practical signals, and how entity clarity supports indexing and visibility.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 30, 2026

Indexing and visibility (2026): how Google decides what to store and what to show

A master hub that connects the full pipeline: discovery -> crawl -> canonicalization -> storage (indexing) -> retrieval -> selection -> surfaces. This is the map for Casinokrisa's indexing and visibility system in 2026.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 30, 2026

Search as trust distribution (2026): why visibility is a privilege, not a reward

Modern search is not a system of answers; it is a system of trust distribution. This signature page explains why indexing is not visibility, why retrieval gets stricter in compressed interfaces, and how sites earn stable distribution.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 29, 2026

Traffic is down (2026): a no-panic diagnosis and the 7 levers that still work

When traffic drops, most teams guess: algorithm update, penalty, or need more content. In 2026, the real causes are usually selection and distribution: AI Overviews steal clicks, indexing becomes more selective, and visibility fragments across surfaces. This guide gives you a simple diagnosis and the 7 levers that still work.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 28, 2026

Indexed but not ranking (2026): why being stored is not being shown

“Indexed but not ranking” is usually not a technical SEO bug. It’s a selection problem: the system can store your page, but it isn’t confident that showing it is a low-regret outcome. This essay explains the mechanism and the signals that create visibility.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 27, 2026

Knowledge Panel shows wrong info: how to fix sources (without hacks)

When a Knowledge Panel shows the wrong job title, photo, or bio, the problem is rarely your schema. It is source hierarchy. This guide shows how to identify which sources Google trusts, how to reduce contradictions, and what to change so your canonical person page becomes citable.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 25, 2026

E-E-A-T meaning: what Google is actually trying to prevent

E-E-A-T is not a checklist and it is not a single ranking factor. It is a risk filter: Google’s way to reduce embarrassment, misinformation, and low-regret outcomes when it chooses what to show (and what to cite in AI answers). This essay explains the system model behind E‑E‑A‑T — and what signals actually make a source legible.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 24, 2026

Why SEO best practices don’t increase traffic (2026): fixes as a filtering mechanism

In 2026, SEO best practices rarely create advantage. They remove excuses, make you eligible, and often make the system decide faster. This essay explains why “technically correct” stopped being persuasive — and why fixes can feel like a downgrade.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 24, 2026

URL Inspection Tool (2026): what it really shows (and why “technically correct” stopped being persuasive)

URL Inspection is not a “fix my page” button. In 2026 it is the clearest window into how search allocates trust: storage vs selection, canonical conflicts, and testing behavior that makes “everything correct” still fail.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 21, 2026

Why new sites don’t rank (Google Sandbox 2026): probation and sampling model

“Google sandbox” is usually not a filter or penalty. It’s a conservative sampling phase: the system crawls and stores pages, tests visibility, evaluates outcomes, and only then expands distribution. This post explains the model and what actually changes the system’s confidence.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 19, 2026

How to get a Knowledge Panel for a person (without hacks): the system model

A Knowledge Panel is not something you "request". It appears when Google is confident it can resolve a stable person entity and connect it to corroborating sources. This guide explains the decision model (identity -> disambiguation -> corroboration -> persistence) and the few changes that actually increase certainty.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 18, 2026

Ranking volatility isn't random: search is tuning for predictable outcomes

Ranking volatility is what you see when a system is still uncertain. In 2026, search is not grading content - it is tuning for predictable outcomes. This post explains why volatility happens, what it usually means, and the page types it tends to filter out.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 17, 2026

Sitemaps and crawl budget (2026): what's real, what's myth, and what to do

Sitemaps don't 'make Google index you'. They are a hint layer. This guide explains what sitemaps actually do, when crawl budget is real, which myths waste time, and a practical checklist for small sites and large sites.

Mikhail Drozdov

January 12, 2026

Entity-first SEO for personal brands (2026): a practical checklist that gets you indexed, trusted, and surfaced

Entity-first SEO is how Google connects pages into “who this is” and “why it’s credible”. This checklist shows how to build a personal brand entity (Person/Organization, sameAs, rel=me, author signals, hubs, and internal linking) so your site becomes easier to interpret and worth indexing.

Mikhail Drozdov

Primary Topic.

Primary public topic cluster: Google indexing, visibility, entity SEO, Knowledge Panels, canonicalization, and AI-era search selection.

Pillar

Modern SEO in 2026: Visibility, Indexing, and Why Keywords Are Not the Unit