casinokrisa

Mikhail Drozdov.

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

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A short reading path.

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

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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.

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March 18, 2026

Misinformation can rank (2026): why AI Overviews amplify fake “updates”

Search doesn’t rank “truth”. It ranks retrieval fit and consensus proxies. AI Overviews turn that into an assertion layer—so confident nonsense spreads faster than careful accuracy.

Mikhail Drozdov

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March 17, 2026

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

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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

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Blog.

57 posts

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

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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

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February 1, 2026

How Google decides what to index (2026): the cost/value/risk model behind storage

Google indexing is not “did we submit a sitemap?”. It is a storage decision driven by cost, value, and risk. This article explains the decision logic, the common misconceptions, real-world scenarios, and what changes the system’s willingness to keep your URLs.

Mikhail Drozdov

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February 1, 2026

Ranking signals vs indexing signals (2026): what changes storage vs distribution

Most teams optimize ranking signals while failing indexing signals. This entry page separates what affects storage (indexing) from what affects distribution (visibility), explains common misconceptions, and gives a system-first diagnostic flow.

Mikhail Drozdov

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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

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January 31, 2026

Why Google chooses competitors (2026): selection under uncertainty, not “bad SEO”

If Google shows other sites instead of yours, the system is not “ignoring” you. It is minimizing regret: selecting sources with higher outcome certainty for that query class. This page explains the mechanism, common misconceptions, real scenarios, and how to shift selection without becoming a generic SEO blog.

Mikhail Drozdov

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January 30, 2026

Algorithmic trust (2026): why Google stores some sites and distributes others

Trust is not a moral score. It is the system’s estimate of regret: how likely a result is to be safe, satisfying, and repeatable. This page explains algorithmic trust as a distribution mechanism and how it connects to indexing, retrieval, and visibility.

Mikhail Drozdov

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January 30, 2026

Crawl vs index (2026): why Google can fetch a page and still not store it

Crawling is fetching. Indexing is storage. This entry page explains the difference, why “crawled” doesn’t imply “indexed”, and how to diagnose the gap using GSC statuses and system signals.

Mikhail Drozdov

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January 30, 2026

Google indexing process (step-by-step, 2026): discovery → crawl → canonical → store → refresh

A step-by-step map of how Google turns a URL into an indexed document in 2026: discovery, crawling/rendering, canonicalization, storage, and refresh. Written as a system pipeline (not a checklist).

Mikhail Drozdov

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January 30, 2026

Index bloat (2026): why too many pages can reduce indexing and visibility

Index bloat is when a site’s URL footprint becomes larger than its meaningful core. It increases crawl debt, dedupe cost, and makes Google conservative. This explains the mechanism and how to reduce bloat without killing signal.

Mikhail Drozdov

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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

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January 30, 2026

Indexing vs ranking: storage vs distribution (the difference that changes the work)

Indexing answers “will Google store this URL?” Ranking answers “will Google distribute it for queries?” This entry page explains the difference, why indexing is the primary gate in 2026, and how to debug each layer.

Mikhail Drozdov

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January 30, 2026

Indexing vs retrieval (2026): why stored pages still don’t get visibility

Indexing is storage. Retrieval is the gate that decides which indexed documents are even considered for a query class. This article explains the mechanism, where teams misdiagnose it as “ranking”, and how to make retrieval decisions more favorable.

Mikhail Drozdov

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January 30, 2026

Internal linking vs backlinks (2026): what each one actually changes

Backlinks help the system trust your site. Internal links tell the system what matters and where each page belongs. This explains how internal linking affects indexing/retrieval, why many sites misinterpret “authority”, and the architecture patterns that reliably move pages into visibility.

Mikhail Drozdov

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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

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Primary Topic.

Open hub

Topic hub

SEO & Search

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