SEO & AI search playbook for Web3 projects

Searches to plan around

Query patterns and the intent behind them. We don’t quote search volumes: check your own Search Console for the ones you already appear for.

• “how to [do task] on [chain]”

  Task help

  Step-by-step guides for real tasks in your product. Include screenshots and warnings about common mistakes.

• “is [project] safe”, “[project] audit”

  Risk check

  Answer with audit reports, bug bounty details and incident history, linked.

• “[protocol] docs”, “[SDK] example”

  Developer build

  Developer searches look like any devtool's. Same docs rules apply.

• “what is [concept]”

  Learning

  Explainers that are accurate and don't promote a token.

Page families that work

• Developer docs

  /docs/…

  Follow the docs-led devtools playbook: versions, examples, rendering.

• Security page

  /security

  Audits (linked to the auditor's report), bug bounty, incident history. The page trust queries need.

• Task guides

  /guides/bridge-assets

  For users, with warnings about fees and common mistakes.

• Glossary

  /glossary/…

  Neutral definitions that link to guides.

Risky page types

• Price prediction and “should I buy” pages

  Financial advice territory, heavily contested, and a trust problem for a project with its own token.

• Airdrop and giveaway pages

  These attract scammers who copy them, and they read as promotion. Keep official announcements short and on verified channels.

• Paid link and guest-post packages

  Common in the space and exactly what Google's link spam policy describes: buying links for ranking purposes.

Technical pitfalls

1. 1

   Everything client-rendered in a dApp

   The app can be client-side, but docs, explainers and the security page should be server-rendered HTML (Google's JavaScript guidance).

2. 2

   Impersonation domains

   Scammers register lookalike domains. A clear official-links page and consistent links from your socials help people (and assistants) find the real site.

3. 3

   Sponsored content not labelled

   If you pay for coverage, the links should carry rel="sponsored" per Google's link qualification guidance.

How AI assistants answer questions in this category

Assistants handle crypto questions with caution and caveats, particularly anything that sounds like investment advice. They're more comfortable citing project docs, audit reports and neutral explainers. A project that states facts plainly (what it does, who audited it, what went wrong in past incidents) gives assistants something safe to quote.

What tends to earn a citation

• Audit reports linked from a security page, with dates and scope.
• Neutral, accurate explainers without token promotion.
• A single official-links page that names your real domains and accounts.

Check whether the AI crawlers you want can reach your site with our AI crawler checker.

Where links come from

• Developer ecosystems

  Listings in chain or protocol ecosystem pages, SDK docs and developer grants programmes.

• Open-source work

  Public repos, libraries and tooling earn links from developers. See open-source directories.

• Avoid paid links

  Paid “crypto press release” packages and link sales are common in the space. We never sell links, and we don't recommend buying them.

A 90-day plan

1. Days 1–30

   Trust

   • –Publish a security page with audits and incident history.
   • –Publish an official-links page.
   • –Remove or noindex price-talk and airdrop pages.

2. Days 31–60

   Docs and guides

   • –Server-render docs and explainers.
   • –Write task guides for your most common user actions.
   • –Label any sponsored coverage.

3. Days 61–90

   Developers

   • –Publish SDK examples and list in ecosystem pages.
   • –Rewrite titles on guides at positions 5–20.
   • –Track brand + “scam” or “safe” queries.

What to watch in Search Console

The Performance report gives clicks, impressions, CTR and average position by query, page, country, device and date. Traffic from Google's AI features is counted there too, under the Web search type (Google).

Brand + “scam”, “safe”, “legit”

Trust queries. Make sure your security page ranks for them.

Docs impressions

Developer interest, which is steadier than market-driven traffic.

Links report for spammy domains

Web3 sites attract junk links. Watch for sudden patterns, and don't answer them by buying links of your own.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Checked on September 23, 2026. Search patterns and page advice are our own judgement from running this playbook; we don’t quote search volumes or third-party statistics.

1. Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
2. Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search
3. Google Search Central: JavaScript SEO basics
4. Google Search Central: Qualify your outbound links
5. Google Search Central: AI features and your website
6. Search Console Help: Performance report