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SEO & Canonical Policy

This page documents how AIMO Standard manages URL canonicalization for search engines, auditors, and external references.

Production vs Mirror Sites

Environment URL Role Indexable
Production https://standard.aimoaas.com/ Canonical site for all purposes Yes
GitHub Pages https://billyrise.github.io/aimo-standard/ Temporary mirror / CI preview No (noindex)

Key principle: Production (standard.aimoaas.com) is the authoritative URL. GitHub Pages serves as a temporary backup/mirror and should not be cited in audit reports or external references.

Canonical URL Strategy

How Canonical URLs Are Generated

AIMO Standard uses MkDocs Material with the following configuration:

# mkdocs.yml
site_url: https://standard.aimoaas.com/

This site_url setting ensures:

  1. <link rel="canonical"> — Each generated HTML page includes a canonical link pointing to the Production URL.
  2. sitemap.xml — All URLs in the sitemap reference Production.
  3. robots.txt — Sitemap reference points to Production.
  4. hreflang alternates — Language alternates use Production URLs.

Language-Specific Canonicals

Language URL Pattern Example
English (default) https://standard.aimoaas.com/{path} https://standard.aimoaas.com/governance/
Japanese https://standard.aimoaas.com/ja/{path} https://standard.aimoaas.com/ja/governance/

Each language version is self-canonical and includes hreflang alternates to the other language(s) plus x-default pointing to the English version.

Versioned Documentation and Canonicals

AIMO Standard uses mike for documentation versioning with alias_type: redirect:

Version URL Pattern Canonical Status Indexable
Versioned (e.g., 0.0.1) https://standard.aimoaas.com/0.0.1/ Canonical for that specific version Yes
latest (alias) https://standard.aimoaas.com/latest/ Redirects to current release Yes (via target)
dev https://standard.aimoaas.com/dev/ Preview only No (noindex enforced)

Critical distinctions:

Aspect /X.Y.Z/ /latest/ /dev/
Content Frozen snapshot Redirect to /X.Y.Z/ Main branch preview
Mutable Never Pointer updates on release Continuous
For audits Yes (preferred) Yes (resolves to frozen) Never
SEO Indexed Indexed via target noindex

How alias_type: redirect works:

Instead of copying files, /latest/ contains redirect pages pointing to the current release:

<!-- /latest/index.html -->
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=../0.0.1/">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://standard.aimoaas.com/0.0.1/">

This ensures:

  1. No content drift — /latest/ cannot diverge from the release it points to.
  2. No duplicate content — Search engines see one canonical source.
  3. Atomic updates — Changing the alias updates all pages at once.

!!! info "Git Tag vs. Site Path" Git release tags use v prefix (e.g., v0.0.1), but site paths omit the v (e.g., /0.0.1/). This is standard practice for documentation versioning tools like mike.

Auditor Guidance: Which URL to Cite

When citing AIMO Standard in audit reports, compliance documentation, or external references:

Use Case Recommended URL
Current stable specification https://standard.aimoaas.com/latest/standard/current/
Specific version (for audit) https://standard.aimoaas.com/{X.Y.Z}/standard/current/
Governance & policies https://standard.aimoaas.com/latest/governance/
Trust Package https://standard.aimoaas.com/latest/governance/trust-package/

Do NOT Cite

  • ~~https://billyrise.github.io/aimo-standard/~~ — Temporary mirror, not canonical
  • ~~https://standard.aimoaas.com/dev/~~ — Development version, subject to change

Versioned Citation for Immutability

For formal audits requiring immutable references, use versioned snapshot URLs:

https://standard.aimoaas.com/1.0.0/standard/current/01-overview/

Versioned snapshots are frozen at release time and will not change.

!!! note "URL Format" Site paths use version numbers without the v prefix. For version v1.0.0, use /1.0.0/ in URLs.

Technical Implementation

Generated HTML Example

Every generated HTML page includes canonical and hreflang tags in the <head>:

<!-- Canonical (always points to Production) -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://standard.aimoaas.com/latest/governance/">

<!-- Language alternates -->
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://standard.aimoaas.com/latest/governance/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ja" href="https://standard.aimoaas.com/latest/ja/governance/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://standard.aimoaas.com/latest/governance/">

robots.txt

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://standard.aimoaas.com/sitemap.xml

Sitemap

The sitemap is generated by mkdocs-static-i18n plugin and includes:

  • All Production URLs
  • hreflang alternates for each language

Noindex Configuration

/dev/ (Preview) — Mandatory Noindex

The /dev/ version contains unreleased content and MUST have noindex to prevent:

  • Search engines indexing unstable content
  • Users finding /dev/ via search and citing it in audits
  • Confusion between released and unreleased content

Implementation:

The deploy-dev.yml workflow injects a noindex meta tag into all /dev/ pages via theme override:

<!-- Injected into /dev/ pages only -->
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

GitHub Pages Mirror — Noindex

When deploying to GitHub Pages (the mirror site at billyrise.github.io), all pages should have noindex to prevent duplicate indexing:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

This ensures search engines always prioritize the Production canonical URLs at standard.aimoaas.com.

Verification

After each build, you can verify canonical URLs by:

  1. Inspecting generated HTML — Check site/ directory after mkdocs build
  2. Using browser DevTools — Inspect <head> section on deployed pages
  3. Google Search Console — Monitor which URLs are indexed

Example verification command:

mkdocs build
grep -r 'rel="canonical"' site/ | head -5

Expected output should show Production URLs, e.g.:

site/index.html:<link rel="canonical" href="https://standard.aimoaas.com/">
site/governance/index.html:<link rel="canonical" href="https://standard.aimoaas.com/governance/">