# How do you distinguish between an SEO problem and a website engineering problem?

> The same problem can be both.

Example:

**SEO observation:** important product URLs are not discoverable.

**Engineering cause:** the navigation is generated by a client-side application without crawlable links.

**Product cause:** the application was designed as a single-page interface.

SEO identifies the search requirement. Engineering determines how to implement it. Product and business teams determine broader requirements and constraints.

This separation makes technical discussions more productive than telling developers that their code is "bad for SEO."

## Sources

- [Google Search Central — Javascript SEO Basics](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics)

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Answered by Abhinav Krishna (https://www.theseocentral.com/author/abhinav-krishna)
Source: https://www.theseocentral.com/technical-seo-faq/how-do-you-distinguish-between-an-seo-problem-and-a-website-engineering-problem