Docs discoverability layers

This article discusses the concept of 'discoverability' in documentation sites, arguing that it extends beyond human readability and search engine optimization. The author, who works on a large documentation site, identifies three distinct machine reader layers: search crawlers needing control signals like canonical URLs and robots directives; schema parsers requiring structured data (e.g., JSON-LD) for identity and rich results; and AI agents needing clean, parseable text. The piece critiques the common assumption that search visibility equals full discoverability, highlighting the need to address all three layers for comprehensive machine access.