What does Google say about SEO?

Does Google really discover all your subdomains automatically?

Gary Illyes Apr 05, 2023 ★★

Google examines DNS records for discovery, but this typically means discovering the main domain name (A record), not necessarily subdomains. If DNS doesn't announce CNAME records for subdomains, Google cannot discover them automatically.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Does content quality really block bulk indexation?

Gary Illyes Apr 05, 2023 ★★★

When a site tries to get a million pages indexed simultaneously, two problems arise: Google can only crawl a few thousand URLs per day without overloading the server, and most importantly, content quality will certainly affect indexation.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name

Do you really need to prioritize SEO when launching a tool or SaaS product?

John Mueller Apr 05, 2023 ★

For functionality-focused sites rather than content-focused ones, launch doesn't need to be SEO-oriented. The priority is to promote the business functionality rather than optimize to be found immediately in search results.

Content AI & SEO

Is robots.txt really sufficient (almost always) to block a staging site from being indexed?

Gary Illyes Apr 05, 2023 ★★★

To prevent indexation of a staging site, robots.txt is a simple and effective solution. In most cases, this works because Google cannot crawl the pages and therefore cannot make an indexation decision based on content. Without significant external si...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Should you really manually submit your key pages to Google when launching a new website?

Gary Illyes Apr 05, 2023 ★★

When launching a new website, after removing the robots.txt block, it's recommended to go into Search Console (and Bing Webmaster Tools) to submit your homepage and a few other important pages for indexing, then wait.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Should you really be afraid to publish 7,000 articles all at once?

Gary Illyes Apr 05, 2023 ★★

If your server has sufficient resources to handle a significant additional crawl (potentially 1,000 times more), launching 7,000 articles at once shouldn't cause any problems. Otherwise, you risk bringing your server to its knees.

Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News AI & SEO

Does a custom domain name really improve your brand memorability?

Gary Illyes Apr 05, 2023 ★★

Using a personalized domain name rather than a free subdomain from a hosting platform helps with brand memorability. Users will remember the custom domain name rather than the hosting platform.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Are IP whitelists really enough to protect your staging sites from Google crawling?

Gary Illyes Apr 05, 2023 ★★

Using IP blocks or IP whitelists (restricting access to only specific IP addresses) is a method for securing a staging site, although it requires server management knowledge.

AI & SEO

Why Does Google Sometimes Index Your Pages Without Fully Rendering Them?

Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2023 ★★★

On Twitter, Gary Illyes indicated that in certain cases, Google may choose not to perform a complete "rendering" of a page before featuring it in search results or on Google News. This happens when Google needs to index and distribute content quickly...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Local Search Social Media

Do You Really Need to Verify Every Single Property of Your Domain in Search Console?

John Mueller Apr 04, 2023 ★★★

In an SEO discussion on Reddit, John Mueller responded to a user about a question regarding domain verification. Google's Webmaster Trends Analyst indicated that he no longer recommends verifying all properties unless there's a good reason to do so, ...

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Search Console

Does an unintentional noindex tag really cause gradual traffic loss instead of an immediate crash?

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★★

An unintentional noindex tag at the page level causes progressive traffic decline, slower than site-wide technical problems, because it depends on Google crawling each individual page.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Do Core Updates really cause gradual ranking shifts instead of sudden traffic crashes?

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★★

Google continuously improves its content evaluation and updates its algorithms. Core updates can modify the performance of certain pages in Google Search over time, generally without sudden decline.

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Why should you analyze 16 months of Search Console data when your traffic drops?

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★

To properly analyze a traffic decline in Search Console, it is recommended to extend your date range to 16 months. This allows you to analyze the decline in context and verify that it is not caused by a regular seasonal phenomenon.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Search Console

How can you accurately analyze an SEO traffic drop without misdiagnosing the real cause?

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★

To identify precisely what has changed, you must compare the drop period with a similar period (same month the previous year or same day the previous week) while ensuring you compare the same number of days, preferably the same days of the week.

AI & SEO

Should you really analyze every Search Console tab to diagnose a traffic drop?

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★

It is important to consult all tabs in the Performance report to determine whether the change affects only specific queries, pages, countries, devices, or search appearances.

Domain Age & History Pagination & Structure Web Performance Search Console

Are you losing thousands of organic visitors without even realizing it? Here's why your SEO analysis might be dangerously incomplete.

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★

Analyzing each search type separately (Search, Google Images, Video, News) makes it possible to understand whether traffic decline is limited to a specific type of search results.

Domain Age & History Discover & News AI & SEO Images & Videos

Why does Google add annotations to Search Console and how should you interpret them?

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★

Google typically adds annotations to Search Console graphs to alert users when technical issues or glitches occur on their side.

Content Search Console

What Really Happens to Your Site When Google Hits You with a Manual Action?

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★★

Manual actions occur when a site fails to comply with Google's guidelines. In this case, certain pages or the entire site may see their visibility reduced in Google search results following a manual action.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Penalties & Spam

Can a website outage really destroy your traffic from every single source—not just Google?

Daniel Waisberg Mar 29, 2023 ★★

Technical issues at the site level (such as a website going offline) cause a significant and immediate drop in traffic, not only from Google search but from all traffic sources.

Content AI & SEO

Should You Worry About Googlebot's 15 MB Limit on Your Web Resources?

Gary Illyes Mar 28, 2023 ★★★

Google has added some clarifications to Googlebot's help documentation regarding crawling, to specify that the 15 MB limit for HTML code crawled by Googlebot also applies to each individual sub-resource referenced in the code: JavaScript and CSS file...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks PDF & Files Social Media