What does Google say about SEO?

Why can your robots.txt be interpreted differently by Search Console and Google Search?

Edu Pereda Mar 08, 2023 ★★

Search Console historically used a different Java implementation of the robots.txt parser compared to the C++ parser used by Google Search, which caused behavioral differences. For example, the BOM (Byte Order Mark) was not handled the same way in bo...

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

Is your robots.txt file being treated as a security threat by Google?

Martin Splitt Mar 08, 2023 ★★

Google treats the content of robots.txt files as external input controlled by users, therefore potentially problematic. The library is designed to handle malformed or malicious content without introducing vulnerabilities.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files Web Performance

Does Google really test its robots.txt parser with such rigorous standards internally?

Edu Pereda Mar 08, 2023 ★★

The robots.txt parser library is used extensively internally at Google. Any modification must be tested rigorously to prevent performance regressions, as it impacts many critical systems.

Crawl & Indexing Web Performance Search Console

Do third-party reviews from Facebook and Bing really boost your Google rankings?

John Mueller Mar 06, 2023 ★★★

On Twitter, a user asked Google's John Mueller whether integrating local reviews from sites like Facebook, Bing, Google or others on a website could have any impact on its rankings. Mueller responded that this was not the case, at least not for web s...

Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Web Performance Local Search Social Media Search Console

Should You Really Use ChatGPT to Rewrite or Translate Your SEO Content?

John Mueller Mar 06, 2023 ★★

On Twitter, John Mueller engaged with several users about rewriting content via ChatGPT with the aim of modifying an article or facilitating its translation into another language. While he doesn't openly discourage the use of AI for content rewriting...

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Should You Really Update the lastmod Tag in Your XML Sitemap?

John Mueller Mar 06, 2023 ★★★

John Mueller, once again, answered a question about updating the lastmod tag in sitemap files. Our SEO king indicated that such an update only makes sense when there's a significant change. Furthermore, John points out that CMS and servers tend to au...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files Search Console

Is Authorship Really an Important Ranking Factor for Your SEO?

Gary Illyes Mar 06, 2023 ★★

During the opening conference and Q&A session he gave at PubCon 2023, Google's Gary Illyes once again confirmed several pieces of information already known by professionals. The first concerns Authorship, which would be "less important than most peop...

Content AI & SEO

Should You Stop Chasing Backlinks to Rank in 2024?

Google Mar 06, 2023 ★★

During his presentation at PubCon, Gary Illuyes also stated that links were not as important as SEOs believe. At least, they have lost weight over the past several years and will continue to lose weight in the coming years, adding that it is entirely...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Should You Really Disavow Your Backlinks or Are You Sabotaging Your SEO?

Gary Illyes Mar 06, 2023 ★★★

Finally, still during his Q&A session, Gary Illyes expressed some frustration regarding the abusive use of the link disavow tool, originally designed to protect sites from toxic links. He added that the number of sites that have shot themselves in th...

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Is Google's robots.txt version history the game-changer your SEO audits have been waiting for?

Jamie Indigo Mar 02, 2023 ★★★

The Search Console robots.txt tester now provides precise timestamping showing what your robots.txt file looked like at a specific date and time, allowing you to track modifications over time.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files Local Search Search Console

Are JavaScript frameworks silently creating soft 404 errors on your high-inventory site?

Jamie Indigo Mar 02, 2023 ★★

Soft 404s can occur on websites using JavaScript frameworks, particularly on large-scale sites with dynamic inventory management systems that perform requests for each page call.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Is robots.txt silently blocking your critical resources without you knowing?

Jamie Indigo Mar 02, 2023 ★★★

Google Search Console's URL inspection tool allows you to identify scripts blocked by robots.txt in the 'page resources' section, which can prevent proper page rendering by Google.

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Can hosting robots.txt across multiple CDNs silently sabotage your crawl budget?

Jamie Indigo Mar 02, 2023 ★★

When a robots.txt file is hosted across multiple CDNs, they don't all update simultaneously, which can cause inconsistencies in blocking or unblocking resources for Googlebot.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing PDF & Files

Can a single failed AJAX request destroy the indexability of your entire page?

Jamie Indigo Mar 02, 2023 ★★★

If a site uses multiple JSON/AJAX endpoints to construct a page and a single request fails without appropriate error handling, this can cause the entire page render to fail for Googlebot, generating a soft 404.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Can Chrome DevTools reveal the rendering problems that Googlebot encounters on your pages?

Jamie Indigo Mar 02, 2023 ★★★

Chrome DevTools' Network tab allows you to selectively block individual requests to reproduce and identify rendering issues that Googlebot may encounter when exploring pages.

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Does poor JavaScript error handling really tank your Google rankings?

Jamie Indigo Mar 02, 2023 ★★★

Instead of failing an entire page when a JavaScript request fails, it's recommended to implement graceful error handling that allows the rest of the useful content to display even if an individual element doesn't load.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Local Search

Does manually resubmitting corrected URLs in Search Console really speed up reindexing?

Jamie Indigo Mar 02, 2023 ★★

After fixing technical issues causing soft 404s, manually resubmitting URLs via Search Console allows you to specifically monitor their behavior and accelerate their return to normal indexation.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console

Do All Google Bots Actually Render Your Website's JavaScript?

John Mueller Feb 28, 2023 ★★★

Not all Google crawlers use the same rendering system, and some bots don't even render websites at all, according to John Mueller. He was responding to a user's question asking whether all crawlers used the same rendering system for JavaScript conten...

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Should You Use Noindex and Nofollow on Redirecting URLs?

Gary Illyes Feb 28, 2023 ★★

A few days ago, William Sears asked Gary Illyes the following question: "Will the noindex and nofollow directives on a redirecting URL be respected or ignored?" He then specified that these directives are located in the HTTP header and not in the HTM...

Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Redirects

Should Local Small Businesses Really Worry About Core Web Vitals Optimization?

John Mueller Feb 28, 2023 ★★★

John Mueller stated that in most cases, working on Core Web Vitals is not "vital" for local small businesses. He explains that these businesses typically don't have many pages and therefore, Google doesn't have enough CrUX data for CWV to negatively ...

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