What does Google say about SEO?

Should you really ignore 404 errors in Google Search Console?

John Mueller Dec 29, 2022 ★★★

Having 404 errors listed in Search Console isn't a problem if you know those pages are supposed to return a 404. It's normal to let 404 pages disappear naturally from search results.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Do you really need to add paginated pages to your XML sitemap?

Google Dec 29, 2022 ★★

You can include paginated pages in an XML sitemap, but if each category page has a link to the next page, there may not be much advantage. Google will discover the following pages automatically.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks PDF & Files Search Console

Can Google really crawl links in dropdown menus on hover?

Lizzi Sassman Dec 29, 2022 ★★

Google can follow links in a menu that appears on mouse hover. The menu must remain visible in the HTML and the links must be crawlable, meaning they must be A tags with an HREF attribute.

Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

How many redirects can you really have on a site without triggering an SEO penalty?

Google Dec 29, 2022 ★★

You can have as many redirects as you want on your website overall. Just make sure that individual URLs don't have too many jumps in their redirect chains.

AI & SEO Domain Name Redirects

Do you really need to align URL, title, and H1 to rank in SEO?

Lizzi Sassman Dec 29, 2022 ★★

The URL, page title, and H1 tag don't need to be exactly identical. There will likely be some overlap in the words used, but it doesn't need to be a word-for-word match.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Domain Name

Do you really need to publish content every day to rank well on Google?

John Mueller Dec 29, 2022 ★★

There is no absolute answer to how often you should publish content. You can decide how you want to engage your users, whether that's one article per day or multiple per week.

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News

Should you really stop using text in images for SEO?

John Mueller Dec 29, 2022 ★★★

Although it is theoretically possible to analyze images to extract text from them, you should not rely on it for web search. If you want your page to be recognized for specific text, place it as text on your pages.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos

Does Google really limit deindexing to just two methods, or are there hidden alternatives?

Google Dec 29, 2022 ★★★

There are really only a handful of ways to deindex URLs: remove the page and serve a 404, 410, or similar code, or add a noindex rule to pages and allow Googlebot to crawl those pages.

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

Is running Lighthouse multiple times really the only way to get reliable performance diagnostics?

Martin Splitt Dec 29, 2022 ★★

Google recommends using Lighthouse repeatedly to obtain reliable performance data on your pages, as results can vary from one execution to another. Script automation allows you to obtain representative averages.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Should you switch domains when cutting your catalog, or is keeping your existing one the smarter move?

Google Dec 29, 2022 ★★★

Google recommends keeping your existing domain name whenever possible. It is acceptable to clean up old pages by returning 404s or redirecting to new versions, even if this affects many pages on your site.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Can backlinks to a 404 page really be recovered, or are they permanently lost?

Google Dec 29, 2022 ★★★

As soon as a page comes back online after being in 404 status, links to that page will be counted again once the linking pages have been recrawled and the links have been deemed still relevant by the systems.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Should you use a person or organization as your article author for SEO purposes?

Lizzi Sassman Dec 29, 2022 ★★

It is perfectly acceptable to list an organization as the author of an article. You can specify either an organization or a person as the author in structured markup. Both are acceptable.

Domain Age & History Discover & News AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Can blocking a redirect page with robots.txt really stop PageRank from passing through?

John Mueller Dec 29, 2022 ★★★

If the goal is to prevent signals from passing through a link, it is acceptable to use a redirect page blocked by robots.txt to prevent PageRank flow.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure Redirects

Do multiple hyphens in your domain name actually hurt your SEO rankings?

John Mueller Dec 29, 2022 ★★

There is no negative effect on rankings from having multiple hyphens in a domain name.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Do Core Web Vitals really override relevance in Google rankings?

Google Dec 29, 2022 ★★★

Google measures Core Web Vitals for most websites, which includes factors such as site speed. Core Web Vitals are used in the Page Experience ranking factor. While this is not something that overrides other factors like relevance, it is something tha...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance

Do XML Sitemaps Really Guarantee Your Pages Will Be Indexed by Google?

Gary Illyes Dec 27, 2022 ★★★

Gary Illyes explained on LinkedIn that XML Sitemaps provide clues to Google about submitted URLs, but that this does not provide a guarantee of indexing for these pages...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name PDF & Files Social Media Search Console

Is WordPress Really Better for SEO Than Other CMS Platforms?

John Mueller Dec 27, 2022 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Reddit that using the WordPress CMS to create your website does not provide any substantial or specific SEO advantage...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Did Google really hide a 15 MB indexing limit from everyone for 15 years?

Gary Illyes Dec 22, 2022 ★★★

Googlebot has always had a technical limit of 15 megabytes for page indexing. This limit has existed for approximately 15 years, but was not publicly documented. The recent addition to the documentation does not constitute a change in functionality, ...

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

Should you really stop worrying about what Google doesn't support?

Gary Illyes Dec 22, 2022 ★★

Google has begun actively documenting unsupported elements (such as the meta keywords tag) in addition to what is supported. This approach responds to a recurring demand and makes it explicit what Google does not use, rather than leaving users to ded...

AI & SEO PDF & Files

Why did Google split its guidelines into strict rules and simple recommendations?

Lizzi Sassman Dec 22, 2022 ★★★

The old Webmaster Guidelines, which existed for 20 years, have been restructured to separate strict requirements (spam policies) from recommended best practices. This modularization makes it possible to clearly distinguish what can result in a penalt...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam Web Performance Search Console