What does Google say about SEO?

Does Google's new Search Status Dashboard really eliminate the need to monitor Twitter for search outages?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★★

Google has created an official dashboard (Search Status Dashboard) to communicate in a structured manner about incidents affecting search. It replaces ad-hoc Twitter communication and uses pre-approved templates to accelerate communication.

Pagination & Structure Social Media

Which incidents does Google officially communicate on its status dashboard?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★★

The dashboard covers major incidents affecting three main systems: crawling, indexing, and serving. For example, if Googlebot cannot crawl the entirety of the Internet, or if Google.com becomes inaccessible, this will be published on the dashboard.

Crawl & Indexing

Why doesn't Google inform you about all of its technical incidents?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★

Google only communicates about incidents affecting many sites. If an incident lasts only 5 minutes, Google may choose to publish nothing to avoid overcommunication and unnecessary confusion.

What are the two hidden channels Google uses to detect search engine incidents?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★

Google detects incidents through two sources: automated internal alerts configured by SREs (Site Reliability Engineers), and Twitter monitoring where multiple similar reports (more than 5) trigger an investigation.

AI & SEO Social Media Search Console

Should you really sit tight when Google reports an incident on the dashboard?

Lizzi Sassman Dec 14, 2022 ★★★

When an incident is published on the dashboard, site owners have nothing to change or fix on their end. The problem comes from Google's systems and will be resolved by Google. Webmasters simply need to be patient.

AI & SEO

Does Google really guarantee regular updates on its search incidents?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★

Unlike Twitter where update timelines were unclear, the dashboard guarantees an update within a defined timeframe (typically 12 hours maximum), even if it's just to say that the investigation continues.

AI & SEO Social Media

Why did Google technically separate its Search Status Dashboard from google.com?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★

The Search Status Dashboard is technically decoupled from google.com. If google.com goes down, the dashboard remains accessible to publish information about the incident. The serving system used is extremely reliable, with no incidents since 2006.

Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you subscribe to the Search Status Dashboard RSS feed to anticipate Google incidents?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★

The Search Status Dashboard offers an RSS feed that allows webmasters to subscribe and receive automatic notifications when new incidents occur, without needing to manually refresh the page.

Domain Age & History

Why does Google leave certain search features out of its public incident monitoring?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★

In the initial version, the dashboard does not cover incidents affecting specific features such as Featured Snippets or Top Stories. These features could be added in a future version of the dashboard.

Content Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO

Why doesn't Google consider a single site's ranking drop as a system-wide incident?

Gary Illyes Dec 14, 2022 ★★★

An incident affects many sites simultaneously and requires action from Google. If a single site loses its ranking, it's generally not an incident but a site-specific problem (such as a noindex tag added by mistake).

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Is geolocation-based cloaking really acceptable to Google?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★★

Cloaking is specifically defined as the act of deceiving the user. Showing different content based on geolocation is not cloaking as long as the user experience remains consistent with their expectations and it's not done specifically for Googlebot.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Penalties & Spam Local Search International SEO

Is cloaking really a problem if the user isn't being deceived?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★★

Google is only concerned about cloaking when there is deception of the user. For example, a car comparison site that displayed advertisements for medications instead of car comparisons would be considered cloaking.

AI & SEO Mobile SEO Penalties & Spam Local Search

Should you wait before assessing the real impact of a Google algorithm update?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★

Algorithm updates don't deploy instantly. They can take several weeks, with components potentially adjusted or removed during rollout. You need to wait 2 to 3 weeks before analyzing the true impact of an update.

Algorithms AI & SEO

Is log file analysis really the game-changer that large-scale sites are overlooking?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★

Log file analysis is extremely valuable, particularly for sites with several million pages, because it allows you to understand what Google actually crawls, what it doesn't crawl, and where it encounters problems not detected by traditional crawl too...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing PDF & Files

Is an empty page destroying your user experience and SEO potential?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★

Displaying a completely empty page to users who don't share their geolocation is considered poor user experience. It is preferable to display default content rather than nothing at all.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Local Search Social Media International SEO

Is Googlebot really flagging soft 404s on your empty geolocalized pages?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★★

When Googlebot crawls from different geographic locations and finds pages with no content for that region (e.g., no local inventory), it may treat them as soft 404s, even if the page functions normally from other locations.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

Does Google really consider showing default national content as cloaking?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★★

If you cannot determine a user's location or if you don't have content for their region, displaying default national content for all users (including Googlebot) is not considered cloaking.

Content Crawl & Indexing Penalties & Spam Local Search International SEO

Is Googlebot really crawling your website from multiple countries?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★★

Googlebot can crawl websites from different geographical locations, which can produce different results if your content is geolocation-dependent. It's important to check IP addresses in your logs to identify where the crawl is coming from.

Content Crawl & Indexing Local Search International SEO

How can you guarantee a user experience that matches expectations without risking a cloaking penalty?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★

User experience should always be of high quality and consistent with user expectations. This is a fundamental principle for avoiding being considered as practicing cloaking or other problematic techniques.

Content AI & SEO Penalties & Spam

Should you really compare the actual state of your pages before and after a traffic drop?

Martin Splitt Dec 13, 2022 ★★

When analyzing a drop in visibility, it is important to compare the actual state of pages before and after, as sites may have made changes that explain the drop, independent of an algorithmic update.

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO