What does Google say about SEO?

Does Google really offer free tools to help e-commerce businesses identify their SEO problems?

Alan Kent Apr 13, 2022 ★★

For each common issue identified on e-commerce sites, Google offers tools that allow you to detect whether your site suffers from these specific problems.

E-commerce

Why does Google refuse to provide platform-specific SEO recommendations for e-commerce solutions?

Alan Kent Apr 13, 2022 ★★

Due to the diversity of e-commerce solutions on the market, Google concentrates its recommendations on identifying problems rather than on solutions specific to each platform.

E-commerce AI & SEO

Is Google finally showing you which technical SEO fixes will actually move the needle for your e-commerce site?

Alan Kent Apr 13, 2022 ★★

Google's aim is to help e-commerce teams identify which technical areas are worth prioritizing to improve their presence in Google Search.

Content E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Does Google Really Check the Accuracy of Your Structured Data?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★★

Google must verify that structured data is accurate. The main challenge is detecting intentional abuse or synchronization issues when structured data becomes out of sync with the visible content of the page.

Domain Age & History Content Images & Videos

Why should you implement generic structured data types before tackling specific ones?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★

To get started with structured data, you first need to look at generic features that apply to most sites: breadcrumbs, site link search box. Then, verify if there is documentation for specific types relevant to your site.

Structured Data Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure PDF & Files

Why Can Your Valid Schema.org Markup Get Rejected by Google?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★★

Schema.org is a common vocabulary, not an API. It doesn't specify what is required. Google imposes additional restrictions on Schema.org to make data usable for its specific features. Data can be correct according to Schema.org but not viable for a p...

Structured Data AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files

Do structured data really make a difference when Google can already understand your page?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★

Even if Google can correctly understand a page without structured data, the latter is particularly useful in edge cases where there are detection problems. They then serve as an additional signal in a nuanced calculation.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Does cramming your pages with structured data really boost your rankings?

Martin Splitt Apr 07, 2022 ★★

As long as the data is correct and reflects what is shown to the user on the page, adding more data is never worse. It's always better to add more data to clarify the page content.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Should you abandon JSON-LD in favor of Microdata for structured data?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★

To stay synchronized with visible content, using microdata or RDFa is preferable because these formats directly wrap the content. JSON-LD is easier to use but presents greater risks of desynchronization with the page content.

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Can external JSON-LD really cause synchronization problems for Google's indexing?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★

With JSON-LD, there can be synchronization issues if Google needs to fetch a different resource. There is a risk that the JavaScript won't be downloaded at the same time as the HTML, creating a potential synchronization problem.

Structured Data AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does Google really prefer structured data over machine learning to understand your pages?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★★

Google uses machine learning to extract data from pages, but it is much easier and more accurate to ask site owners to provide their structured data directly. This improves accuracy and delivers better benefits for the data provider.

Domain Age & History Structured Data AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you still bother with structured data if machine learning does the heavy lifting?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★★

Google uses a multi-level approach combining machine learning and structured data. ML kicks in when structured data isn't provided, but webmasters always have the option to supply data directly, which generally improves accuracy.

Structured Data AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Do structured data really give webmasters control over how Google displays their content?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★★

Structured data allows site owners to have control over the content that Google displays. It's important that this be part of the overall strategy so that people can control their data.

Content AI & SEO Local Search

Should you implement structured data that Google isn't using yet?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★

Adding structured data that is not currently used for Google features is never negative. It allows Google to know that there is a lot of this type of data available, which can influence the development of future features.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does structured data really influence how Google understands a page's topic?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★

Google uses structured data as a signal to understand a page's topic, combined with text and other elements. It's an ML process where structured data is one signal among many, particularly useful for disambiguating a page's actual content.

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Are Google's Testing Tools Really Reliable for Detecting Your Missing Structured Data?

Ryan Levering Apr 07, 2022 ★★

Google's testing tools, particularly the Rich Results Test, are accurate at detecting whether structured data is present or missing. Synchronization issues will appear in Search Console and testing tools.

Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP Search Console

Should your structured data always reflect exactly what visitors actually see on your page?

Lizzi Sassman Apr 07, 2022 ★★★

What appears in structured data must match the page content to avoid being classified as spam. This is a core guideline requirement to prevent issues, even though unintentional technical errors can occur.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Does Google's cached view really store all your content?

John Mueller Apr 06, 2022 ★★★

Google Search sometimes keeps a copy of the HTML page retrieved from the server and displays it to users as a cached page. However, this is only the raw HTML page, without JavaScript rendering.

Domain Age & History JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Local Search

Is an empty Google cache for your JavaScript site actually a sign of indexation problems?

John Mueller Apr 06, 2022 ★★★

In practice, JavaScript-based websites often display an empty or incomplete page when viewed from Google's cache. This is normal and is not a sign of a problem.

Domain Age & History JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Local Search

Does Google really index what users see, or what's captured in the cache?

John Mueller Apr 06, 2022 ★★★

For indexing purposes, Google processes JavaScript separately and attempts to index what a user would see when visiting your website directly, regardless of what appears in the cache view.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance