What does Google say about SEO?

Should you remove the meta keywords tag from your pages?

John Mueller Mar 15, 2022 ★★★

Google Search does not use the content of the meta keywords tag for search engine optimization. This position has been consistent since at least 2009 and remains unchanged today.

Content

Does the meta keywords tag actually harm your Google rankings?

John Mueller Mar 15, 2022 ★★

The presence of the meta keywords tag poses no problem for Google Search. It is generally small enough not to change the overall page size, so there is no strong reason to remove it if it is already present.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Which meta tags actually impact your Google rankings?

John Mueller Mar 15, 2022 ★★★

The meta tags that truly have an effect on Google search results are primarily the meta description tag and the meta robots tag. The title element, although technically not a meta tag, is also treated as such and has an impact on SEO.

Content AI & SEO

Which meta tags does Google actually use for SEO rankings?

John Mueller Mar 15, 2022 ★★

Google offers official documentation listing all the meta tags that the search engine uses and understands. It is recommended to consult this resource to know which elements can influence search results.

PDF & Files

Should you really remove the meta keywords tag from all your websites?

John Mueller Mar 15, 2022 ★★★

Googlebot pays no attention whatsoever to the content of the meta keywords tag, regardless of what values it contains. This tag is completely ignored by Google's indexing process.

Content Crawl & Indexing

Does Google Really Ignore All Links Placed in Widgets?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google simply does not take into account links integrated by widget designers to their site within the mini-application offered. These links are simply ignored. It should also be noted that sites using the widge...

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Social Media Search Console

Are ranking fluctuations really normal, or could they be hiding a technical issue?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★

Ranking changes where pages move up and down in search results are completely natural. This isn't necessarily a sign of content quality or technical problems. Pages can even temporarily leave the index while new pages enter.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does Google really use one global index for all countries?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★★

Google does not have separate indexes for each country. There is essentially one global index. Even though there are multiple data centers, content that is crawled and indexed in one center quickly becomes visible in most other centers.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should you still trust the site: operator to diagnose your indexation status?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★★

The numbers displayed by site: queries are not intended for diagnosis. They are not a reflection of what is actually indexed, but merely a quick approximation. The figures can be wrong by several orders of magnitude.

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

Does user engagement really influence your Google rankings?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★★

Google does not use engagement as a ranking factor. However, signals pass from one page to another through the site's internal links. If a page is considered very good with many external links, these signals can be transmitted to the rest of the site...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Why do high-traffic pages carry more weight in your Core Web Vitals score?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★★

For Core Web Vitals, Google examines a sample of your traffic through the Chrome User Experience Report. Pages with the most visits are the ones that matter most. Low-traffic pages don't affect your overall score even if you have many of them.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance

Does Google really segment websites by template type when evaluating Page Experience?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★

Google can divide a website into sections according to similar page types if sufficient data is available. For example, if all product pages are fast but another page type is slow, only that type will be affected by the Page Experience update.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

How many internal links should you actually place on each page to boost your SEO?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★

There is no optimal number of internal links per page. What matters is being able to recognize the site structure during crawling: homepage, first-level categories, second level, and so on. The structure must be clear and visible.

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

Why does your internal linking tree structure really matter to Google?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★

It is recommended to use external crawlers to generate a graph of your internal linking structure. The structure should resemble a tree with a central point and progressive branches. If it's just a collection of points all interconnected, the structu...

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

Does your homepage distance really impact how fast Google indexes your pages?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★

Pages closer to the homepage are generally indexed faster. For most sites, the homepage is the central point, but for some, this can be a specific major category or product.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does Google really ignore your URL structure for SEO rankings?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★★

Google does not base its assessment on URL structure (number of slashes) to determine page hierarchy. It's the internal linking structure that counts: how many clicks from the homepage to reach a given page.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Why do Search Console positions fail to reflect your actual search rankings?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★★

The positions displayed in Search Console are based on what users have actually seen. If few people see the site in position 1 and no one scrolls to position 200, only position 1 will be reported even if the site is often much lower.

Search Console

Does Google really distinguish between 'edit video' and 'video editor' as different user intentions?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★

Google tries to understand synonyms but looks at the complete context of the query. Terms like 'edit video' and 'video editor' may seem synonymous but user expectations are different, so the results can be very different.

Content AI & SEO Images & Videos

Does your FAQ schema markup really need to be on the ranking page to generate rich snippets?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★

FAQ markup can be displayed in search results for the page where it is found. If the markup is on a separate page that doesn't appear in the results, Google won't be able to display this rich snippet.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Structured Data Local Search

Do footer links carry the same SEO weight as links in your main content?

John Mueller Mar 14, 2022 ★★★

Google does not differentiate links based on their position (header, footer, sidebar, main content). All are considered normal links for understanding site structure. It's different for text where Google looks for main content.

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure