What does Google say about SEO?

Search through official Google statements about search engine optimization

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9080 statement(s) found
Does Google really crawl all your sitemaps at the same pace?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
Google does not crawl all sitemaps at the same time or in any specific order. For each individual sitemap file, Google determines its change frequency and value, then crawls each file at different rates. This does not depend on where you submit it (S...
Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files Search Console
Does Google really keep crawling a sitemap after you remove it from Search Console?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
When you remove a sitemap file from Search Console, Google retains it in its systems and will likely continue trying to re-crawl it for several months to ensure it hasn't become temporarily unavailable.
Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files Search Console
Can you safely use bidirectional canonicals between two site versions without any risk?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
Duplicating content between two versions of a site (global and local) while providing a canonical tag is a perfect use of this tag. You don't need to apply the same direction for all content: one site can have certain pages with canonicals, the other...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Local Search
Can structured data really replace traditional internal linking strategy?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
Internal linking is one of the most important SEO actions you can take on a site to guide Google and visitors toward important pages. Structured data does not replace normal HTML links. URLs in hreflang annotations, breadcrumbs, or other structured d...
Domain Age & History Structured Data AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Pagination & Structure International SEO
Why is one x-default enough for your entire multi-domain hreflang configuration?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
In an hreflang configuration, even across multiple domains, there must be only one x-default. For each page, all hreflang annotations must match and clearly indicate which version to show based on country/language. The country/language to page mappin...
Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name International SEO
Should you really avoid product structured data on category pages?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
According to Google's policies, you should not implement multiple product schemas on a product listing page. Product structured data must apply to the main element of the page. On a category page with multiple products, none is the main element, so m...
Domain Age & History Structured Data E-commerce Pagination & Structure
Why is Google completely ignoring your desktop version once mobile-first indexing kicks in?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
For most sites that have switched to mobile-first indexing, Google only looks at the mobile version of your site. Differences on the desktop version aren't even known to Google and don't affect your rankings. Google doesn't penalize these differences...
Crawl & Indexing Mobile SEO
Can commodity content really survive in Google search results?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
For commodity content that anyone can reproduce (public domain poems, well-known quotes, etc.), it is crucial to provide significant unique value. Sites based solely on this type of content are in a precarious situation long-term, because major playe...
Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name
Should you isolate your FAQs on separate pages to rank better?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
Separating FAQs from main recipe pages into dedicated pages is a perfectly acceptable strategy for Google. This allows you to concentrate ranking power on the main recipe page. If the FAQ page is only linked from the recipe and not through your main ...
Domain Age & History Structured Data AI & SEO Pagination & Structure
Is Google really cutting back on FAQ rich snippets in search results, and what does that mean for your SEO strategy?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
Google has observed that many websites are adding FAQ markup to every page purely to occupy more space in search results. Google is therefore reducing the number of FAQ entries displayed in search results because it's not useful for users when every ...
Domain Age & History Structured Data AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO
Is Google really ignoring 95% of your submitted URLs—and what does that say about your content?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
When Google indexes only a tiny fraction of submitted URLs (86 out of 4,500), beyond basic technical checks, you need to seriously evaluate the site's overall quality with external people who aren't involved in its creation. Creating thousands of pag...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Domain Name
Can you host your XML sitemap on a different domain than your main website?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
It is entirely possible to host sitemap files on a different domain. Two methods work: having both domains verified in Search Console, or submitting the sitemap via robots.txt with 'sitemap:' followed by the complete URL (even on another domain). Red...
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name PDF & Files Search Console
Does server speed really impact the crawl budget of large websites?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
For very large sites, server speed plays an important role in Google's crawl capacity. If a web server is very slow, Google cannot crawl as much content. The amount of crawl affects what can be indexed, but it's not a signal that Google will rank the...
Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Web Performance
How does Google actually count impressions and clicks within People Also Ask blocks?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
When a user expands a People Also Ask section and a URL from your site appears, this counts as an impression in Search Console. If the user clicks, it counts as a click. The position displayed is that of the People Also Ask group of items, not the in...
Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console
Do links from a subdomain to the main domain carry less SEO value?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
Google does not make a marked distinction between internal and external links concerning subdomains. A link from a subdomain blog to the main domain is simply considered a link from one page to another. Google does not specifically categorize pages a...
Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name
Should you disable automatic links to boost your SEO performance?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
Massively removing internally generated automatic links will probably have an impact on rankings, but it's impossible to predict whether that impact will be positive or negative. It's recommended to crawl your site before and after making changes to ...
Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks
Can a handful of untagged affiliate links really escape Google penalties?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★
If the majority of affiliate links correctly use the rel='sponsored' or nofollow attribute, a few exceptions without these attributes won't cause problems. Google won't penalize a site having 900 well-tagged affiliate links and 2 without tagging. You...
Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks
Should you really be using canonicals on your filtered internal search pages?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
For internal search results pages with different sorts and filters, it is recommended to define a main sort order and use rel=canonical on filtered or sorted variants to point to the main version. This allows Google to focus on the priority version r...
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO
Is Google really refusing to index your pages even though they're crawled regularly and have no technical issues?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
When a page is crawled multiple times but not indexed (excluding technical errors, noindex, or duplications), it's generally related to the perceived quality of the entire site or that specific section of the site, not just the individual page. You n...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO
Do you really need to pick one primary language per page if you're targeting multiple markets?
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022 ★★★
Google tries to understand a page's primary language to determine which search queries should display it. Pages intentionally mixing multiple languages make it harder for Google to rank the page correctly. It's better to have a clearly dominant langu...
Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure International SEO
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