What does Google say about SEO?

Are Core Updates secretly ruining your SEO test results?

Martin Splitt Feb 09, 2022 ★★

Google's algorithm updates (Core Updates) can interfere with ongoing SEO tests, making it difficult to reliably attribute ranking changes to specific site modifications. This is an inherent reality of the ecosystem.

Algorithms AI & SEO

Should you really prioritize user experience over technical SEO optimization?

Martin Splitt Feb 09, 2022 ★★★

Although there are technical aspects to optimize for search engines, the main approach should remain user-centric. Building for users and doing what is good for them generally leads to good SEO results.

Content AI & SEO

Why doesn't a well-designed website generate any traffic without a discoverability strategy?

Martin Splitt Feb 09, 2022 ★★★

Putting a website online without a discoverability strategy is not enough to generate traffic. Users won't come automatically. You need to implement concrete actions to be found, particularly through search engines, which are the primary intuitive me...

Content AI & SEO

Do Emojis in Title Tags and Meta Descriptions Really Improve Your SEO?

John Mueller Feb 07, 2022 ★★★

John Mueller reminded during a webmaster hangout that using emojis in Title tags and meta descriptions of web pages does not help in terms of ranking in the SERPs and that, in any case, many of these characters are removed by the search engine before...

Domain Age & History Content Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO

Does Google Really Penalize Reciprocal Links?

John Mueller Feb 07, 2022 ★★★

John Mueller also reminded us during this webmaster hangout that reciprocal links ("I link to you, you link to me") are not necessarily against Google's guidelines, as is often believed. If you have a network of existing sites for reasons other than ...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam Local Search

Why Aren't Your FAQ Rich Snippets Showing Up in Google Despite Correct Implementation?

John Mueller Feb 07, 2022 ★★★

Other information provided by John Mueller in this same hangout with 3 reasons why the content of FAQPage markup on a web page does not appear in the SERPs: technical errors in the implementation of these tags (and in this case, Search Console will i...

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Local Search Search Console

Should you really remove backlinks pointing to your domain's old content?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★

It is not necessary to ask external sites to remove content about a domain's former activity. Websites evolve naturally and what worked as a link in the past may no longer work in the future without causing problems.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Why does changing only the title of copied content fool absolutely nobody?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★

Copying content from a website and simply rewriting the title is not a good practice. Changing only the title of a copied article does not make it a good article. For cases of complete copying, the DMCA process may be appropriate.

Content Discover & News AI & SEO

Does adding categories to your URLs really boost your SEO rankings?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

Adding categories to your URL structure (for example /category/article instead of /article) produces no notable SEO changes. It can make it easier to track analytics for identifying popular categories, but has no visible effect on search rankings.

Discover & News E-commerce AI & SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Why does Google crawl pages it never adds to its index?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

The statuses 'URL crawled but not indexed' and 'URL discovered but not indexed' should be treated essentially the same way. Just because Google crawled a page doesn't mean it will automatically be indexed. Google doesn't index all content.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News AI & SEO Domain Name

Should you worry about changing page titles frequently—or is Google totally fine with it?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

Changing page titles daily (for example to update prices) has no particular SEO impact. Google doesn't give special weight to titles that change frequently. The main challenge is that Google may not recrawl the page as often as the title changes.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO

Can you really erase the SEO past of a purchased domain?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

When a domain is reused for a new activity, Google organically learns over time that it's a new site and treats it accordingly. There is no specific timeframe for this transition. What matters is cleaning up manual actions and problematic links from ...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Should you really disavow links that don't match your current niche anymore?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

It's not necessary to disavow links simply because they concern an old activity or another country. Disavowal should only be used for truly problematic links (bought, manipulative). Links that are thematically different don't cause problems.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Do server errors really kill your Google rankings?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

Server connectivity problems do not affect page quality or ranking. However, if Google cannot access your robots.txt for a certain amount of time, some pages may be removed from the index. Pages are typically reindexed a few days after the problem is...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Should you include your brand name in news article titles for better search visibility?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★

For news websites, it is recommended to add the brand name in titles. Google attempts to display the site name in title links for lower-level pages, so including it yourself guarantees that this information is present.

Domain Age & History Content Links & Backlinks Local Search

Should you really be putting dates in your article titles?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★

For news articles, including the date in the title can help Google identify the primary date of the page. However, there is no particular SEO bonus to adding the date. For pages updated daily manually, it's acceptable but not critical.

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

What's the real secret to getting Google to index all your content?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

To improve indexation, you need to make it easier for Google to identify important content: create less content but of higher quality, use internal linking (especially from the homepage), acquire external backlinks, and use sitemaps and RSS feeds to ...

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

Are backlinks to your non-indexed pages really wasting your SEO potential?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

If Google decides not to index a page, it will not transfer the value of the links pointing to that page to the rest of your site. Without an indexed destination for these links, Google cannot do anything with them for the rest of your site.

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

Why Does Google Drastically Reduce Its Crawl Rate After a CDN Migration?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

When a site undergoes significant hosting changes (migration to or from a CDN), the crawl rate becomes temporarily more conservative. Google crawls less at first, then progressively increases the rate over a few weeks or a month to find a new balance...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects

Does server response time really impact your Google rankings?

John Mueller Feb 04, 2022 ★★★

Average response time affects crawl rate (Google limits active connections), but has no impact on ranking. High response time results in a lower crawl rate. Google uses the actual observed response time, not an estimate based on location.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Local Search International SEO