What does Google say about SEO?

Should you embrace experimentation to unlock your SEO potential?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★★

Martin Splitt strongly endorses the "test and learn" approach in SEO. He compares this method to software development where engineers build prototypes and experiment when they don't know the exact solution.

AI & SEO

Should SEOs be comfortable admitting when they don't have all the answers?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★

Martin Splitt encourages SEOs to admit when they don't know an answer, the way developers do. This honest approach followed by a proposal to test is more productive and strengthens credibility with technical teams.

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Does eliminating redirect chains really protect your crawl budget from wasting resources?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★

Jenn Mathews and Martin Splitt confirm that redirect chains are problematic. The example given shows that having 850,000 pages with multiple redirects is not optimal and requires technical corrections.

Domain Age & History Content Redirects

Is the impact/effort matrix really the key to prioritizing your SEO tasks effectively?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★

Martin Splitt recommends that SEOs use an impact/effort matrix to prioritize technical requests. High-impact, low-effort tasks should be prioritized to facilitate collaboration with developers.

Content AI & SEO

Does Google really push algorithm updates every single minute?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★

Jenn Mathews mentions and Martin Splitt confirms that Google deploys algorithm updates very frequently, sometimes every minute, reflecting a modern agile development approach.

Algorithms

Should you really integrate SEO from the development phase to avoid costly fixes later?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★★

Martin Splitt approves the idea of "mitigation" where technical teams integrate best SEO practices (correct redirects, optimal structure) from the development phase, before launch, thus reducing the need for later corrections.

Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Redirects

Can SEO pages without real user value still rank in Google?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★★

Jenn Mathews explains and Martin Splitt confirms that pages created for SEO must genuinely serve users, otherwise they won't rank. Google detects pages created purely to manipulate rankings without user value.

Domain Age & History

Does having multiple URLs for the same content really trigger a Google penalty?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★★

Martin Splitt indicates that the idea that having multiple URLs pointing to the same content would result in a Google penalty is a myth. He mentions this as an example of unrealistic beliefs that SEO professionals should abandon.

Content AI & SEO Domain Name

Why does Google refuse to reveal the complete formula behind its ranking algorithm?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★

Jenn Mathews and Martin Splitt confirm that Google does not disclose the complete formula of its ranking algorithm. SEOs must work with hypotheses based on experience and adopt a test and learn approach.

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Should SEOs dictate technical solutions to developers, or simply expose the SEO problems they've identified?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★★

Martin Splitt advises SEOs to present identified problems to developers rather than imposing technical solutions. This collaborative approach makes it possible to find the best solution adapted to the existing technical architecture.

Content Pagination & Structure

Does choosing between 301 and 302 redirects really impact your Google rankings?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★

In the example provided, Martin Splitt and Jenn Mathews confirm that the type of redirect (temporary 302 vs permanent 301) is important and must be chosen correctly based on the redirect's intention.

AI & SEO Redirects

Is developing content that remains invisible to search engines really worth your time and effort?

Martin Splitt Jan 26, 2022 ★★

Martin Splitt explains that SEO serves to give visibility to developers' work. If no one discovers the software through search engines, the development effort loses a large portion of its potential impact.

Content AI & SEO

Does Google Really Use the Same Algorithm for All Languages?

John Mueller Jan 24, 2022 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Reddit that Google uses "most of the time" the same search algorithms for all languages, but that certain languages require a specific algorithm to process them. For example, some languages do not separate words with spaces....

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

Should You Avoid Special Characters in Faceted Filter URLs?

John Mueller Jan 24, 2022 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it wasn't a good idea to create URLs with non-standard characters for faceted filters. Therefore, it's not recommended to use commas or parentheses in this type of URL. It's better to stick to the classic struct...

Content AI & SEO Domain Name Social Media

Do internal links in the header or footer really have less SEO value?

John Mueller Jan 21, 2022 ★★★

There is no quantifiable difference between internal links placed in the header, footer, or content. Google does not make any particular distinction based on the location of internal links on the page.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Does Google really penalize a website that buys links in bulk?

John Mueller Jan 21, 2022 ★★★

Google will not remove a site from search results simply because it buys links. Algorithms seek to identify and ignore or reduce the weight of poor-quality links. A site can rank well despite paid links if other factors are solid.

Algorithms AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Do you really need technical perfection to rank well on Google?

John Mueller Jan 21, 2022 ★★

Google uses many different factors in its algorithms. A site doesn't need to be perfect on all these factors to rank well. Errors on one factor can be compensated by strong results on others.

Algorithms AI & SEO

Does Google really crawl your site less when it perceives low quality?

John Mueller Jan 21, 2022 ★★★

Google doesn't crawl all web content and must prioritize. Crawl frequency reflects the overall quality perception of a site. If algorithms aren't convinced of quality, fewer pages will be crawled and indexed.

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Should you worry when the number of indexed pages drops?

John Mueller Jan 21, 2022 ★★

A decrease in the number of indexed pages is not always a real problem. It can reflect technical cleanup, such as the removal of pages with accidentally indexed parameters. You need to analyze the actual impact on traffic.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Can you really control which images Google displays in your search snippets?

John Mueller Jan 21, 2022 ★★★

The images displayed in organic search result snippets are not based on any particular markup. Google automatically selects images from the page according to its algorithms. You cannot control which images appear, except by using the noimageindex tag...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos