What does Google say about SEO?

What happens when a 503 code lasts too long – does Google actually deindex your site?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★★

For a website outage lasting more than a few days, the 503 code does not safeguard your indexing. After a few days, Google views this as permanent and removes the pages from its index. For long-planned outages, it's better to create a static version ...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing

How does AdsBot affect your site's crawling budget?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★★

The AdsBot robot shares the same crawling budget as Googlebot. An increase in AdsBot requests can reduce Googlebot's crawling of normal pages. This situation usually stabilizes quickly after new advertising campaigns are verified.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Pagination & Structure Social Media

Does the 304 code really impact your crawl budget?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★

A 304 response (not modified) does not count against the crawl budget. Google can reuse this request to crawl something else on the site. The 304 code helps Google understand how often pages are updated without decreasing the overall crawl rate.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Do mass 301 redirects really harm SEO?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★★

A large number of 301 redirects is not harmful to a site. If you are making changes to your site that require redirects, it is perfectly acceptable, regardless of the number of redirects.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure Redirects

Can multiple identical language versions actually hurt your SEO?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★★

Creating numerous country versions for the same language (for example, several nearly identical English versions) complicates indexing and ranking. Google treats them as duplicate content. It's better to start with a single English version and a few ...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO International SEO

Why Does Restructuring Internal URLs Take More Time Than a Domain Migration?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★★

Changing the internal URL structure of a site takes significantly longer than a complete domain migration. Google needs to reprocess the entire site and understand the context of each page. This leads to fluctuations for a minimum of one month, often...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Redirects

Is it true that redirecting old image URLs is essential after an SEO migration?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★

Embedded images are often forgotten during migrations. Without redirecting old image URLs, Google has to find and re-index them, which takes a considerable amount of time. Setting up these redirects remains relevant even several weeks after migration...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos Domain Name Redirects

Should you really worry about different navigation for mobile and desktop in responsive design?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★

Having different navigation for mobile and desktop within the same HTML (responsive) is a common and acceptable configuration. While it's not optimal due to the need to maintain two versions, it isn’t penalizing and does not require urgent fixing.

AI & SEO Mobile SEO Pagination & Structure

Is it true that deleting low-traffic pages can really enhance your SEO?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★

Deleting a few hundred old pages from a larger site is probably not going to have a significant SEO impact, unless those pages are of very low quality. The absence of traffic does not mean a page is bad: it may have seasonal or rare traffic that is s...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Do URL parameters on images really hinder SEO?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★

Adding query parameters to image URLs (for cache invalidation, for instance) does not have a negative effect on SEO. However, frequently changing image URLs slows down their reindexing because Google processes them less often than HTML.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos Domain Name Web Performance

Is it true that 'discovered and not indexed' signals a quality issue for a site?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★★

For a reasonably sized site (25,000 pages), if the right URLs are showing up en masse as 'discovered and not indexed' rather than 'crawled and not indexed', it likely indicates a broader quality issue for the site instead of a crawl budget problem.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name

Should you really add text to enhance the indexing of numerical data?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★

For pages that mainly feature numerical data, adding descriptive text will not impact how Google crawls and indexes those pages. Numbers are regarded as unique content. Indexing instead relies on the unique value provided to users.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing

Can publishing 30 articles truly establish your site as an SEO authority?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★

Creating 30 blog articles does not automatically make a site authoritative, particularly on sensitive subjects like health. For small businesses or one-page sites, it’s not necessary to be perceived as an authority to perform well in search.

Domain Age & History Discover & News AI & SEO

How unpredictable is Google Discover for your SEO strategy?

John Mueller Dec 10, 2021 ★★★

Google Discover is very binary: you either get a lot of traffic or very little. One should not depend on Discover as a primary traffic source, as this can change rapidly. Core Updates and Discover content rules (clickbait, adult content) can signific...

Algorithms Content Discover & News AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

How is inclusive language affecting SEO indexing?

Bruno Cartoni Dec 07, 2021 ★★★

Google has started collaborating with the Search Ranking team to explore how new inclusive writing practices are managed at the indexing and ranking levels.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO International SEO

How does Google's automatic keyword expansion affect your SEO strategy?

John Mueller Dec 07, 2021 ★★

Google may automatically expand certain words into appropriate variations during indexing by removing punctuation if it does not serve as a natural word boundary but rather as an indicator of different versions.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

How does Google enhance search queries with synonyms and variations?

John Mueller Dec 07, 2021 ★★★

Google automatically expands queries based on known synonyms, abbreviations, and different versions of words. These systems adapt automatically when new synonyms are used by users.

AI & SEO

Why is Google being vague about inclusive writing?

Zineb Ait Bahajji Dec 07, 2021 ★★★

There are currently no official recommendations from Google on how inclusive writing should be practiced. It is not Google's role to dictate how content should be written.

Content AI & SEO

Is it really necessary to write naturally to boost your SEO?

Bruno Cartoni Dec 07, 2021 ★★

The only recommendation Google can give is to write in the most natural way for you and ensure your text is easily readable.

Content

Do search engines really need to align with natural web writing?

Zineb Ait Bahajji Dec 07, 2021 ★★★

Search engines should adjust to how people write online. If it feels natural to the content creator, search engines must adapt to it.

Content AI & SEO