What does Google say about SEO?

Could continuous scrolling be affecting your CTR?

John Mueller Nov 17, 2021 ★★★

Continuous scrolling on mobile across multiple result pages likely increases the number of impressions. This surge can sometimes lead to a decrease in the overall click-through rate in Search Console reports.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Mobile SEO Search Console

Why is Google finally paying attention to e-commerce sites?

John Mueller Nov 17, 2021 ★★

Google has added a comprehensive guide for e-commerce sites that includes appropriate structured data, interactions with Google Merchant Center, URL structuring ideas, and methods for launching a new website.

E-commerce Domain Name Pagination & Structure PDF & Files

Why should you steer clear of significant SEO changes before the holidays?

John Mueller Nov 17, 2021 ★★

It is not recommended to make significant changes to your site right before the holiday period. It is better to plan these adjustments for the long term.

Why is the update to the Quality Raters Guide crucial for SEO?

John Mueller Nov 17, 2021 ★★

Google has released an updated Quality Raters Guide, which is used by raters to assess potential algorithm changes. Quality raters do not create search results but provide valuable insights to improve algorithms.

Algorithms AI & SEO

How Can Various SEO Strategies All Lead to Success?

John Mueller Nov 17, 2021 ★

There are many different approaches in SEO that can lead to success. Websites can focus on different aspects and still achieve similar rankings while remaining unique. It's important to keep an eye on what others are doing from time to time.

AI & SEO

Should You Really Optimize Your Site for Voice Search in 2024?

Martin Splitt Nov 15, 2021 ★★★

Martin Splitt shared his perspective on voice search during a Search off the record podcast: "Oh my God, the future that will never be. (...) I think in the future, it won't change (...). Simply because it changes the input modality, and it probably ...

Domain Age & History Discover & News AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

Is it true that Google prioritizes its own platforms in search rankings?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

Google does not apply any automatic bias favoring pages hosted on the Chrome Web Store in search results. The team explicitly tries to prevent content from being automatically ranked higher simply because it is hosted on a Google platform.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Should you split your backlinks between two different URLs?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

Having two distinct URLs for the same content (for example, a dedicated site and a page on the Chrome Store) effectively divides the value of backlinks between these two pages. However, the advantage of having two potential presences in the search re...

Domain Age & History Content Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Why doesn't Google automatically hide Chrome extension pages on mobile?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★

Google does not have an algorithm that would automatically hide all Chrome extension pages from mobile search results, even if these extensions do not function on mobile. It's easy to verify this by searching for a popular extension from a mobile dev...

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name Web Performance

Does Google really slow down crawling on pages that are in prolonged no-index?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

When a page remains in no-index for an extended period, Google significantly slows down the crawling of that page. Once the page becomes indexable again, active resumption of crawling is required, which may take several weeks before returning to norm...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

How can temporary internal linking boost your reindexing speed?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

To speed up the reindexing of important pages, temporarily creating internal links from very significant pages (like the homepage) signals to Google that these pages are a priority and triggers faster crawling. This linking can be removed once normal...

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

Is it true that changing your URL could cost you valuable SEO data?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

Changing URLs to force reindexing results in a complete loss of all historical information tied to the old URLs. Google no longer recognizes if there was a no-index tag, nor does it retain any data about those pages. This method is therefore risky an...

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

Can canonical and hreflang tags actually work together on the same page?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

A page can perfectly have both a canonical tag pointing to itself and alternate hreflang tags pointing to other language versions. The canonical tag confirms that this page is the preferred version, while the alternate tags indicate the variations in...

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

Why should you avoid using canonicals between language versions?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

The canonical tag should never point from one language version to another (for example, from the French page to the English page) because these are fundamentally different pages. Each language version can and should be canonical for itself.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

How do you choose between no-index and canonical for an effective SEO strategy?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

The choice between no-index and canonical depends on the intent: use no-index if you absolutely want to prevent the content from appearing in search results, and canonical if you want to consolidate the content on a preferred page while accepting tha...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Should you combine no-index and canonical tags to enhance your SEO signals?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

It is possible and even beneficial to combine no-index and canonical on the same page. This helps Google understand that the page should not be indexed while transferring certain signals (like external backlinks) to the specified canonical page.

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

Why does the crawl rate take longer to recover than to decline?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

Google's systems are very responsive in reducing the crawl rate when response time problems occur, but they are much slower to restore it once the problem is fixed. Generally, you need to wait a week or more after improving response times to see the ...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you use the form to boost your crawl rate?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★

For significant sites that have improved their response times, there is a form in the Search Console help center that allows you to request that the Googlebot team manually increase the crawl rate. This option is faster than automatic adjustments but...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Why is a 500-millisecond response time essential for effective SEO crawling?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

A server response time of 500 milliseconds is generally good for crawling medium-sized sites. For very large sites with millions of URLs, an even faster response time is recommended to allow for efficient crawling.

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

Why doesn't a reduced crawl rate from Google lead to the deindexing of your pages?

John Mueller Nov 12, 2021 ★★★

If Google reduces the crawl frequency of a site, it does not cause the deindexing of already indexed pages. Pages do not expire just because they are not recrawled. Therefore, a decline in indexed pages has other causes, usually related to the percei...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO