What does Google say about SEO?

Should you worry about price impacting your SEO strategy?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2021 ★★★

From a web search perspective, Google does not recognize the price of a product and does not use it as a ranking factor. A cheaper product will not rank better. However, in product results (Google Shopping), price may be taken into account.

E-commerce JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should you really use nofollow links in guest posts?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2021 ★★★

Google's recommendations for links in guest posts are that they should be nofollow. If you're writing guest posts to build awareness, the links should be nofollow as they essentially serve as advertising for your business.

Links & Backlinks

Do sitemaps really influence your SEO ranking?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2021 ★★

There is nothing in the sitemap system that influences the quality of a site. Sitemaps have no effect on the site's ranking.

Crawl & Indexing PDF & Files Search Console

How can you effectively optimize multi-regional content with canonical URLs?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2021 ★★★

For identical content published in multiple regions with the same language, it is essential to use canonical URLs to avoid self-competition. Choose a preferred version for each article to concentrate all signals. The choice of the canonical region is...

Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News Domain Name International SEO

Is it true that there's no sandbox effect when migrating a site?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2021 ★★★

There is no such thing as a sandbox effect during a site migration. When Google detects that a site is redirecting all its pages to a new domain, the systems try to process this faster to expedite the migration, not slow it down.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects

Do cached pages really influence your SEO?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2021 ★★

Cached pages are completely separate from indexing and ranking. Whether a cached page exists or not has no bearing on ranking or indexing. The cache is just a copy of the HTML file, not the rendered version.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing PDF & Files Web Performance

How Does Noindex Really Affect Your Link Signals?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★★

When a page is marked as noindex, Google may initially process the links on that page before completely removing it from the index. There exists a transitional state where the page can be marked as canonical but noindex, creating a placeholder that a...

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

Is Noindex Enough, or Should You Use Noindex+Nofollow to Block SEO Signals?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★★

The difference between noindex alone and noindex+nofollow is minimal for Google. With just noindex, Google does not index the pages and generally does not see the links. Noindex+nofollow ensures that no link signal is passed at all. For social networ...

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

How can you swiftly remove a subdomain from Google's index?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★★

To quickly remove a mistakenly indexed staging subdomain, the best approach is to use the URL removal tool in Search Console at the domain/subdomain level. It operates in about half a day and temporarily removes the URLs from search results (for arou...

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

Could showing less content to Google actually enhance your SEO?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★★

Showing less content to Googlebot than to users is acceptable. The problem arises only if you show MORE to Googlebot, as this creates a misleading promise in search results. Hiding certain elements like navigation filters from bots is not an issue, a...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Penalties & Spam Web Performance

How does Google decide what type of content to display?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★

Google attempts to determine what type of content to display (web, images, videos, books) based on search intent. For certain highly specific product queries, systems may decide not to show videos even if they exist, as users are looking for product ...

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data E-commerce AI & SEO Images & Videos Local Search

How does Google actually monitor cloaking?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★

Google does not systematically monitor cloaking on a large scale by comparing content across different user agents. Checks are conducted through sampling. Google sometimes uses other user agents (similar to browsers) solely to detect malware and mali...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Penalties & Spam

What happens when you shift from formal to informal language in your content?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★

Transforming all the content of a website from formal address to informal (from 'Sie' to 'Du' in German) is not an SEO issue at all. Google simply recognizes that the text has changed and reindexes the new content. The systems do not differentiate be...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you really worry about bad backlinks?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★

Spammy or low-quality links pointing to a site are automatically ignored by Google. The disavow tool still exists in Search Console, but in the vast majority of cases, it is not necessary to use it as Google automatically filters these links.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam Search Console

Should you choose domain verification or individual properties in Search Console?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★

For new domains, verifying at the domain level is usually sufficient. However, it's advisable to also add individual variants (http/https) because some older Search Console tools (like URL parameters and geographical targeting) still require properti...

Domain Age & History HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Search Console

Could the combination of HTTP/HTTPS actually stem from Google My Business?

John Mueller Oct 07, 2021 ★★

If a homepage appears in HTTP but the sitelinks are in HTTPS despite correct canonicalization and 301 redirects in place for a long time, it may stem from an outdated URL in the Google My Business profile. It's important to verify and update the URL ...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Local Search Redirects

Is Page Experience really an essential SEO lever?

Patrick Kettner Oct 05, 2021 ★★★

Page Experience is just one of the many signals used by Google Search in its ranking algorithm. There isn't really a passing or failing score; it's simply a number used to compare similar sites in order to determine which one potentially offers a bet...

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Why does each page have its own independent LCP score?

Patrick Kettner Oct 05, 2021 ★★

Every page on your website has its own LCP score. Your homepage may have a poor LCP while your product or article pages could achieve excellent results. No page impacts the performance of others concerning this metric.

Domain Age & History Discover & News E-commerce Web Performance Search Console

Why is aiming for a Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds crucial for SEO?

Patrick Kettner Oct 05, 2021 ★★★

A good goal to aim for is to have your Largest Contentful Paint occur in less than 2.5 seconds for at least 75% of the sessions on your page. This is the threshold recommended by Google for a good user experience.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Web Performance

Why are Google’s LCP scores derived from real users?

Patrick Kettner Oct 05, 2021 ★★★

LCP results are generated and collected from people who are actually using your site. If you see that your page has an LCP of one second, that’s what your real users are experiencing when they visit your site.

Domain Age & History Web Performance