What does Google say about SEO?

Why does the robots.txt file require exact URLs?

John Mueller Sep 28, 2021 ★★★

The robots.txt file uses exact URLs. If you have entries that refer to a specific version of a URL, they will not apply to other versions of that URL.

Crawl & Indexing Domain Name PDF & Files

How can internal linking shape your SEO strategy?

John Mueller Sep 28, 2021 ★★

Using internal linking to create links to a consistent version of your URLs helps clarify your preferences to search engines.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Pagination & Structure

How does the canonical tag really impact your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 28, 2021 ★★★

Adding a link rel="canonical" element helps to confirm your preferred URL and encourages search engines to focus on this specific version.

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

Should you really worry about case sensitivity in URLs for SEO?

John Mueller Sep 28, 2021 ★★

Case sensitivity (uppercase/lowercase) does matter for URLs. It's a good practice to be consistent in their usage, even though it's generally not critical for a website. Issues related to this are rare.

Domain Name

How Does Google Really Evaluate Category, Filter, and Tag Pages?

John Mueller Sep 27, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained during a webmaster hangout that Google doesn't specifically differentiate or treat category pages, filter pages (facets), internal search engine results pages, or tag pages differently from other pages. He added that it's not t...

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News E-commerce AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Should You Really Add Descriptive Text to Your Category Pages?

John Mueller Sep 27, 2021 ★★

A few days ago, John Mueller indicated that it was important for a category page to have explanatory text about the list of products it offered. And so, as usual it must be said, he explained more or less the opposite recently during a video hangout....

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News E-commerce AI & SEO

Do Mobile Interstitials Actually Block Your Pages from Being Indexed?

John Mueller Sep 27, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that mobile interstitials (which Google has condemned since 2017) generally don't cause indexing issues, but can instead trigger ranking position losses in the search engine.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO Local Search Social Media

How does Google leverage title and anchor text to interpret your links?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★

Google utilizes both the title attribute and anchor text in conjunction to understand links. If the title contains information that is missing in the anchor text, it should function properly.

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Does Googlebot Really Ignore Cookies?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★★

Googlebot cannot use cookies and therefore does not see personalized content based on cookies. It always sees the same content as a user without cookies.

Content Crawl & Indexing

How does search intent impact your SEO rankings?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★★

Google seeks to understand the intent behind a query to determine whether the user is looking for information about a product or intends to make a purchase. This influences the type of pages displayed in the results.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO

How Do Internal Links Affect Google's Perception?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★★

Internal linking helps indicate to Google which pages are important. Pages linked from the homepage are treated as almost as important as the homepage itself, and the value then gradually spreads.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

How does Google's Page Experience Update really impact your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★★

The rollout of the Page Experience Update occurred gradually from July to the end of August, page by page. Therefore, traffic changes are gradual, not sudden. A sharp drop on the day of the announcement is likely not related to this update.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Should you focus on creating strong pages instead of numerous ones in SEO?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★★

Creating fewer but stronger pages is generally better when competition is high. With too many pages, the value becomes more dispersed. It's better to start with fewer, very solid pages.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

How does Core Web Vitals evolve automatically for SEO?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★★

Improvements to Core Web Vitals are taken into account automatically and progressively. There's no need to wait for a major update. Data in Search Console has a delay of 28 days.

AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Should you really be concerned about the canonical element for every site?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★

The canonical element is important when multiple URLs display the same content (tracking URLs, etc.). For a typical site, it's not critical but it's a good practice. There is no direct SEO bonus.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Local Search

Should you really worry about migrating between subdomains?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★

Switching from one subdomain to another on the same domain is relatively simple and should take about a week for a medium-sized site, provided that the redirects are set up correctly.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects

How can you ensure date consistency in your search results?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★

To ensure that Google displays the correct publication date, it must be consistent between the structured data and the visible text on the page. Relative formats such as '10 minutes ago' cannot be easily compared.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Local Search

Does Google really filter out spam traffic in Core Web Vitals?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★

Google filters out typical spam traffic from the data in the Chrome User Experience Report used for Core Web Vitals. This type of traffic should not cause any issues.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam Web Performance

Is it true that EAT isn't a direct technical factor in SEO?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★★

EAT is not a technical score or a direct ranking factor based on specific elements. It is a concept from the Quality Rater Guidelines that influences the overall improvement of algorithms.

Algorithms Content

Is it true that Googlebot skips CAPTCHAs?

John Mueller Sep 26, 2021 ★★★

Googlebot does not complete any CAPTCHAs, even those from Google. If the content requires completing a CAPTCHA to be visible, it will not be accessible to Googlebot. Serving the full content to Googlebot while asking users for a CAPTCHA is acceptable...

Content Crawl & Indexing Pagination & Structure