What does Google say about SEO?

How can you ensure Google doesn't overlook your local sites due to duplicate content?

John Mueller Sep 10, 2021 ★★★

For separate sites with the same content (e.g., elbow surgery in New York vs Houston), even on different domains, Google may consider 90% of the page as identical and only index one version. For competitive local queries, make sure the content is gen...

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

How can flexible sampling improve your SEO for restricted content?

John Mueller Sep 10, 2021 ★★★

For partially accessible content behind a login, use flexible sampling structured data markup. You can specify through CSS selectors which parts are restricted and dynamically serve a slightly different version to Googlebot. Google will index with th...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO PDF & Files

How do Google's automated crawlers shape your SEO strategy?

Gary Illyes Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

Google is a fully automated search engine that constantly uses web crawlers to explore the internet in search of sites to add to its index. The vast majority of websites are not manually submitted but are found and automatically added during the craw...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

How can the robots.txt file help you optimize your site's crawl budget?

Gary Illyes Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

The robots.txt file is useful for managing crawl budget. If you have a section of your site that you consider of little value or URL patterns that are different versions of the same content, you can use the disallow rules in robots.txt to control the...

Content Crawl & Indexing Domain Name PDF & Files

Why shouldn't you rely on robots.txt to protect your sensitive content?

Lizzi Sassman Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

A robots.txt file is not an appropriate or effective method for blocking sensitive or confidential content. It does not prevent your server from delivering those pages to a browser that requests them. Furthermore, a curious user can examine the direc...

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

Why Does Google Treat Social Media Links as Nofollow?

Gary Illyes Sep 09, 2021 ★★

Google is capable of identifying social media sites and marking all links coming from these sites as nofollow on its end, even if these sites use dofollow links. It would be quite surprising for a large social network site to exist with dofollow link...

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Social Media

How is Mobile-First Indexing Revolutionizing SEO?

Gary Illyes Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

Starting in late 2016, Google began experimenting with using primarily the mobile version of a site's content for ranking, crawling, structured data, and generating snippets. Having a mobile-ready site has become crucial for your online presence.

Content Crawl & Indexing Mobile SEO

How Do Titles and Meta Descriptions Really Impact SEO Traffic?

Gary Illyes Sep 09, 2021 ★★

Title tags and meta descriptions are useful for drawing highly targeted visitors to your site. What you write in the title tag and meta description can actually appear in the search results as presented, and this changes the type of visitors you rece...

Content AI & SEO

Is it true that Google can change site titles in the SERPs?

Gary Illyes Sep 09, 2021 ★★

Google can automatically add the site name it determines for your site in search results, even if you have already included it in your title tag. This can result in a duplication of the site name in the SERPs.

Content Featured Snippets & SERP

Is it true that creating valuable content is the most powerful SEO factor?

Lizzi Sassman Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

Creating compelling and useful content will likely impact your website more than all the other discussed SEO factors. Organic buzz or word-of-mouth helps build your site's reputation with users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.

Content AI & SEO

How does writing for users enhance your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

It is essential to focus on writing for users, not for search engines. Google’s machine learning algorithms are evolving to understand natural text and the actual meaning conveyed by a piece of text, beyond mere keyword matching.

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Should You Stop Chasing Every Google Algorithm Update?

Michael Wyszomierski Sep 09, 2021 ★★

If you build websites that users appreciate by following the basic principles, you won't have to constantly chase every new ranking factor. Search engines will eventually catch up with you because you are pursuing the same goal as the algorithms: sat...

Algorithms AI & SEO

Does the age of a domain truly impact SEO?

Gary Illyes Sep 09, 2021 ★★

When the value of domain age in Google search was raised ironically, Gary Illyes responded negatively, indicating that domain age is not used as a ranking factor.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Is lazy loading truly beneficial for your SEO?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

Lazy loading can be used without violating Google's guidelines. For images and iframes, use the loading='lazy' attribute. For other content, utilize the Intersection Observer along with a structured paginated URL format to ensure indexing.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Images & Videos Domain Name Pagination & Structure Web Performance

Why should you prioritize server-side rendering for SEO?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

For new projects, favor server-side rendering over dynamic rendering. This provides advantages to users as browsers quickly parse the initial HTML, unlike JavaScript content that requires prior downloading and execution.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Why should you steer clear of dynamic rendering in SEO?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

Dynamic rendering is not a violation of cloaking, but it is still discouraged as it adds technical complexity and risks of failure. It's better to prefer server-side rendering, which also benefits users by making content available in the initial HTML...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Is it essential to paginate URLs for infinite scrolling?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

For infinite scroll content using Intersection Observer, provide a structured set of URLs with pagination (slash-1, slash-2 or ?page=1, ?page=2) and include these URLs in the sitemap to ensure full indexing and visibility.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Domain Name Pagination & Structure Search Console

Does Googlebot Really Crawl Mainly from the USA?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2021 ★★

The majority of Googlebot's visits come from the United States. For geo-dependent content loaded via JavaScript, keep in mind that Googlebot will see the American version of the content.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Why does Googlebot disregard personalization and private content?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2021 ★★★

Googlebot is not logged into websites and behaves like a user who has never visited the site. Content that relies on personalization or is behind a login will not be visible to Googlebot.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

How is the Core Web Vitals report from Search Console transforming the way we identify slow pages?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2021 ★★

In Search Console, the Core Web Vitals report shows which pages are slow. For pages with insufficient data, use PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to identify excessive JavaScript.

Domain Age & History JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Search Console