What does Google say about SEO?

Why use Bing to detect off-topic content penalized by Google?

John Mueller Jun 17, 2025 ★★★

A publisher of an educational site that migrated from javatpoint.com to tpointtech.com experienced a sudden traffic drop and partial de-indexing on Google. Thinking the migration was to blame, they sought help on the Bluesky network. John Mueller res...

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects Search Console

Why does Googlebot persist in crawling your deleted pages with 410 status?

John Mueller Jun 17, 2025 ★★★

A site publisher noticed a drop in visibility on Google after Googlebot made millions of requests to non-existent pages, at a level close to a DDoS attack. One example: over 2.4 million requests targeted a single URL with a ?feature parameter. Althou...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Is your crawl budget being wasted on plugin-generated URLs you don't need?

Gary Illyes Jun 12, 2025 ★★

Installing plugins like calendars can sometimes generate 100 million new URLs on a site. Googlebot will then begin crawling these URLs, which can create crawl budget problems. The responsibility lies with the site adding these URLs, not with the sear...

Crawl & Indexing Domain Name

Do you really need to master web development to succeed in SEO?

Martin Splitt Jun 12, 2025 ★★★

To deeply optimize a system the way SEOs do, it is necessary to understand certain characteristics of that system. SEOs must understand how HTTP works, what a header is, how HTTPS functions, certificates, the differences between HTTP/2 and HTTP/1.1, ...

Content HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Do you really need to master web development to excel at technical SEO?

Martin Splitt Jun 12, 2025 ★★

While some SEO specialists in specific domains like international content may not need deep technical knowledge, generalist SEOs and particularly technical SEOs should understand the aspects of web development.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name International SEO

Does Google really prioritize user experience over everything else in its ranking algorithm?

Martin Splitt Jun 12, 2025 ★★

Google's agenda as a search engine is to build the best possible search engine. To achieve this, Google wants the web to be accessible, fast, and pleasant to use for users.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Is cutting back on JavaScript really the secret to better SEO performance?

Martin Splitt Jun 12, 2025 ★★★

If you can avoid JavaScript for what you're doing, you absolutely should. However, JavaScript remains necessary for certain features like enabling a website to work offline. This recommendation is highly context-dependent.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Search Console

Why is applying the same SEO recommendations to every website a strategic mistake?

Martin Splitt Jun 12, 2025 ★★★

A site serving a specific niche with regulated content in a single country will have vastly different needs than a multinational multilingual brand. SEO recommendations must be tailored to the specific context rather than applied blindly across the b...

Content International SEO

Can Ads Really Appear in Multiple Spots Within Google's AI Overviews?

Google Jun 03, 2025 ★★★

Google has clarified that ads cannot appear simultaneously in multiple placements within AI Overviews. According to Ginny Marvin from Google's Ads Liaison, an ad can display either above/below or inside AI Overviews, but never in both locations at th...

AI & SEO Local Search

Should You Stop Using Google's Indexing API to Speed Up Your Pages' Ranking?

John Mueller Jun 03, 2025 ★★★

On Bluesky, John Mueller once again explained that the Indexing API should only be used for two types of content: job postings and live streams. John Mueller emphasized that many SEOs, often spammers, are misusing this API for other unsupported purpo...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files Penalties & Spam

How Can You Protect Your Site from AI Agent Saturation?

Gary Illyes Jun 03, 2025 ★★★

Gary Illyes warns about the massive influx of AI-powered bots, which threatens to saturate the web. According to him, it's not the crawling that consumes the most resources, but the processing and storage of data. He recommends that site owners stren...

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

Has Googlebot Really Evolved Technically Without Changing Its Core Crawling Principles?

Gary Illyes Jun 03, 2025 ★★★

Gary Illyes discussed the evolution of Googlebot in the Search Off the Record podcast. While the basic principles of crawling have changed little, notable technical improvements have taken place, such as the transition to HTTP/2 protocols (and soon H...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Has Google really been respecting robots.txt since day one?

Gary Illyes May 29, 2025 ★★★

Since Google's very beginning, robots.txt has been supported. Regardless of the crawling technology used, Google has always allowed site owners to opt-out of crawling via the robots exclusion protocol.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Why do all Google crawlers rely on the same unified crawl infrastructure?

Gary Illyes May 29, 2025 ★★★

Google uses a unified crawl infrastructure for all its products. All Google crawlers share the same codebase and apply identical policies regarding robots.txt, server load management, and bandwidth usage.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing E-commerce Pagination & Structure Social Media

Does Google really slow down its crawl to protect your servers?

Gary Illyes May 29, 2025 ★★★

Google has a system that monitors server health and automatically slows down the crawl if the server becomes overloaded. The goal is to adjust the crawl rate so as not to harm sites.

Crawl & Indexing

Why has Google multiplied its crawlers since the arrival of Mediapartners-Google?

Gary Illyes May 29, 2025 ★★

In 2006, Google AdSense introduced its own distinct user agent separate from Googlebot. From this period onwards, Google began to have increasingly more separate crawlers with their own identifiers.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does Google really ignore robots.txt when users take action?

Gary Illyes May 29, 2025 ★★

When an action is initiated directly by a user (such as manually submitting a URL for inspection), it may be appropriate to ignore robots.txt because it's not truly a robot but a specific user action.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console

Does Google's Live Test Tool Actually Crawl Your Site in Real Time?

Gary Illyes May 29, 2025 ★★

The Live Test tool in Search Console uses a high-priority real crawler, while property verification of the site is user-triggered and works almost instantly without any crawl delay.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Does Googlebot really support HTTP/3 for crawling your website?

Gary Illyes May 29, 2025 ★★

Googlebot currently supports HTTP/2 for more efficient crawling using streamed connections. HTTP/3 is not yet supported but could be in the future.

Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO

Is Google Really Crawling Less of the Web, and Should You Worry About It?

Gary Illyes May 29, 2025 ★★

Last year, Google actively worked to reduce its footprint on the internet by optimizing its crawling requests to save resources.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO