What does Google say about SEO?

Why does Google take time to update URLs after migrating from AMP?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★

After migrating from AMP to non-AMP, it’s normal for AMP URLs to continue showing up in mobile results for 4 weeks or more. Google has learned a matching model between AMP and non-AMP versions that takes time to update, even with redirects implemente...

AI & SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name Local Search Redirects

How can you prevent soft 404 errors from 'no results' pages?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★★

If a page shows 'no results found' at the top of the HTML (even if hidden by CSS), Google may interpret it as an empty page and generate a soft 404 error. This text should only appear during a real search, not in the default source code of product pa...

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce AI & SEO Local Search

Why does Google change your title tags without warning?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★★

Google now more frequently modifies the title tags displayed in the results. This is not a signal that the title needs to be changed by the webmaster. If Google selects a poor title, it is useful to submit examples, but it is not necessary to systema...

Content AI & SEO

Is it true that Google's recent soft 404 adjustments could change your technical SEO game?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★

About a week ago, Google disabled a system that was generating too many soft 404s. The team is working to refine this system to better detect true empty pages, especially on internal search sites.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Is it necessary to change domains after removing a large amount of content?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★★

When 75% of the content of a domain needs to be removed (with a 410 status), it's generally advisable to maintain the existing domain and clean up the content rather than migrate to a new domain. A domain change should only be considered in cases of ...

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Why does Google Images struggle with multilingual content?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★

Even with properly configured hreflang, Google Images may struggle to show the correct language version when the same images are used on multiple language variants. It is advisable to add a JavaScript banner to suggest to users that they can switch l...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Local Search International SEO

Should you be worried about multilingual text in SEO?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★

If a page in Russian contains a few small decorative images with text in German, it is generally not an issue. Google considers the page to be predominantly Russian. With a significant amount of text in another language, Google might regard it as mul...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos Local Search International SEO

Why do URLs with or without a trailing slash matter so much in SEO?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★★

Google treats URLs with a trailing slash (/) and without a trailing slash as two distinct URLs and indexes them separately. It is crucial to consistently use the same variant across all internal links, sitemaps, and canonicals to concentrate signals ...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Search Console

What could be causing your new pages to take so long to get indexed?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★★

If new WordPress pages take weeks to be indexed despite good technical accessibility, it usually signals insufficient overall site quality. Google isn't convinced about the overall quality and is holding off on indexing new content. The solution is t...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Why Doesn't Google Index All of Your Pages?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★

For most websites, Google never indexes 100% of all the pages. There is always a certain proportion of pages that are not indexed, which is normal in the functioning of Google.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Why does Google enforce strict rules on geo-blocking and crawling?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★★

Googlebot must be treated like a user from the same region. If you block users from the U.S., you must also block Googlebot that crawls from the United States. This is a Google policy regarding cloaking, even if it may seem restrictive.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Penalties & Spam

Why doesn't Google diminish the power of generic keywords across all pages?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★

Having a generic keyword like 'flags' present on every page of a site (1000 pages) does not weaken the homepage's potential for that term. Google understands that this word applies to the entire site and will choose the most relevant page (often the ...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

How can you optimize your crawl budget for expired auction pages?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2021 ★★

For an auction site with thousands of expired products, using noindex on completed auction pages and optimizing the internal linking to active auctions is a valid strategy. With 10,000-100,000 pages, there is generally no crawl budget problem, but th...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

How do Google's experiments shape your SEO strategy?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★★

Google performs a very large number of experiments each year on its search engine. Virtually every feature launch, whether it concerns ranking or user interface, requires prior experimentation. These tests validate changes before their general deploy...

How does Google evaluate user behavior during its experiments?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★★

During experiments, Google analyzes several behavioral metrics: whether users avoid certain results, how much time they spend on the results page, if they click and then go back, and the overall duration of their search session to evaluate the qualit...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

How do Google's secret tests impact your SEO strategy?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★★

Users are never notified when they are part of a search experiment. Google wants to observe their natural behavior without them altering their habits knowing they are part of a test. Any user can be part of experiments at any time.

AI & SEO

Why do some SEO experiments fail despite solid ideas?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★★

Many ideas that seem excellent in theory are ultimately abandoned after experimentation because they reduce user engagement. For instance, some labels meant to identify secure sites were tested but had a negative effect on engagement and thus were ne...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Should we rethink our SEO testing approach with Google's latest methods?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★★

Google employs two testing methods: live experiments on real user segments for adjustable interface and ranking changes, and evaluations by human raters for modifications that require a complete rebuild of the index or that would be too publicly visi...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Why does the duration of Google's SEO tests vary so much?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★

Search experiments can last from a week to several months depending on the amount of data needed to make an informed decision. Google doesn't rely on assumptions but waits to gather enough data before launching a feature.

AI & SEO

How was RankBrain tested before its official launch?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★

The RankBrain algorithm, like almost all search features launched by Google, was tested through experiments or evaluations by human raters before its public deployment. Positive test results led Google to talk about it publicly.

Algorithms AI & SEO