What does Google say about SEO?

How crucial is loading speed for SEO success?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★★

Google discovered the importance of speed by deliberately introducing a delay of a few hundred milliseconds in search results for a segment of users during an experiment. This significantly decreased revenue, demonstrating that speed is a critical fa...

AI & SEO Web Performance

How does Google really adjust its ranking algorithms for internal testing?

Gary Illyes Aug 19, 2021 ★★

Google has the technical capability to disable certain ranking components from the search results page on its internal network. This feature allows raters to compare two versions of the results: one with the tested ranking change and one without it.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Could unmoderated UGC really be blocking your SEO monetization?

Aurora Morales Aug 19, 2021 ★★

If a site contains user-generated content such as comments, those sections must be moderated in order to be monetized. Publishers are responsible for all content present on their site, including that created by users, and must actively monitor it.

Content AI & SEO

Why isn't Google the final judge for DMCA claims?

Aurora Morales Aug 19, 2021 ★★

When it comes to copyright infringements, Google receives and reviews DMCA notices and takes action if everything is in order, but it is not the final decision-maker. Affected parties can file a counter-notification, and the complainant must then pro...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Is the site: command really a reliable SEO diagnostic tool?

John Mueller Aug 17, 2021 ★★★

The site: query is not intended to be comprehensive or used for diagnostic purposes. It limits results to a specific site but does not represent a complete collection of all pages on that site.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Is it true that the site: command isn't reliable for evaluating indexing?

John Mueller Aug 17, 2021 ★★★

The number of pages displayed in a site: query doesn't necessarily reflect the actual number of pages indexed by Google. There's no need to worry about the counts shown in a site: query.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Why should you rely on Search Console instead of the site: command?

John Mueller Aug 17, 2021 ★★★

To find out how many pages Google has indexed on your site, you should use Google Search Console rather than the site: query. It is the official and reliable tool to obtain this information.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Why does Google recommend Search Console for diagnosing indexing issues?

John Mueller Aug 17, 2021 ★★★

Google Search Console is a free tool that website owners can use to gain insights into how Google Search views their site, including the number of pages currently indexed and how they appear in the results.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Should You Worry About Click Bot Traffic in Search Console?

John Mueller Aug 16, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that in the "Performance" menu of Search Console, traffic coming from click bots is not necessarily removed. Therefore, there may be "automated" traffic displayed, which can slightly skew certain data...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure Penalties & Spam Web Performance Social Media Search Console

Why Isn't Your Site Affected the Same Way by Every Google Core Update?

John Mueller Aug 16, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained during a hangout with webmasters that each "core update" has its own truth and can impact one site or another differently. Also, a site impacted by a core update will not necessarily be affected by the previous or following one...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Should You Really Optimize Your Image ALT Attributes to Improve Your SEO?

Martin Splitt Aug 16, 2021 ★★★

Martin Splitt confirmed on Twitter that the ALT attribute of image tags (no, we don't say "ALT tag" 🙂) carries weight in SEO and that this information should therefore be included in IMG tags for images that have meaning on a website...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Images & Videos Mobile SEO Social Media

Are Core Updates and Page Experience Updates Truly Independent?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★★

Core Updates relate to understanding the relevance and quality of a site's content. The Page Experience update focuses solely on Core Web Vitals and other page experience factors. These two types of updates are completely separate and have no connect...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content Links & Backlinks Web Performance

Why the 28-Day Wait to See Core Web Vitals Impact?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★★

Due to the way Google aggregates data, it takes approximately 28 days to see the impact of changes to Core Web Vitals in Search Console. To receive faster feedback, it's advisable to self-instrument the pages with JavaScript and utilize Google Analyt...

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

How do real user data insights from Google change the SEO game?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★★

Core Web Vitals data in Search Console comes from real user measurements (field data or RUM). This is what real users experience. Tools like PageSpeed Insights are lab tests that provide estimates, which is why there may be discrepancies between the ...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance Local Search Search Console

Why does Google take so long to reassess a website's quality after de-indexing?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★★

After massively de-indexing low-quality pages to improve the overall quality of a site, it takes approximately 6 months or more for Google to recalculate the site's quality. This timeframe is necessary to reindex the entire site and rebuild quality s...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Is it time to rethink your content strategy for the entire site?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★★

Google assesses the quality of a website as a whole. Improving only a small subset of pages is not sufficient for Google to consider this portion as distinct and of higher quality. The enhancement must be across the entire site to shift the overall a...

Domain Age & History

Should you rely on engagement metrics to predict your SEO performance?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★

To monitor a website's quality improvement before seeing SEO results, it's recommended to use proxy metrics such as the engagement rate in Analytics. These behavioral data serve as leading indicators, even though Google does not directly use them for...

Domain Age & History

How does Google really handle 500 errors?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★★

Google retries pages that return 500 errors. If the errors persist, Google slows down the crawling of the entire site. If 500 errors continue, Google eventually deindexes those URLs. A 500 error rate exceeding 1% is regarded as problematic and can tr...

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

How Does Google Really Handle CDNs When Facing a 504 Error?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★

Google does nothing special for 504 errors and does not automatically try to fetch from the origin server instead of the CDN. Google accesses the domain name and uses the resolved IP, without distinguishing between CDN or origin.

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

How Do Navigation Links Really Impact Your SEO?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2021 ★★★

Google counts navigation links as normal internal links. When you move links from a page to the global navigation, you distribute the value of those links across all pages that contain that navigation, which dilutes the relative strength of your main...

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