What does Google say about SEO?

How does HTTPS really impact your SEO?

Gary Illyes Jul 06, 2021 ★★

The HTTPS ranking boost is still applied but designed to have minimal impact. It primarily serves as an equality breaker when two pages have very similar scores, thus favoring the HTTPS version.

Domain Age & History HTTPS & Security AI & SEO

Why are ranking scores relative to a specific set of results?

Gary Illyes Jul 06, 2021 ★★

Ranking scores are relative to the specific set of results for a query, not to the overall index. A score of 0.76 can be the best score for a given set of results.

Crawl & Indexing

Does Google Really Use the Concept of Authority at the Individual Page Level?

John Mueller Jul 05, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google's relevance algorithm does not use a notion of "authority" for an individual web page. Be careful not to confuse authority with popularity, which is calculated based on inbound links and is reflected in a...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Social Media Search Console

Where Should You Actually Place Keywords in Long-Form Content for Google to Understand Them?

John Mueller Jul 05, 2021 ★★★

A user asked John Mueller during a webmaster hangout about the best way to position important keywords in very long text (for example, 20,000 words) so that Google understands what the content is about. John Mueller's answer: the "strategic" placemen...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos

Is it true that hreflang works without a generic version for each language?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

For hreflang, a generic language version (like .eu for German) is sufficient if you are targeting a language rather than a specific country. Hreflang does not improve rankings in a given country; it simply ensures that the correct language version is...

International SEO

Could third-party embeds be jeopardizing your SEO performance?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★★

Google does not have any special treatment for third-party content providers like Twitter regarding Core Web Vitals. If embeds are causing performance issues, it is up to site owners to find technical solutions (such as setting min/max heights in CSS...

Content AI & SEO Web Performance Social Media Search Console

How can you reverse a 301 redirect without any hassle?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★★

To undo a mistakenly set 301 redirect, simply delete the redirect and revert the page to a 200 status. No special action is required, similar to fixing an accidental 404 error. SEO signals will naturally rebuild themselves.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Redirects

Why does HTTPS continue to be an isolated factor in Page Experience?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

The HTTPS signal functions parallel to the Page Experience signal. A page with HTTPS but poor Core Web Vitals retains the HTTPS benefit, even if it does not take full advantage of the Page Experience signal.

Domain Age & History HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Web Performance

Why doesn't Google acknowledge when site migrations are complete?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

Google does not have an internal status indicating that a site migration is completely finished. Notifications in Search Console have an expiration period (90 to 180 days), but that does not mean the migration is complete. Often, residual URLs persis...

AI & SEO Domain Name Redirects Search Console

Does a consistent language on each page really boost your SEO?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

Google analyzes content primarily on a page-by-page basis. It is advisable to have a clearly identifiable language per page to enable Google to easily determine the language and present the page to the appropriate users.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO International SEO

How do multilingual pages affect SEO rankings?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

Pages with content in different languages are ranked completely independently. It’s acceptable to have varying content lengths based on language, as some languages naturally use more or fewer words to express the same idea.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure International SEO

What causes your rankings to fluctuate so much and how should you interpret these movements?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

When a page experiences significant fluctuations in rankings (shifting from position 1-2 to page 5-6), it usually indicates that Google's algorithms are still uncertain about the appropriate positioning. This is not a sign of an issue with the page, ...

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Do small businesses really have an SEO advantage thanks to their agility?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

Small businesses have a significant SEO advantage: they can rapidly adapt to changes in the ecosystem and new trends, unlike large companies. They can also focus on niches that are too small to attract the interest of major players.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Why does Google mix the languages of sitelinks even with the correct hreflang?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

Sometimes, Google displays sitelinks in different languages, even with a correct hreflang and strong internal links. Site owners cannot directly control this (except by disallowing unwanted pages) and it usually stabilizes over time.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure Local Search International SEO

Should you organize your sitemaps by theme or language to boost your SEO?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

You can structure your sitemap files however you wish (by language, section, alphabetical order). The important thing is to maintain a stable distribution of URLs to prevent them from jumping between files during successive processing by Google.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure PDF & Files Search Console International SEO

Is hreflang really essential for monolingual pages?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

Hreflang is not required for content that exists in a single language. The absence of hreflang annotations does not mean that Google won't show the page for other languages. Hreflang simply helps present the appropriate linguistic version when multip...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO International SEO

Why do rich results rely on the canonical version in SEO?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★★

When Google considers pages as duplicates and selects one as the canonical, the structured data and rich results come from that canonical version, even if hreflang allows for a different URL presentation. This can create issues with prices in differe...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Structured Data E-commerce Featured Snippets & SERP Domain Name International SEO

How does Google differentiate between duplicates when only the prices vary?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

Google's algorithms typically try to recognize when elements like phone numbers or prices differ between pages and avoid treating them as duplicates. However, when only the currency symbol changes, it can lead to confusion.

Algorithms Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO

When should you use the 503 code to handle temporary downtime?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★

If a new page will be available in a day or two, a 503 code can be used. Google will retry quickly. For longer periods, use a 404, knowing that the page will temporarily lose its spot in the index and will have to rebuild its signals.

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

Should you keep old pages live during an SEO migration?

John Mueller Jul 02, 2021 ★★★

During a migration where some pages won't be ready immediately, it's best to keep the old pages active until the new ones are available, allowing for a consistent transition without losing SEO signals.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Redirects