What does Google say about SEO?

Is your site truly ready for Mobile-First Indexing?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★★

To confirm the transition to Mobile-First Indexing, you need to check the URL Inspection Tool. If it indicates Googlebot Smartphone, the site is indeed on Mobile-First, even if other reports may still display 'Desktop'.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Mobile SEO Domain Name Local Search Search Console

Is Desktop Page Experience set to revolutionize your SEO strategies?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★★

Page Experience, initially applied only to mobile search, will soon be extended to desktop search. This extension is officially planned.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name

How do Core Web Vitals really impact SEO with CrUX data?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★★

For Page Experience, Google primarily uses field data at the page level from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX). If this data is insufficient, it resorts to origin or groups of similar pages data.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance

Why do real-world data outshine Lighthouse for your SEO performance?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★★

Lighthouse data are useful lab simulations that help identify improvement opportunities. For ranking, it’s the field data visible in PageSpeed Insights and Search Console that truly matters.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Do multiple H1 tags really impact your SEO?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★★

Having multiple H1 tags on a page is not a problem for Google. The use of heading tags (H1, H2, H3...) should be driven by the aim of improving user experience, not by strict SEO considerations.

Domain Age & History Content

Should you really implement all recommended properties for structured data?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★

The absence of 'recommended' (non-mandatory) properties in structured data may limit eligibility for certain rich results, but it does not generate a blocking error. The 'problem' message in Search Console will be clarified to be less alarming.

Domain Age & History Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Search Console

Which is better for optimizing crawl budget: robots.txt or noindex?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★

To control your crawl budget, using robots.txt (disallow) is more effective as it prevents crawling right from the URL. On the other hand, noindex requires a crawl to be detected. However, implementing noindex can also reduce future crawls, so the ch...

Crawl & Indexing Domain Name

Should you report spammy sites in Google search results?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★

If a clearly spammy site or one that violates the guidelines appears in the results, Google recommends reporting it through the spam report form. These reports help improve the detection algorithms.

Algorithms AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Do legal interstitials really have no impact on your SEO?

Google May 27, 2021 ★★

Interstitials displayed for legal reasons (such as age verification or professional health status) are not penalized by Google. Only intrusive interstitials without legal justification pose a problem.

AI & SEO

Is hidden content truly visible to Google?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★★

If the full content is present in the HTML and is visible in the rendered HTML (even if it's hidden behind a client-side 'Read more' button in JavaScript), Google can see and index it. This is not an SEO issue in 2021.

Content Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks

Do Google’s third-party tools really impact your SEO?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★★

Google Search treats all third-party tools as third parties, including Google Analytics, Google Ads, reCAPTCHA, and Tag Manager. They do not receive any special treatment and can impact performance just like any other third-party script.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Why Have #! Fragments Become a No-Go for SEO?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★★

Using fragments (hash bang, #!) to load different content is no longer a recommended strategy and hasn’t been for several years. This can lead to problems with discovery and canonical selection.

Content Crawl & Indexing Domain Name

Does JavaScript Really Affect Crawlability?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★★

JavaScript generally has no impact on crawlability. The blocking of the main thread by JavaScript is a loading performance issue, not a crawling issue. Crawling and rendering are two distinct steps.

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

Why does Google render after crawling?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★★

During crawling, Google only downloads the HTML. JavaScript resources are not downloaded at this stage. Later, during rendering, Google loads the page like a browser, downloads CSS, JavaScript, and makes the necessary API calls.

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

How Are JavaScript Resource Requests Impacting Your Crawl Budget?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★

Requests to load JavaScript resources during rendering count against the crawl budget. This can slow down the crawling of very large sites (millions of pages or more), but it does not affect crawlability.

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

Does blocking the main thread really impact SEO?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★

The fact that JavaScript blocks the main thread is not a problem for Google's rendering. However, it impacts real user experience by making the site unresponsive, which in turn affects page speed, a ranking factor.

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

Could JavaScript harm your SEO the way Flash did?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★

JavaScript is an integral part of the web that brings interactivity, unlike Flash, which was a separate black box. JavaScript is not bad in itself but becomes problematic when misused or overused.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files

Is it possible to avoid cloaking with localized user experiences?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★★

Creating a different user experience based on geolocation is not deemed cloaking, provided the thematic content remains generally the same. Cloaking only occurs if the content shown to Google is completely thematically different.

Content E-commerce Penalties & Spam Local Search International SEO

Could using URL fragments for JavaScript modals actually boost your SEO?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★

To display contextual content in JavaScript modals, it is advisable to use URL fragments (#) because Google generally ignores them. Fragments identify content that is already part of the main page.

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

Why should you steer clear of inline JavaScript for large SEO scripts?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★

You should not inline large amounts of JavaScript because it prevents caching. External JavaScript files can be cached and are only downloaded occasionally, unlike inline code which must be downloaded every time.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files Web Performance