What does Google say about SEO?

Is it true that the canonical tag is often overlooked by Google?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★★

The canonical tag is a signal or suggestion, not a directive. Google may choose a different canonical than the one specified because many people misuse it, and Google cannot trust a systematically correct usage.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does AMP really affect your website's SEO?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★★

AMP is not a ranking factor. AMP can be used on large dynamic sites, not just for news. If AMP makes the site faster, it can help through the page speed factor, but not directly through AMP.

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

Why is page speed essential for SEO rankings?

Martin Splitt May 26, 2021 ★★

Page speed is one of many ranking factors. If a competing site is faster, all else being equal, it may gain a ranking advantage due to its speed, not because of the technology used.

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

Do You Really Need to Achieve All 3 Core Web Vitals Scores to Improve Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller May 25, 2021 ★★

The past week has brought its usual harvest of information about the Core Web Vitals / Page Experience project, not always very precise: first of all, Jeffrey Jose (Google) indicated during GoogleI/O that this criterion would not only apply to mobile...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Mobile SEO Web Performance

Does Google Really Detect PBNs Automatically or Can They Still Work?

John Mueller May 25, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that PBNs (Private Blog Networks) "were fairly obvious to detect. (...) There's nothing new about them, they're just link schemes like others have been for many years. Google responds to this type of practice in vari...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam Social Media

Should You Already Be Optimizing Your Site for Google's MUM Algorithm?

Danny Sullivan May 25, 2021 ★★★

Danny Sullivan explained on Twitter that the MUM algorithm had not yet been integrated into Google's query analysis system, but that when it is, there will be official communication about it...

Algorithms AI & SEO Social Media

Should You Migrate Your Site to HTTP/2 to Optimize Your Crawl Budget?

John Mueller May 25, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller indicated during the Google I/O event that nowadays, Googlebot crawls more than one in two URLs using the HTTP/2 protocol, which means better "crawl budget" management on the sites explored...

Content Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Domain Name

Why does Google view structured data formats as equivalent?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★★

Google treats JSON-LD, microdata, and RDFa as completely equivalent. If a feature is available in these different formats, they are entirely on par. Google does not give any special treatment to JSON-LD; it is simply a recommendation to make implemen...

Structured Data AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

How can server-side JSON-LD boost your dynamic content SEO?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★★

You can use any server-side system to dynamically generate JSON-LD, including prices and availability from a database. This is how most e-commerce sites operate.

Content Structured Data E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Is it true that the lang meta tag no longer matters for Google?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★★

Google does not use the lang meta tag to determine the language of pages. Google attempts to understand what language pages are in by analyzing the text itself.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO International SEO

How long does Google take to recrawl my e-commerce site?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★

For a medium to large e-commerce site, Google may take between 2 to 3 weeks to recrawl the entire site. Therefore, visible changes in 2 days would not be related to a technical modification on the pages.

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

How do redirects really impact your SEO metrics?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★★

When Google encounters a redirect, all search signals are transferred and applied to the new URL, including the Core Web Vitals metrics from the Chrome User Experience Report. Fluctuations are expected for 1 to 2 months during URL restructuring.

AI & SEO Domain Name Web Performance Redirects

How do Core Web Vitals truly affect URL indexing?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★

Chrome collects data from the Chrome User Experience Report by URL. For ranking, Google uses signals from the pages that are actually displayed in search results, not from all pages of the site.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Domain Name Web Performance

Should you rethink your link structure to boost page importance?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★★

Google uses internal link structure to determine the importance of pages. Pages linked from the homepage are considered more important. Each additional link level reduces perceived importance. You can control this by linking your priority pages direc...

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

Could Ignoring the Priority Tag in Your Sitemap Actually Boost Your SEO Strategy?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★★

Google does not use the priority tag in sitemap files. Initially, Google believed that it would help determine which pages to crawl more frequently, but this has turned out to be of little use.

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

Can Video Thumbnails Show Up Without a Sitemap?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★

Removing a video from the video sitemap does not necessarily remove the video thumbnail from search results. If Google detects a video on a page and considers it relevant, Google may still display that thumbnail in search results.

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

Why doesn’t Search Console control your site's SEO?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★★

Search Console is primarily a reporting tool on what happens in search; it does not control what happens. The launch of a new Search Console does not change Google's search systems. There are no limits or credits on the normal use of Search Console.

Search Console

Should large platforms really worry about spammy backlinks?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★

If you are a large site and you receive a few hundred random spammy links, just ignore them. Disavowing is only useful if you have purchased links in the past or if the links clearly appear to be bought.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam

How should you handle canonicalization and hreflang for identical multilingual content?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★★

When regional language versions have identical or very similar content, Google indexes a single URL as canonical but continues to treat hreflang annotations. The URL displayed is switched based on the user's location, even though Search Console only ...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Local Search Search Console International SEO

Do links to external sources really impact your SEO?

John Mueller May 22, 2021 ★★

Citations to authoritative sources (such as manufacturers) should be standard links without nofollow, as long as they are not affiliate links. These are organically provided information. The UX aspect (new tab, accordion) does not impact SEO.

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure