What does Google say about SEO?

Do Different Ads Between AMP and Non-AMP Pages Impact SEO?

John Mueller Apr 12, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained in a webmaster hangout that having the AMP version of a page display more or fewer ads than its "canonical" version (non-AMP HTML page) does not pose any problems in terms of SEO.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Does AMP really ensure good Core Web Vitals?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★

Even though AMP makes it easier to create fast pages, it is entirely possible for an AMP page to fail Core Web Vitals tests. AMP is not an automatic guarantee of success against performance criteria.

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

Does Google really calculate an EAT score for your website?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

Google does not have a measurable EAT score (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness). It is not a unique metric that Google calculates for a site. Algorithms evaluate quality in various ways, but not through a specific EAT score.

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Does the noindex tag really block the crawling of your pages?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

The X-Robots-Tag with noindex prevents indexing but not crawling. Google must first crawl the page to see the noindex. Initially, Google will crawl these pages heavily before its systems learn that they lead to nothing and gradually slow down the cra...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does robots.txt really prevent the indexing of your pages?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

The robots.txt file prevents crawling but not necessarily indexing. Google can index URLs blocked by robots.txt without their content. These pages may appear in site: queries without a snippet, but usually do not rank for normal queries.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name PDF & Files

Has Google truly made JavaScript rendering reliable for indexing?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★

Google continuously enhances its JavaScript rendering system and receives fewer JavaScript errors than before in rendering. The most common errors include resources blocked by robots.txt or inaccessible resources.

Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does Google really log all your JavaScript console messages for SEO?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★

Google collects JavaScript console logs from every website during rendering, exactly as you would see in the JavaScript console. This information is displayed in Search Console during a live test.

JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Is it true that CSS layout information is really useless for SEO?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

The absence of layout information (render tree, element positions) is not a major issue for Google. If the content is present, Google can at least understand what is on the page. Additional semantic information helps but is not required for ranking.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Should you really block CSS in robots.txt to speed up crawling?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

Excluding CSS resources to simplify rendering is a bad idea. It does not simplify things; on the contrary, it complicates them and reduces the information available to Google, particularly for signals like mobile compatibility.

AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Does a rendering error prevent an entire domain from being indexed?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

A page with a rendering error does not block other pages within the same domain. There are different queues with different priorities. Pages with errors are simply retried without holding back other pages.

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

Should you still rely on Google Cache to verify JavaScript rendering?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

Google's cache is an old, unmaintained feature. The version displayed is random: it may be from a previous crawl, before or after JavaScript rendering. Do not use the text cache to check if JavaScript is rendered correctly.

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

Does Google really render EVERY page using JavaScript before indexing?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

Google renders every page and indexes based on the rendered version, except for very rare exceptional cases. All pages go through the JavaScript rendering process.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO

Is Tree Shaking for JavaScript Really Essential for SEO?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★

Tree shaking (via webpack or other bundlers) is highly recommended to eliminate unused JavaScript code. This allows for a reduction in bundle size by automatically removing unused functions and dependencies.

AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should you really load analytics trackers last to enhance your SEO?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★

Trackers, analytics solutions, and anything that is not essential to the primary user experience should be loaded as late as possible in the process. Only the absolutely necessary code for the main content should be inline.

Content AI & SEO

Is it true that we should abandon domain sharding for HTTP/2 crawling?

Martin Splitt Apr 09, 2021 ★★

Google is gradually rolling out HTTP/2 crawling to a small percentage of sites (10-20%). The main advantage is multiplexing over a single connection. Domain sharding is no longer necessary with HTTP/2. The full rollout has not yet been completed.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Why won't the Page Experience update be instantaneous?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

The Page Experience update planned for May 2021 will likely not be optimized for quick updates. Google will have to wait for enough CrUX data to be collected (about 28 days) before updating signals. This will be more of a gradual update than a real-t...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Why do your Core Web Vitals optimizations take 28 days to show up in Search Console?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

The Chrome User Experience Report data used for Core Web Vitals in Search Console has a collection delay of about 28 days. A technical change tested today in Lighthouse will only be visible in Search Console approximately one month later.

Content AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Does referral traffic really affect Google rankings?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

Google does not take referral traffic into account when determining rankings in search results. Having many visitors from ads or social media does not mean that Google will rank the page higher.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Why do your Lighthouse scores never reflect your users' reality?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★

Lighthouse results (lab data) are approximations based on assumptions. Real user data (field data) depends on many factors such as devices, location, and connections. There can be significant discrepancies between the two.

AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

How does the geolocation of your visitors affect your Core Web Vitals?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2021 ★★★

For Core Web Vitals, Google measures the actual experience of users. If 90% of visitors come from countries with slow connections and have a poor experience, it is this experience that will be taken into account, regardless of the geographic reason.

AI & SEO Web Performance Local Search International SEO