What does Google say about SEO?

Does Duplicate Content Really Kill Your SEO?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★★

Duplicate content generally does not lead to penalties. However, it can harm your site's visibility because Google might choose a canonical version from another source.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does lending a subdomain really affect your main domain?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★

Lending a subdomain to a third party carries risks. Any additional content might impact the reputation of your main domain if quality standards are not maintained.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Should you canonicalize XML sitemap files to prevent duplication?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★

It is not necessary to canonicalize XML sitemap files themselves, but if file variants are unnecessary, controlling their access via the robots.txt file may be wise.

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

How can you manage URL parameters in faceted navigation without wasting your crawl budget?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★★

To effectively manage URLs generated by parameters in faceted navigation, it is recommended to use tools like the URL parameter handling in the Search Console.

AI & SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Search Console

Does the canonical tag maintain its power regardless of the page's age?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★★

The current guidelines on canonical tags are still valid, even if the page was published at an earlier date.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing

Do paid links really hurt your Google rankings?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★★

Paid links can be ignored by Google when calculating rankings, and this type of manipulation can expose the site to manual or algorithmic actions.

Algorithms Links & Backlinks

Does user feedback on search results really influence your site's ranking?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★

User feedback on search results serves to inform Google's teams for potential improvements, but does not directly affect the ranking of individual pages.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

How can you properly canonicalize a multilingual site without losing your international rankings?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★★

In a multilingual site, each language version of a page should have a canonicalization pointing to its own language version. Avoid redirects based on cookies or browser detection that may cause errors.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Redirects International SEO

Is it true that linking your AMP and desktop pages correctly can prevent canonicalization issues?

Google Mar 25, 2021 ★★★

AMP and desktop pages need to be linked through appropriate canonical tags to ensure proper indexing and canonicality of the pages.

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

Does Google really factor in consecutive loading times, or just the initial visit?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★

Google takes into account consecutive page loads in the Core Web Vitals statistics, not just the initial load. The exact details of how they are utilized for the page experience signal are still being finalized.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance

Should You Remove Links That Are Only Present in the Initial HTML?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★

Google extracts URLs for crawling from both the initial HTML and the rendered HTML. Links that are only present in the initial HTML but absent from the rendered HTML may work, but consistency is preferred to avoid future issues.

Crawl & Indexing Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Is Server-Side Rendering really essential for SEO in 2025?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★★

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is recommended by Google. It makes sites faster for users and more robust for crawling. The best time to implement it is at the beginning of a new project, as retrofitting on an existing project is challenging.

Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does the JSON hydration at the bottom of the page harm SEO?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★

Having a large JSON string at the bottom of the page for hydration is not a problem for Google. Creating a different code path for bots (by removing this JSON) introduces fragility without real benefit.

Domain Age & History JavaScript & Technical SEO

Has Googlebot really become foolproof when it comes to JavaScript?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★

Google has made significant progress in JavaScript rendering since 2018. The evergreen Googlebot functions very well, and issues related to JavaScript are less frequent. Most of the problems reported today are not directly linked to JavaScript.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

How does switching to Evergreen Chrome revolutionize Google's page rendering?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★★

The transition from Chrome 41 to an evergreen Chrome in the Web Rendering Service has been a major factor in improvement. Google has developed a sustainable strategy to keep pace with Chrome updates.

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

Does Google really render ALL of your JavaScript pages?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★★

Almost all pages are rendered by Google, regardless of the difference between the initial HTML and the rendered HTML. The heuristics for avoiding rendering are very limited and concern very few pages.

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

Why does Google never click on your Load More buttons, and how can you avoid this?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★★

Google does not click on buttons. For pagination, it is better to use static links (with href) to page 2, page 3, etc. JavaScript can then override the behavior to load content without page reloading for users.

Domain Age & History Content JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Should you really hide cumulative content from infinite paginations from Google?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★

For pagination, it is recommended that each page displays only its own batch of content (e.g., page 2 shows only items 11-20) for Google, even if the user experience cumulatively loads results. This prevents canonicalization and ensures unique conten...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Pagination & Structure Local Search

Does Googlebot really click on the JavaScript buttons and links on your site?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★★

Googlebot does not click on any elements on the page (buttons, onclick links, etc.). Clicking is too costly in terms of CPU power for the Web Rendering Service. URLs must be discovered via standard href links.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Should you create a separate page for each day of a multi-day event or canonize to a single page?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★

For a multi-day event, a single page with a single Event Schema markup is enough since you can define start and end dates and times. It is advisable to canonicalize to this single page.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Structured Data