What does Google say about SEO?

Is it true that JavaScript is fully compatible with modern SEO?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★★

JavaScript SEO is not a novelty but an aspect of technical SEO. It simply acknowledges that many sites use JavaScript to generate content. The claim that JavaScript and SEO are incompatible has been false for at least three years.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Can you really provide a different navigation experience to Google without risking a cloaking penalty?

Martin Splitt Mar 24, 2021 ★★

Having a different experience between users (cumulative display in pagination) and Google (separate pages) is not considered cloaking. It’s simply a different way to navigate content.

Domain Age & History Content Pagination & Structure Penalties & Spam

How does Google really showcase your products in search results?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

Google Search uses special formatting for products in search results to help buyers make purchasing decisions. This can include ratings, reviews, prices, and stock levels.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO Local Search

Can Google Maps truly boost your local sales with nearby inventory?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★

Google Maps can show products available nearby if you provide Google with information about the location of your inventory. This helps shoppers who want to pick up their purchases in person.

E-commerce AI & SEO Local Search

Why is Google Shopping free, and how does it impact your e-commerce SEO?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

In 2020, Google introduced free listings. It is now free to participate in the Google Shopping tab. Your products can be listed for free, increasing the exposure of your products to buyers.

E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Does Merchant Center really boost your organic rankings?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

Google Merchant Center product data is also integrated into organic search. This helps Google present your products more accurately to buyers in organic search results.

E-commerce AI & SEO

Should you really send EVERY product to Google now?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

It now makes sense to provide all your product data to Google rather than a selected subset, thanks to new free offerings in organic search and the Shopping tab.

E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Which Merchant Center feeding method truly impacts your product visibility?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

There are three approaches to provide your product data to Google Merchant Center: by crawling your website, by periodically supplying a full feed of all your products, or by using an API to update individual products.

Crawl & Indexing E-commerce JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does Google really compare your product feeds with your pages to exclude your listings?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

Google can compare the data in your feed with the original page to verify data consistency. Detected inconsistencies can lead to product exclusions from Google, so it is essential to keep your feeds synchronized with your site's product data.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO

Should you really enable automatic updates for prices and stock in Merchant Center?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★

You can enable automatic item updates to refresh availability and pricing data in Google Merchant Center instead of marking them as discrepancies when your site is updated more frequently than Merchant Center.

Discover & News E-commerce

Can Google's Merchant Content API really index your products in just minutes?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★

With the Content API, you can insert, update, and delete selected products individually or in small batches. Your updates can go live within minutes instead of waiting for the next complete processing.

Content E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does traditional SEO still hold priority in the age of AI and new search interfaces?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

SEO remains important for organic search. Make your product details, such as images and descriptions, attractive to your customers.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO Images & Videos Links & Backlinks

How does Google Images leverage product data to enhance visibility?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★

Google Images utilizes product information when available. If Google knows how to display an image for a product, it can show additional badges and product information with the image, such as stock availability.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO Images & Videos Local Search

Does structured product data really enhance Google's accuracy on your listings?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

Structured data allows website owners to convey product data more precisely to Google from web pages. This helps Google better understand the details of products.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO

Why does Google sometimes refuse to display certain rich results despite your structured data?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

Product data must be accurate. Extracting information from web pages can be less reliable. Google's special treatments are only available if Google is confident that it has correctly obtained this additional information.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO

Are structured data really essential for Google to understand your products?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

Using structured data is a way to ensure that Google correctly understands all the product details you provide on a webpage. JSON-LD is a common method for encoding this data.

Domain Age & History Structured Data E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Do structured data really improve the accuracy of Google Merchant Center crawling?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★★

Using structured data on your pages can significantly increase the accuracy of product data collected during the crawling of your website by Google Merchant Center.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing E-commerce

Are supplemental feeds the secret to avoiding crawl delays for volatile data?

Alan Kent Mar 23, 2021 ★★

Supplemental feeds can add additional fields to the data from the main feed. For example, prices, sale notifications, and stock levels can be provided via supplemental feeds to be updated more frequently without waiting for the next crawl.

Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Why Do You Have to Wait 28 Days to See Your Core Web Vitals Scores?

John Mueller Mar 22, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained in a webmaster hangout that Google tools used to "score" Core Web Vitals metrics (LCP, FID, CLS) need, for any given web page, to collect data (from the Chrome User Experience Report) for 28 days and that there was no plan in p...

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

Should You Really Optimize Keywords in Your URLs for SEO?

John Mueller Mar 22, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained, also in a hangout, that the presence of keywords in a URL has very little weight for the user, and even less weight once the content is indexed: We use the words in a URL as a very, very lightweight factor. And from what I rem...

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