What does Google say about SEO?

Does the Order of HTML Attributes Actually Impact SEO and Google Crawling?

John Mueller Mar 22, 2021 ★★★

An amusing question was asked to John Mueller on Reddit, to find out whether the position of the "rel" and "href" attributes (one before the other, in a given order) in a "canonical" tag mattered. John Mueller replied that no, it doesn't 🙂

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Do Domain Authority and Alexa Rank Really Influence Your Google Ranking?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

Google does not use Alexa Rank for ranking. Similarly, Domain Authority is a metric created by a third party (Moz) and has no effect on Google SEO. These external metrics are not taken into account by Google's algorithms.

Algorithms AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Is it really necessary to ignore toxic links since Google filters them out automatically?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

For most sites, there's no need to worry about toxic links. Google's systems automatically ignore links deemed harmful. Individual spam links do not count against your site. The disavow file is still useful as an additional safeguard.

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

Why Do Disavowed Links Still Appear in Search Console?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★

When you submit links in the disavow file, they continue to appear in the Search Console link report. The disavow prevents these links from affecting your site, but does not remove them from the report.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks PDF & Files Search Console

Are Core Web Vitals Really Crucial for Your Google Ranking?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor, but for many sites, content relevance remains the primary focus for ranking. There will be a small ranking bonus, but improving the quality and strength of the content remains very important.

Content AI & SEO Web Performance

Why don't Core Web Vitals testing tools reflect your actual rankings?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

The data in Search Console is based on what users actually experience (in the last 28 days). Testing tools provide live theoretical testing as they do not account for the real connections or devices of users. For SEO, Google relies on real user data.

AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Can disabling WordPress plugins really boost your SEO performance?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★

On WordPress and other platforms, disabling unnecessary plugins or replacing complex plugins with simpler versions can make a huge difference in site speed.

AI & SEO Web Performance

Does Google really have a single index for all countries?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

Google does not have different indexes based on countries. There is no content indexed differently according to location. Rankings may differ between countries, and with hreflang, Google can swap URLs, but the index itself is unique.

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

Is it true that Google really enforces a strict non-favoritism policy in SEO?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

Google enforces very strict rules (Honest Results Policies): internal Google teams that ask SEO questions are automatically pushed back. No Google team, regardless of its importance, can receive preferential assistance for SEO. Google’s SEO employees...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Should you really use nofollow for all the links placed in your guest posts?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

When you publish content on someone else's site (guest posts), Google will attempt to ignore these links since they are not natural links but links that you placed yourself. It is necessary to use nofollow for these links.

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Are breadcrumbs really useless for crawl and ranking?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★

Breadcrumbs probably don't provide additional information for crawl since links to higher levels already exist in the usual interface. Their main advantage is special display in search results, not improved ranking.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Structured Data AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Is it possible to force sitelinks to appear using schema markup?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★

There is no markup to force the appearance of sitelinks. Google automatically selects them when it believes it has multiple relevant pages from a site for a brand search. The sitelinks displayed are actually normal organic rankings presented differen...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Do cookie banners really block your pages from being indexed?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

Displaying a cookie banner or pop-up isn't a problem as long as the actual content remains in the HTML. If the banner replaces content or blocks access to the full HTML (interstitial), it becomes problematic for SEO. Test with the URL Inspection tool...

Content Domain Name Local Search Search Console

Should you index the content generated by your users?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

For Google, user-posted content is still considered part of the site's content. The owner must identify valuable content and promote it while using noindex for duplicated or low-quality content. It is recommended not to default index low-value user-g...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

How can you avoid doorway page penalties when managing multiple sites with duplicate content?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★★

For multiple sites with the same content (e.g., commercial sites), use rel=canonical to point to a central indexed version. This avoids spam issues (doorway pages), concentrates strength on a single site, and still allows tracking of individual site ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Should you really avoid staged deployments when transitioning to mobile-first indexing?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2021 ★★

During a staged rollout, avoid being partially indexed in both versions (old and new). If possible, implement the change all at once rather than gradually to minimize SEO fluctuations. A gradual deployment will create SEO issues until full stabilizat...

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

How does Google really index videos from millions of websites?

Danielle Marshak Mar 17, 2021 ★★

Google indexes videos from millions of sites across the web, covering topics ranging from news and sports to shopping and education. These sites include individual publishers as well as large platforms.

Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO

How does Google really index your online videos?

Danielle Marshak Mar 17, 2021 ★★★

When Google talks about indexing a video or displaying a video result in search, it actually refers to the combination of that video and the web page it resides on.

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

How does Google truly identify videos on your web pages?

Danielle Marshak Mar 17, 2021 ★★★

When Google crawls the web, it identifies videos on web pages using different signals, including page data such as video HTML tags and structured data, as well as separately submitted data like video sitemaps.

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

How does Google truly comprehend video content without analyzing it directly?

Danielle Marshak Mar 17, 2021 ★★★

Google understands the topic of a video through the textual information on the page, such as the page title, headers, and captions near the video, or through signals from other pages like referring links.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks