What does Google say about SEO?

Should you really be worried about having 30% of URLs as 404s on your site?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

Having 30% of URLs as 404s is perfectly normal, especially for sites with a lot of content turnover. It's not a quality signal. It's only problematic if the homepage returns 404s, as Google might think the site no longer exists.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Domain Name

Do Invisible Breadcrumbs Really Block Your Rich Results on Google?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

For breadcrumbs to appear in search results, the structured markup must be valid, and the breadcrumbs must be visible on the page. The overall quality of the site affects the display of rich results.

Domain Age & History Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Is it true that word count doesn't matter for ranking on Google?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

The word count on a page is neither a quality factor nor a ranking factor. Blindly adding text does not make a page better. What’s important is providing the necessary information for users and Google to understand the subject.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Does the traffic volume of your site affect your Core Web Vitals score?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

For Core Web Vitals, traffic volume is not important as long as there is enough data in the Chrome User Experience Report. Data from millions of users or thousands does not have a different impact.

Web Performance

Does content relevance truly outweigh Core Web Vitals in Google rankings?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

Core Web Vitals became a ranking signal in May 2021, but relevance is still far more important. A fast site does not guarantee the top position. A completely empty site may be very fast but utterly useless for users.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance

Does Google really rewrite your titles to help you out?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

Google sometimes rewrites titles to make them more understandable for users, particularly by reversing the brand name and the page title. This does not cause any issues. Titles with keyword stuffing or too many keywords are especially affected.

Domain Age & History Content Penalties & Spam

Is it true that the length of the title really impacts Google rankings?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

There is no perfect title length (e.g. 72 characters). Google uses the full content of the title for ranking, even if everything isn't displayed with ellipses. Google sometimes shows titles across 2-3 lines.

Content AI & SEO Local Search

Does CSS font size really impact your positions on Google?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

The variation in font size (14px vs 12px) on a page does not affect ranking. The only important consideration is mobile compatibility, which remains a ranking factor. The rest pertains to user experience.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Can a high 404 rate really hurt your SEO rankings?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

Having 30% or more of URLs returning 404 is perfectly normal and is not considered a negative quality signal. It only becomes problematic if the homepage itself returns a 404, as Google may think that the site is no longer active.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Domain Name

Does traffic volume really influence your Core Web Vitals?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

For Core Web Vitals, a site's traffic volume is not important as long as Google has enough data from the Chrome User Experience Report. There is no difference between millions or thousands of visitors once the minimum threshold is reached.

AI & SEO Web Performance

Can Core Web Vitals Really Boost Your Ranking Without Relevant Content?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

Core Web Vitals do not guarantee a better ranking if relevance is insufficient. A very fast site without relevant content will not rank well. Relevance remains far the most important factor, while Core Web Vitals serve as complementary.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance

Does PageSpeed Insights really measure your site's performance?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

Lab tests like PageSpeed Insights are predictions of what users might see, not exact measurements. The location of the testing server matters little since connection time plays a minor role compared to the site structure, image sizes, and file sizes.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Images & Videos Pagination & Structure PDF & Files Web Performance Local Search Search Console International SEO

Is it really possible to shift from long-tail to short-tail without changing strategy?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

There is no magic solution or meta tag that will automatically take you from ranking on low-volume long-tail queries to short, high-traffic keywords. Google needs to understand over time that your page is relevant and useful for those more general qu...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Can you really hide dates from Google search results?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

There is no meta tag to prevent dates from being displayed in search results. To reduce their appearance, you can remove date mentions from your pages. To correct an incorrect date, use structured data alongside the date visible on the page.

Domain Age & History

Should you stop updating publication dates to boost your SEO?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

The displayed date in search results is not a ranking factor. There is no need to artificially manipulate or update this date. It simply informs users, with some preferring recent content and others favoring stable content.

Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Can you really stop Google from rewriting your title tags?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

Google sometimes rewrites title tags to make them more understandable for users. This includes replacing keyword-stuffed or irrelevant titles. There is no simple solution to prevent this rewriting if Google deems the original title inadequate.

Content

Should new e-commerce sites prove their legitimacy outside of Google first?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★

For a new e-commerce site, limited indexing may indicate that Google lacks sufficient trust signals. Just like a new business, it is necessary to develop an external presence, promote, and build a user base that naturally recommends the site.

Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO

Do sitemaps really trigger a quick recrawl of your modified pages?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

To enable Google to recrawl a page quickly after a modification (e.g., a price change), use the sitemap to indicate that the page has changed, notably through the last update date. Also, link important pages from the homepage.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Does internal linking truly overshadow the sitemap in signaling your strategic pages to Google?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

To indicate to Google which pages are the most important, use internal linking instead of the sitemap. Pages linked from the homepage are considered more important than those situated 5-6 levels deep.

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

How can you effectively target multiple countries with a single domain without losing your local SEO?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2021 ★★★

You can target different countries with a generic domain (non ccTLD): the homepage for one country and a subfolder for another. Google uses the most specific targeting. Incompatible with ccTLDs.

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