What does Google say about SEO?

Are server errors really killing your crawl budget?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

When Google crawls a certain number of pages per day and the number of server errors increases, Google reduces the crawl, assuming it is crawling too aggressively. Google aims to leave capacity for actual users.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does server response time really slow down Google's crawl more than rendering speed?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

Server response time is critical for crawling. Rendering speed (user-side performance aspect) is less important for crawling, but server response time technically slows Google down during the crawl.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Does Google really prioritize original content over syndicated versions?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★

Google attempts to recognize situations where exactly the same article is republished and handle that accordingly in search by potentially showing the original. But there are many cases where Google cannot fully recognize this.

Content Discover & News AI & SEO

Does Google really prioritize geolocation for ranking syndicated content?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★

When Google recognizes that people are searching for text included in many articles, it tries to select the one that is most relevant for the user. If Google identifies that certain pages or sites are particularly relevant for users in specific locat...

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

Why does Google display the canonical URL instead of the local URL in Search Console?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

In Search Console, Google primarily reports canonical URLs. In the performance and index coverage report, Google simplifies and shows the canonical URL, even if the local URL is displayed to users through hreflang. This can be very confusing.

Crawl & Indexing Domain Name Web Performance Local Search Search Console International SEO

Should you really localize every product page to prevent duplicate content?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★

To prevent pages from being recognized as duplicates, the only option is to ensure they are truly meaningfully localized. For an e-commerce site with the same product across countries, this is likely not feasible.

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

Why does Google struggle to understand your hreflang tags on large international sites?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★

With hreflang, especially if you have many different country versions, sometimes Google gets it right, and sometimes Google struggles. Anyone who has worked on large international sites will see that a lot of hreflang is captured and used, but for ce...

AI & SEO International SEO

Should you really display a country selection banner on a multilingual website?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★

Google suggests assuming users might arrive on the wrong version of your site and trying to catch them with a banner at the top indicating their location and offering the correct country version.

AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

Is it true that passage ranking is independent of featured snippets?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★

Passage ranking refers to Google's capacity to dive into content and recognize that a page is relevant for something hidden at the bottom of the page. How Google displays it in the results is a completely different question. It is not related to feat...

Domain Age & History Content Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Local Search

Are nofollow links in guest posts really mandatory for Google?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

Promoting your content on other sites through guest posting is acceptable, but the links in these guest posts must be nofollow because you are placing these links on other sites. These links should not pass PageRank.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Are PBNs really detected and neutralized by Google?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

PBNs (Private Blog Networks) are a technique used by spammers to create a network of seemingly natural sites that all link to something, hoping that Google thinks that many recommend this page. Google sees this as web spam or unnatural links and trie...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam

Is the number of backlinks really insignificant for Google?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

Google does not differentiate based on the total number of links or the number of referring domains. Google views links quite differently, trying to understand what is relevant and how to weigh each link. The total number is irrelevant. One good link...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Is it true that duplicate content is really safe for your SEO?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

If you duplicate content, it is technically duplicate content. Google does not penalize duplicate content in its algorithms. Google simply tries to choose one version to display appropriately.

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Is internal linking truly the key signal to prioritize your pages?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

The best way to help Google understand which parts of your site you consider most important is through internal linking. The clearer you demonstrate content to users with visible links, the more Google understands it matters to you and treats it with...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Should You Still Disavow Spammy Links in SEO?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

In general, you do not need to disavow random spammy links pointing to your site. Google's systems are very good at understanding which links are relevant and which ones to completely ignore. This is very common and happens to almost all websites.

JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam

Can the disavow file actually harm your site?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★

The disavow file is a technical tool. Google looks at it and if you don’t want those links, Google removes them. It’s not something counted against your site. Google won’t say you must be a spammer because you disavow links. It's just a clean signal.

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

Are Core Web Vitals already impacting your rankings, or should you wait for their activation?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

Core Web Vitals are something Google will start using in May. Therefore, it wouldn’t affect your site now (February 2021).

AI & SEO Web Performance

Should you really index fewer pages to prevent thin content?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★

Consider whether you really need all these individual pages to be indexed. Perhaps you should have something more comprehensive about the content itself as your indexed element, rather than individual pages with one or two questions that provide very...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing

Does the length of an article really influence its Google ranking?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

For web search, Google doesn't care about the length of articles. Don't focus so much on the length of the article, but rather on whether you want it to be indexed or not. Short articles are perfectly acceptable.

Crawl & Indexing Discover & News AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Do traffic and social signals really influence organic ranking?

John Mueller Feb 19, 2021 ★★★

Google Ads and social sharing are not considered for search. Traffic in general isn't either. External SEOs have tested traffic to see if it can lead to a page's indexing, and it does not.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Social Media