What does Google say about SEO?

How does Google measure Core Web Vitals on your AMP and non-AMP pages?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Google tracks Core Web Vitals data from real users. If users access the AMP version via Search and the non-AMP version directly, Google can follow both versions separately. For ranking purposes, Google uses data from the version displayed in the sear...

AI & SEO Mobile SEO Web Performance

Should you really match the query in the title to rank well?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★

There is no absolute rule indicating that an exact match title ranks better than a user-focused title. Google understands synonyms and context. The recommendation is to test different titles to see which ones generate more user clicks.

Content

Do user comments really influence your page rankings?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Google considers comments as part of the page content. Google often recognizes that this is a comments section and treats it differently. If users find your pages through comments, removing those comments will impact your visibility. The effect depen...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Can intrusive interstitials really lower your Google ranking?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Intrusive interstitials that prevent users from accessing the main content are regarded as a negative ranking factor by Google. If an interstitial blocks access to the product page, that's problematic. Progressive loading of content is not defined as...

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce

Why does Google convert your SVGs to PNGs and how does it affect your image SEO?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★

Google converts SVG files into pixel images (PNG) for internal processing and thumbnail display in Image Search. This allows SVGs to be treated like other image formats and to create thumbnails at the correct resolution. This behavior is unchangeable...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Images & Videos PDF & Files

Should you optimize the user experience before tackling SEO?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★

SEO and improving the user journey are distinct topics. SEO is not used to enhance the user journey. First, we optimize the user experience, then we apply SEO to improve visibility in search results. Sometimes these goals align.

Does rel=canonical to the source really protect syndicated content?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

For syndicated content, Google recommends using rel=canonical to the original source. If not possible, Google will attempt to recognize the syndicated content. The original site will generally be favored. To rank well, create unique and meaningful co...

Content Crawl & Indexing

Should you create broad topical content to boost your authority in Google's eyes?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Creating content around a main topic (e.g., laptop reviews if you sell laptops) helps Google recognize your thematic expertise. It also helps users trust you. Google can then show your site for searches on this broad topic, not just for individual pa...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

How long should you really expect to wait for a manual link action to be lifted?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Manual actions related to links can take several months to be reviewed. Submitting a reconsideration request again does not create an additional penalty, but duplicate requests are ignored. The team focuses on the pending request. For long delays, ch...

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Does PageSpeed Insights really reflect what Google sees on your site?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

PageSpeed Insights is based on Chrome, not on Googlebot. Googlebot also uses Chrome for rendering but must follow robots.txt for embedded resources (CSS, JS). PageSpeed Insights is not subject to robots.txt. For Core Web Vitals ranking, Google exclus...

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

How does Google really group your pages to evaluate Core Web Vitals?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Google does not have Core Web Vitals data for each page individually. Pages are grouped based on the amount of available data. This can be at the entire domain level or among groups of similar pages. The grouping depends on the volume of user data av...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Web Performance

Why does Google keep rechecking your old 404 URLs for years?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★

Google keeps old 404 URLs in its systems and periodically rechecks them (sometimes once a year) to ensure they still return 404. This is not a problem. On older sites, the number of 404 URLs naturally increases over the years. This is a normal behavi...

Domain Age & History Domain Name

Do 301 redirects really pass on 100% of PageRank and link signals?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

With a 301 redirect, Google groups the old and new URL together and transfers all signals (including links) to the canonical URL, usually the destination of the redirect. To ensure that the new URL is chosen as canonical, align all signals: redirects...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks Domain Name Redirects Search Console

Is it true that the text/HTML ratio is completely irrelevant for Google SEO?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Google does not use the concept of text/HTML ratio as an SEO ranking factor. Many tools calculate this metric, but it does not affect SEO. Only two extreme cases can pose a problem: reduced page speed or exceeding the upload limit (several hundred me...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Web Performance

Does Google prioritize image quality over the display order on the page?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★

Google uses several factors to determine which image to display from a page: titles, filenames, captions, alt text, and also the quality of the image. The systems may sometimes prefer a higher quality image over the first image from a product slider.

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

Why does Google Discover traffic drop off overnight without warning?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Google Discover traffic tends to be highly variable, going from a lot to zero quickly. The algorithms can decide that it's relevant to show a site in Discover and then suddenly stop. This is not related to a specific query, making it difficult to pre...

Algorithms Discover & News AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Can a poorly optimized homepage really penalize an entire site?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Google tries to be as granular as possible, page by page. But the pages of a site are linked to each other. If an important page (e.g., homepage) has a poor score, it will affect the other pages because they exist in the context of this main page. A ...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Do user comments really count for SEO?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★★

Google considers comments as part of the page content. While recognized as the comments section, they are treated slightly differently. If users find your pages through the comments, deleting those comments will result in lost traffic. Don't blindly ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Why does Google convert your SVGs into pixel images internally?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★

Google converts SVG files into pixel images internally to process them consistently with other images, particularly to create thumbnails and manage sizing. Vector formats like SVG do not have a well-defined size, hence this conversion.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Images & Videos PDF & Files

Why do PageSpeed Insights and Googlebot show different results for your site?

John Mueller Feb 05, 2021 ★★

PageSpeed Insights is based on Chrome, not Googlebot. Googlebot also uses Chrome for rendering but must obey robots.txt for all embedded content (CSS/JS), unlike PageSpeed Insights. The differences between the two tools can stem from this.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance