What does Google say about SEO?

Are Press Relations Really Compliant with Google's Link Building Guidelines?

John Mueller Feb 01, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that conducting quality Press Relations to obtain links is not a problem—quite the contrary: "I love some of the things I see in public relations, it's a shame they're often spoiled by spam elsewhere in link buildi...

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam Social Media

Do Google Updates Really Impact Google Discover?

John Mueller Feb 01, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained during a webmaster hangout that when the search engine implements an update to its algorithm, it also affects the Discover feature on mobile, which is an integral part of the search engine and therefore of the algo...

Algorithms Content Discover & News Mobile SEO

Do You Really Need to Pass All 3 Core Web Vitals to Get an SEO Boost?

John Mueller Feb 01, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller also explained in a webmaster hangout that, as part of the rollout of the "Page Experience / Core Web Vitals" project next May, all 3 KPIs (FID, CLS, LCP) will need to be met with positive scores for a page to get a "boost" in terms of S...

Domain Age & History Content Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance

Should You Avoid Publishing a Video and Its Transcript on Your Site for Fear of Duplicate Content?

John Mueller Feb 01, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller also explained in a webmaster hangout that the definition of "duplicate content" does not apply to content available on one side in text form on a web page and on the other side in a video: "We don't do textual analysis of videos and the...

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

How can you trigger a knowledge panel for your brand?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

There is no specific directive to activate a knowledge panel. It is not a particular meta tag or type of structured data that triggers its appearance. Google's algorithms automatically detect entities by analyzing multiple information sources.

Algorithms

Does duplicate content really hurt your SEO rankings?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

Duplicate content does not result in a negative score. If Google finds the same content on multiple pages, it simply chooses the best matching page to display. It's normal to have shared content on certain pages, like a common footer.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Local Search

Should you really pay attention to the textual context around your videos for SEO?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★

For videos, Google has a type of structured data with fields for descriptions and titles. Similar to images, the textual context surrounding the video (caption, section title) also helps Google understand the video content.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos Mobile SEO

Does hosting your videos externally really hurt your SEO?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★

From an SEO perspective, there is no difference between uploading a video to your site and embedding it from another site. It is common to use a separate CDN for videos, which is technically a distinct site, and Google handles this correctly.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Is it true that YouTube competes with your site for video results?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★

When a YouTube video is embedded on a site, there are two landing pages for that video: the site's page and YouTube's page. Google must determine which one to display in video results. It's not automatically YouTube that appears; it depends on the av...

Domain Age & History Images & Videos Local Search

Does external traffic really influence your site's SEO ranking?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

Google does not use traffic from other sources (social networks, other sites) as a ranking signal for search. Traffic diversification is important for a site's stability, but it does not directly influence SEO.

AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Does a website that changes ownership inherit Google penalties?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

When a site changes ownership and domain, Google does not apply previous manual actions to the new owner. If no manual action appears in Search Console, the site is treated as normal. Algorithms evaluate the site based on its current state.

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Penalties & Spam Search Console

Do browser banners realmente cause a penalizing layout shift according to Google?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★

Google evaluates Cumulative Layout Shift based on metrics measured by tools and real user data. There is no explicit exception for specific pop-ups or banners, even if they come from the browser. Testing and optimizing the results are essential.

Do structured review data really enhance your SEO?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

Structured review data is used to display rich results in search, but does not constitute a ranking factor. Adding additional optional fields does not improve positioning; only required fields are needed for rich display.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Mobile SEO Local Search

Is the meta keywords tag really pointless for SEO?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

Google does not use the meta keywords tag at all. No modern search engine utilizes it. You can do whatever you want with this tag; it has no impact on SEO.

AI & SEO

Does Google really transfer all signals in bulk during a complete site migration?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

During a complete site migration, if Google can recognize that all indexable content has been moved, it transfers all signals in bulk to the new domain. This is more efficient than a partial migration where Google has to analyze what has changed page...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects

Is it true that Google never disconnects your old pages during a migration?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★

During a migration, Google does not de-index the old page before re-indexing the new one. The process works via canonical change: Google sees the redirect, checks that the content is identical, and switches the indexing to the new URL without any gap...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Domain Name Redirects

Do cookie banners really affect your Core Web Vitals score?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★

Google does not differentiate between GDPR-compliant cookie banners and other page elements for speed calculation. Even if legally required, a CMP banner that slows down loading or causes layout shift is counted in the Core Web Vitals. Competitors wi...

Domain Age & History Pagination & Structure Web Performance

Why does Google favor a pyramid structure over a flat architecture?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

A pyramid website structure helps Google better understand the context and relationships between pages than a flat structure. With a flat structure where all pages are at the same level, Google cannot identify thematic connections. A reasonable hiera...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Do Core Web Vitals really need to be ALL in the green to boost your ranking?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

To qualify for the Core Web Vitals ranking bonus starting May 2021, the metrics must be in the green zone. If any metric is yellow or red, it will not count as compliant. All criteria must be met to be eligible for the badge and the ranking signal.

AI & SEO Web Performance

Do internal links between language versions really transfer PageRank?

John Mueller Jan 29, 2021 ★★★

Translated versions of content are treated as different pages and ranked individually. By creating links between language versions, some of the signals from the performing page can be distributed to the new language version.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks