What does Google say about SEO?

Does Google really use indexing quotas by language?

Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021 ★★★

Google utilizes a quota system to ensure that non-English languages are not overwhelmed by the massive amount of English content. This guarantees that all languages have an equal chance to be indexed, even in the face of the dominance of English cont...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO International SEO

Is your content trapped on Google’s hard drive instead of in RAM?

Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021 ★★★

Google uses different types of storage for its index based on the estimated frequency of service of documents. Documents likely to be served every second are stored in RAM, those that are less frequently accessed are on SSD, and the bulk of the index...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files

Why does Google store recent news articles in the RAM of its index?

Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021 ★★

Recent news articles from major news outlets are stored in the fastest level of the index (RAM). Older articles, such as those from the previous year, are moved to slower and less expensive storage like SSDs.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Discover & News JavaScript & Technical SEO

Why are your academic contents disappearing into the depths of Google's index?

Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021 ★★

Old doctoral theses and academic publications are generally stored at the lowest levels of Google's index because they are not consulted as frequently as other types of content.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing

Is it true that Google is struggling to find enough quality content in certain Asian languages?

Cherry Prommawin Jan 19, 2021 ★★

Google faces a challenge of insufficient content in certain Southeast Asian languages and vertical sectors. This is not an indexing issue but rather a lack of quality content created in these languages.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO International SEO

Does Google struggle to index certain oral languages?

Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021 ★★

Google faces challenges with some languages that are not really intended to be written, even if they are today for preservation purposes. Indexing and ranking these special languages is very difficult, although Google attempts to index and store them...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO International SEO

How does Google really decide which pages to index?

Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021 ★★

Google uses the signals collected during earlier phases of indexing to decide whether or not a document should be indexed. This selection is a very sophisticated process that considers multiple factors.

Crawl & Indexing PDF & Files

How does Google determine the storage type for your pages in its index?

Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021 ★★★

When building the index, Google uses signals like PageRank to estimate how frequently documents will be served (every second, once a week, or once a year) and uses different types of storage accordingly.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks PDF & Files

Should You Really Worry About the Page Experience Badge in Search Results?

Martin Splitt Jan 18, 2021 ★★★

Martin Splitt explained on Twitter that the badge Google plans to display in the SERPs as part of the launch of its Page Experience and Core Web Vitals projects next May might not see the light of day. It appears to be just an experiment for now. Thi...

Domain Age & History Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Images & Videos Mobile SEO Web Performance Local Search Social Media

Should You Use 404 or 410 Status Codes for Better SEO Performance?

John Mueller Jan 18, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller reiterated on Reddit (sic) that using 404 (Page not found) or 410 (Gone) status codes does not pose a major problem for the search engine.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Can Submitting a Disavow File Actually Hurt Your Site in Google's Eyes?

John Mueller Jan 18, 2021 ★★★

John Mueller explained for the 2,476th time 😉 that submitting a disavow file to Google does not provide any negative signal to Google about the site that submitted it: "The disavow tool is a purely technical system, essentially, that tells our system...

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks PDF & Files

Why Does Google Flag a Redirected URL as Blocked by Robots.txt When It Actually Isn't?

John Mueller Jan 18, 2021 ★★★

SEO expert Glenn Gabe indicated on Twitter that, in Search Console, if URL A redirects to URL B which is blocked by robots.txt, URL A will be marked as also blocked by this file, even though, in reality, this is not the case. John Mueller had explain...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name PDF & Files Redirects Social Media Search Console

Why doesn’t Google always take manual action against low-quality content?

John Mueller Jan 15, 2021 ★★

If a site presents low-quality content, it is not always a clear-cut situation that necessitates manual action from the webspam team. Sometimes it’s a matter of discussion rather than an obvious manual action.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Where do Core Web Vitals data in Search Console really come from?

John Mueller Jan 15, 2021 ★★★

Search Console bases its Core Web Vitals data on the Chrome User Experience Report (field data). Search Console does not invent these figures and does not conduct its own measurements. You need to investigate directly through the CrUX data.

AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Does choosing ccTLD or subdirectories really give you an SEO advantage for international markets?

John Mueller Jan 15, 2021 ★★★

There is no inherent SEO advantage to using ccTLDs or a generic domain with subdirectories for international purposes. Both approaches are valid. The choice should be based on long-term considerations.

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

Why do URL restructurings cause traffic fluctuations for 1 to 2 months?

John Mueller Jan 15, 2021 ★★★

Every site restructuring generates fluctuations for 1 to 2 months. During this transition, search struggles to understand the full picture of the site. Plan the timing to minimize business impact.

Domain Age & History Images & Videos Domain Name

Is it really necessary to optimize for search intent or is it just a semantic trap?

John Mueller Jan 15, 2021 ★★

Search intent is based on what users are looking for. We don't optimize for intent but for what users are searching for. Analyze the queries and conduct user studies to identify the aspects to cover.

AI & SEO

Should you optimize your content for BERT, or is it a waste of time?

John Mueller Jan 15, 2021 ★★

BERT is used to better understand queries and content. You don't optimize for BERT. Google is simply trying to better match content and queries.

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

How can you tell if SafeSearch is penalizing your content in Google results?

John Mueller Jan 15, 2021 ★★★

To test whether SafeSearch affects content, perform a site: search and then add &safe=on or &safe=off to the URL. If the results are identical, SafeSearch does not affect the site.

Content AI & SEO Domain Name

Does SafeSearch really block your rich results?

John Mueller Jan 15, 2021 ★★★

If a site or pages are marked by SafeSearch as adult content, they will not be eligible for rich results on those specific pages.

Domain Age & History Content