What does Google say about SEO?

Search through official Google statements about search engine optimization

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9501 statement(s) found
Is native HTML really faster than JavaScript for SEO?
Martin Splitt Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
Browsers excel at parsing HTML as soon as it arrives. JavaScript needs to be downloaded, parsed, executed, and then make network requests to fetch data before creating the HTML. There’s no way to make pure JavaScript as fast as receiving HTML directl...
AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO
Does Google really treat all websites equally, regardless of their size or ad budget?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
Google implements a strict policy of fair results. It doesn't matter if you are a small or large publisher, whether you spend €1 or millions on Google Ads, or if you work at Google or know someone at Google: all are treated equally. Google cannot giv...
AI & SEO Pagination & Structure
Why does Google refuse to answer your SEO questions privately?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
Google generally does not respond to private emails or direct messages regarding SEO in order to respect the policy of fair outcomes. Questions must be asked publicly (Twitter, Webmaster forums, office hours) where everyone has the same access to res...
Domain Age & History AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Social Media
Is it true that reporting spam to Google is almost pointless?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★
Google encourages reporting spam but processes these reports in an aggregate manner, not individually. The team analyzes all reports to identify patterns and find scalable solutions for each type of spam. Do not expect quick action on an individual r...
Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam Search Console
Should you escalate your SEO issues to Google's management?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★
Escalating an SEO request through managerial hierarchy changes nothing. The fair results policy is very clear about what the team can or cannot do. Escalations only add frustration and can create a negative bias.
AI & SEO Pagination & Structure
How does Google handle systemic search bugs internally?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★
Internally at Google, there is a form (go/bet) that allows for the escalation of search issues that seem systemic. It’s not a general debugging forum but a historical record that helps identify patterns. Manifestly broken issues are sorted quickly.
Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO
Does the meta keywords tag still hold any significance for SEO?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
Google does not care at all about the meta keywords tag. This tag has no value for SEO in Google Search and is not taken into account in the processing of pages.
Domain Age & History AI & SEO
Does CSS styling of Hn tags really influence their SEO weight?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★
Google normalizes H1, H2, H3, H4 tags during processing. The system attempts to understand the style applied to H tags to determine the relative importance of these tags to one another.
Content AI & SEO Search Console
Does the noindex truly prevent Google from processing a document?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
Google places a particular emphasis on the meta name robots tag. If the noindex value is detected, Google stops processing the document and does not add it to the index.
Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files
Could a <div> in the <head> ruin your technical SEO?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★
If body-related HTML elements (like iframe, div, p, span) are found in the head tag, the HTML lexer automatically closes the head just before these elements and starts the body from there. This is crucial for content injection into the head.
Content JavaScript & Technical SEO
Can Google really tell the difference between your soft 404s and legitimate content on error pages?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
Google detects error pages that return an HTTP 200 status (soft 404). The system has a large corpus of error pages and tries to match text to identify these pages and stop their processing. This can sometimes impact legitimate articles about error pa...
Domain Age & History Content Discover & News HTTPS & Security AI & SEO
Should You Really Deindex Your Out-of-Stock Product Pages?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★
Google considers that out-of-stock pages without additional functionality (like sign-up for alerts) generally do not add value for users in the index. The answer depends on context: for a unique vintage item, indexing may make sense; for a common pro...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News E-commerce AI & SEO
Does Google really index all file formats beyond just HTML?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★
Google Search can index many formats beyond HTML: PDF, spreadsheets, Word files, and even Lotus files. These binary formats are converted to HTML for processing. Google notably uses a licensed Adobe decoder for PDFs.
Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files
Caffeine: How does Google turn crawling into indexing?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
Caffeine is the external name for Google's indexing system. It ingests the protocol buffers produced by Googlebot, collects signals, normalizes HTML, converts formats, detects errors, and adds information to the index. This is the 'Google magic' that...
Crawl & Indexing E-commerce
How does Google really normalize broken HTML on your pages?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★
The internet is generally broken in terms of HTML, but Google still tries to understand it. All HTML is processed through an HTML lexer to normalize the code before processing, making it easier to analyze even malformed pages.
Domain Age & History AI & SEO
Does Google really render your pages before indexing them almost every time?
Martin Splitt Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
In nearly 100% of cases, the process is: crawl, then render, then indexing. Except for multiple rendering failures or specific signals in the initial HTML, virtually all websites are rendered before they are indexed.
Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO
Should we abandon the two waves of indexing model?
Martin Splitt Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
The metaphor of the two waves of indexing was a simplified mental model. It should not be taken literally. The actual process is crawl-render-index in nearly all cases.
Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO
Does Google really use a sandbox or honeymoon period for new websites?
John Mueller Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
There is no sandbox or honeymoon period algorithm. For new sites, Google makes initial positioning estimates due to a lack of signals. These estimates evolve over time as Google collects more data.
Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO
Should you really be concerned about your site's crawl budget?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★★
The vast majority of websites do not need to worry about crawl budget. It concerns only a substantial but minority segment of the web ecosystem.
Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO
Is Google really limiting its crawl deliberately to spare your servers?
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020 ★★
Google has enough crawling capacity to crash parts of the Internet, but deliberately chooses to crawl as slowly as possible while discovering enough content not to harm sites.
Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO
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