What does Google say about SEO?

Can Google really ignore all links from a spammy site?

John Mueller Apr 21, 2026 ★★★

John Mueller reminds us that if a site violates Google's anti-spam policies, its outgoing links can simply be ignored altogether by Google. In other words, a site considered spammy no longer transmits any link value (‘link juice’) to the sites it poi...

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam

Could a domain name similar to a competitor harm your SEO?

John Mueller Apr 21, 2026 ★★★

A webmaster was concerned about having a domain very close to another (only one letter difference). John Mueller responds that this is generally not an issue for SEO in itself. The only real risk identified is Google's "Did you mean...?" feature. If ...

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

Should you offer Markdown versions of your content to enhance your visibility in AI-generated results?

John Mueller Apr 21, 2026 ★★

An SEO consultant saw claims circulating that Google Search Central would serve Markdown versions of its blog articles to boost its visibility in AI-generated results. He delved into the topic, inspected the source code of the page, and found that th...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Search Console

Does Markdown Really Work for SEO, or Should You Always Use HTML Instead?

John Mueller Apr 14, 2026 ★★★

On LinkedIn, someone asked John Mueller whether Google treats .md pages (that is, Markdown) differently from standard HTML pages, and more specifically whether they are properly rendered and accessible by Googlebot? His answer: "These are text files....

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

Why does Google stagger Core Updates over multiple weeks instead of releasing them all at once?

John Mueller Apr 07, 2026 ★★★

John Mueller explains that Core Updates are not deployed all at once, but in stages, because they affect multiple systems and components that must be pushed out progressively. He also clarifies that there is no single "machine" for all Core Updates: ...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Should you really avoid using unique canonicals on multi-page e-commerce sites?

John Mueller Mar 31, 2026 ★★★

On LinkedIn, Rowan Collins, SEO Consultant, exchanged with John Mueller on a specific point about e-commerce structured data. For a multi-page site, each product variant with its own URL should not be redirected to a single canonical group URL, becau...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name PDF & Files Social Media

Does the 15 MB Googlebot crawl limit really kill your indexation, and how can you fix it?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★★

Googlebot retrieves a default of 15 megabytes of raw content (raw bytes) per URL, then stops. This 15 MB limit applies to each URL individually: if your HTML references other resources, each one has its own 15 MB limit.

Content Crawl & Indexing Domain Name

Is Google Really Measuring Page Weight the Way You Think It Does?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★★

For Google, page weight (page size) corresponds to the raw bytes transferred by URL, and not the total sum of all downloaded resources. This definition differs from that of users who often consider the total weight including all resources.

Domain Age & History Domain Name

Has mobile page weight tripled in 10 years? Why should SEO professionals care about this trend?

Gary Illyes Mar 30, 2026 ★★

Data from the Web Almanac 2025 shows that the median weight of a mobile homepage has grown from 845 KB in 2015 to 2.3 MB in July 2025, representing a threefold increase over 10 years.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Is your structured data bloating your pages too much to be worth the SEO investment?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★

Structured data can significantly increase a page's HTML weight because it is intended for machines rather than users. Google supports many types of structured data, which can easily bloat a page.

Domain Age & History Structured Data Pagination & Structure

Is your mobile site missing critical content that exists on desktop?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★★

During the rollout of mobile-first indexing, Google observed numerous cases where mobile and desktop versions of the same content (different URLs) presented significant gaps: missing content, absent links, different navigation, missing metadata or li...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Mobile SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Is your desktop content disappearing from Google rankings because it's missing on mobile?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★★

If content present on the desktop version is missing from the mobile version, the site won't be able to rank for queries related to that missing content, because mobile-first indexing prioritizes the mobile version.

Content Crawl & Indexing Mobile SEO

Does page speed really impact conversions according to Google?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★

Studies show that faster websites have better retention and conversion rates. Speed depends partly on page weight: the more data there is to transfer, the longer the network and processor take to process and display the content.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Local Search

Is Google really processing 40 billion spam URLs every single day?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★

Google detects and processes billions of spam URLs every day. The exact figure mentioned on Google's official blog reaches 40 billion URLs per day.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Penalties & Spam

Does network compression really improve your site's crawl budget?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★

Network-level compression reduces the amount of data transferred, but doesn't decrease the storage space needed on the user's device or crawler side. It only helps accelerate the transfer.

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

Is lazy loading really essential to optimize your initial page weight and boost Core Web Vitals?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★

Lazy loading allows you to load only images and heavy content that are actually visible or near the user's viewport, rather than loading everything upfront, thereby reducing the initial weight of the page.

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

Does Googlebot really stop crawling after 15 MB per URL?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★★

By default, Googlebot retrieves 15 megabytes of raw content per URL, then stops. This limit applies to each URL individually: if your HTML references other resources, those resources each have their own 15 MB limit.

Content Crawl & Indexing Domain Name

Has mobile page weight really tripled in just one decade?

Gary Illyes Mar 30, 2026 ★★

According to the Web Almanac 2025, the median weight of mobile homepage pages has increased from 845 KB in 2015 to 2.3 MB in July 2025, representing a three-fold multiplication over 11 years.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Does page weight really affect user experience and SEO performance?

Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026 ★★★

Google acknowledges that page weight remains a problem for user experience, particularly on slow connections. Faster websites have better retention rates and conversion rates according to studies mentioned.

Domain Age & History JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does structured data really bloat your HTML and hurt page performance?

Gary Illyes Mar 30, 2026 ★★

Adding structured data (structured metadata) can considerably increase the weight of an HTML page because these are metadata intended for machines, not users. Google supports many types of structured data that are documented.

Domain Age & History Structured Data Pagination & Structure PDF & Files