What does Google say about SEO?

Why does Google enforce an annual cycle for Core Web Vitals?

Martin Splitt Dec 07, 2020 ★★★

Google will update Core Web Vitals approximately on an annual basis. Changes will be communicated in advance to provide webmasters with stability and the time to optimize for consistent metrics.

Pagination & Structure Web Performance

Is the Search Off the Record podcast a reliable source for optimizing your SEO?

John Mueller Dec 07, 2020 ★★

The 'Search Off the Record' podcast aims to give insights into the inner workings of Google Search and communications around search. The goal is not to serve as an additional source of documentation, but rather to provide contextual information about...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO PDF & Files Social Media

What insights does Google’s internal podcast reveal about its algorithm?

Martin Splitt Dec 07, 2020 ★★

The podcast shares what the Google Search teams think about and work on, as well as what happens before things become public. It's about sharing elements from daily work as well as discoveries made during events and on Twitter.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Social Media

Does Google really share everything it knows about SEO?

John Mueller Dec 07, 2020 ★★

The podcast addresses topics that are not officially documented or information that led to what has ultimately been documented. It discusses the context and process behind Google's official communications regarding Search.

Content AI & SEO PDF & Files

Why should you care about the Google Search podcast if you're not looking for official documentation?

John Mueller Dec 07, 2020 ★★

This podcast aims to provide an insight into the behind-the-scenes of Google Search and the communication surrounding search. The objective is not to be an additional documentation source but rather to provide contextual information about what is hap...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO PDF & Files Social Media

Are the rel sponsored and ugc attributes truly optional or should you adopt them?

Gary Illyes Dec 07, 2020 ★★

New rel attributes like 'sponsored' are being used on millions of sites, although Google has clarified that they are completely optional. They can help train machine learning models, but webmasters are under no obligation to use them.

AI & SEO

Was Google really the only search engine treating nofollow as an absolute directive?

Gary Illyes Dec 07, 2020 ★★★

While working on the changes to nofollow, Google discovered that all other search engines had already been using nofollow as a hint for a long time. Google was the only one not to do so.

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Are JavaScript-generated structured data really indexed by Google?

Martin Splitt Dec 07, 2020 ★★★

JavaScript-generated structured data works correctly. They do not function in the Structured Data Testing Tool, but they do work in the Rich Results Test and Search Console.

Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure Search Console

Does JavaScript rendering really slow down the indexing of structured data?

Martin Splitt Dec 07, 2020 ★★★

The discovery of structured data generated with JavaScript is not significantly delayed as Google renders almost all pages. The median rendering queue time is about 5 seconds.

Domain Age & History Structured Data AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure

Does Google Shopping actually use a different JavaScript rendering compared to traditional Search?

Martin Splitt Dec 07, 2020 ★★

For Google Shopping, the Merchant Center first inspects the HTML and only renders the page if it doesn't find the necessary information. For e-commerce, the rendering approach is different from that of normal Search.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO

Are static HTML sites really free from Core Web Vitals issues?

Martin Splitt Dec 07, 2020 ★★

Core Web Vitals issues are not solely related to JavaScript. Static HTML sites can also have problems, particularly with oversized images that cause Cumulative Layout Shift when they load late.

Domain Age & History Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Search Console

How does Google really analyze the anchor text of your backlinks?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★★

Google analyzes the anchor text of external links both at the individual page level and at the site-wide level. The page-level analysis helps to understand the context of individual pages, while the global site analysis provides a broader understandi...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Could ad-blockers be undermining your canonicalization?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★

Ad-blocker scripts can sometimes redirect to a central page with a rel canonical tag, which can trigger canonicalization issues depending on how Google crawls the site. These redirects can be detected as canonicalization signals.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Redirects

Does the trailing slash in URLs really matter for SEO?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★★

By default, Google does not consider URLs with and without trailing slashes to be identical. Technically, one represents the root of a directory and the other a file within the parent directory. If Google crawls these URLs and finds the same content,...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name PDF & Files

Do keyword-rich TLDs (.seo, .shop, .paris) really enhance your SEO?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★★

Google treats all new TLDs (top-level domains) such as .club or .tools exactly like any generic domain such as .com. There is no additional SEO value in having keywords, city names, or country names in the TLD. No ranking bonus is granted for a parti...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Does Passage Ranking truly change the game for long-form content?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★★

Passage Ranking aims to better understand the relevant parts of particularly long pages, in order to display them appropriately in search results. It is not an overall ranking improvement, but rather a better understanding of the content. Sites that ...

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Local Search

Is your website's partial indexing really just a normal occurrence?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★★

It is extremely common for websites to be partially indexed. This is normal. The indexing rate of any site will always fluctuate over time. The number of discovered pages that are currently not indexed will continually vary, regardless of the type of...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does mobile-friendliness really have measurable objective criteria?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★

There is no objective measure to determine whether a page is mobile-friendly or not. Different tools may have different criteria (for example, the size of clickable areas). For Google SEO, use the mobile-friendly test from Google and the Search Conso...

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

Does social traffic really have zero impact on Google rankings?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★★

Google does not track or use traffic from platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Pinterest for search ranking. If a user reaches a page through social media and finds the information useful, it has no effect on ranking. Engaging in social media for dir...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Images & Videos Links & Backlinks Social Media

How does Google group your pages to measure Core Web Vitals?

John Mueller Dec 04, 2020 ★★★

Google groups pages for Core Web Vitals using URL patterns and content type. To ensure that sections of the site are processed individually, it is recommended to use clear URL structures (/search for search pages, for example). However, if Google lac...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Web Performance