What does Google say about SEO?

Do meta descriptions really affect rankings or just the CTR?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★★

The meta description tag provides Google with a summary of the page’s content. Google may use them as snippets in search results. It's important to write descriptions that inform and engage users.

Domain Age & History Content

Do structured data really enhance visibility in the SERPs?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★★

Structured data is code added to pages to describe the content to search engines. Google uses this information to display content in useful ways in rich results.

Domain Age & History Content Local Search

What types of structured data does Google really prioritize for SEO?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★

Google recommends three types of structured data: FAQ for pages with recurring questions, How-to for step-by-step guides, and breadcrumbs to describe the site's organization.

Domain Age & History Structured Data Pagination & Structure

Do you really know how to interpret Google’s indexing statuses: ‘Excluded’ vs ‘Valid’?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★★

Errors prevent indexing and result in traffic loss. Valid pages have been indexed and can appear on Google. Excluded pages are not indexed, but Google thinks that this is intentional or appropriate.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Should you always validate indexing corrections in Search Console?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★

After correcting an indexing error, click on Validate Fix in Search Console, and Google will validate your changes.

Crawl & Indexing Search Console

Why is submitting a sitemap essential for the crawling of your site?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★★

To help search engines discover all your content, it is very useful to indicate which pages, images, and videos to explore by submitting a sitemap via the Sitemaps report in Search Console.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos Search Console

Should you really base snippet optimization solely on CTR?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★★

If the number of impressions is significantly higher than clicks, or if the click-through rate is very low for a query or page, it is necessary to create better titles and descriptions to make the snippets more attractive in the results.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Why do your target queries never show up in Search Console?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★

If expected search queries do not appear in the performance report, your site may not have enough relevant useful content for those queries.

Content AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Are heading tags really a ranking signal or just an accessibility crutch?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★

Use meaningful heading tags to indicate important topics and create a hierarchical structure. This facilitates navigation for both users and search engines, especially for long pages.

Domain Age & History Content Pagination & Structure

Are descriptive internal links really the SEO lever you’ve been promised?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★

It is essential to make a clear distinction between normal text and links so that users do not overlook them. Use descriptive text in links to help both users and Google understand the content of the linked pages.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Is the Search Console index coverage report really enough to diagnose your indexing issues?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★★

The index coverage report in Search Console allows you to verify that Google can find and index your pages. It shows errors that prevent indexing, valid pages with warnings, valid indexed pages, and excluded pages.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Search Console

Why are your key pages disappearing from the Search Console performance report?

Daniel Waisberg Nov 12, 2020 ★★

If important pages on your site are not appearing in the performance report's page list, there may be a problem with them. Use the Inspect URL tool to find out why.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Domain Name Web Performance Search Console

How can you effectively test JavaScript rendering before taking your site live?

Martin Splitt Nov 11, 2020 ★★★

Before launching a site that uses JavaScript for rendering, test it with the Mobile-Friendly Test and check the rendered HTML in Search Console to ensure that Googlebot can see all the expected content.

Content Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Search Console

Why does a website redesign cause rank drops even without content changes?

Martin Splitt Nov 11, 2020 ★★★

If the site's structure, content, or URLs change during a redesign, it will affect ranking because Google will need to re-gather signals. A strictly identical copy (same URLs, same content) will have no impact.

Content Domain Name Pagination & Structure Redirects

Hreflang: Why does Google still stress this tag for multilingual content?

Martin Splitt Nov 11, 2020 ★★★

For locale-adapted content, set up hreflang to indicate to Google all available language versions (EN-US, FR-FR, DE-DE, etc.) so it understands and groups these variants as a single piece of content.

Content AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

Can user personalization trigger a penalty for cloaking?

Martin Splitt Nov 11, 2020 ★★★

Displaying personalized content to users (e.g., favorite restaurants at the top of the list) based on their preferences is not considered cloaking, as long as the content meets user expectations and is not misleading.

Content Penalties & Spam

Are Core Web Vitals really measured on users or bots?

Martin Splitt Nov 11, 2020 ★★★

Core Web Vitals are measured from real user data (Chrome UX Report), not from rendered versions for bots. Therefore, dynamic rendering does not impact these metrics.

Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance

Is dynamic rendering really dead for SEO?

Martin Splitt Nov 11, 2020 ★★★

Dynamic rendering is considered a stopgap solution. For medium to long-term investments, prioritize SSR with hydration that offers the best of both worlds.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Is it true that Googlebot doesn't click on buttons on your site?

Martin Splitt Nov 11, 2020 ★★

Google Search doesn't click on buttons or interactive elements during crawling. A non-functional 'Add to Cart' button in SSR therefore has no negative impact on SEO.

Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO

Are web workers truly compatible with Google's JavaScript rendering?

Martin Splitt Nov 11, 2020 ★★

Although web workers are theoretically beneficial for parallelizing JavaScript work, they require very careful testing as many use cases still fail in Google rendering.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO