What does Google say about SEO?

Can lazy loading block Google from indexing your content?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

If a site requires scrolling to a certain position for content to load automatically, Google will not see that content. Google loads the page once and sees what is displayed without performing any specific actions like scrolling.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos Web Performance

Should you optimize your content for emojis in SEO?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★

Google tries to understand the emojis used in searches and generally maps them to normal text searches. If someone searches for the coffee emoji, Google should understand that it's equivalent to the word 'coffee'. It is probably not necessary to spec...

AI & SEO

Is JavaScript pagination really an issue for Google?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★

Using JavaScript for pagination isn't bad. It's acceptable as long as you test that it works correctly and that Google can crawl it.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you really use server-side rendering for your metadata?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★

To prevent Google from sometimes fetching content without JavaScript rendering, server-side rendering of metadata is a solution. Otherwise, there's no need to worry too much as rendering and index updates take just a few minutes.

Content Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should you really avoid CDNs for your API calls?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★

CDNs should strictly be used for static resources (JavaScript, CSS, images, videos, fonts) as they can slow down dynamic API calls. For APIs, use a separate domain like api.example.com.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name

Should you really limit client-side API calls to boost your SEO?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★

Design your API to minimize the number of network calls from the browser to the server. Using GraphQL or creating a facade API that consolidates multiple requests into a single response can improve performance.

JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Search Console

How can you structure your pages so that Google recognizes indexable passages?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

For Google to recognize sections of a page as part of passages, it is recommended to have clear headings and well-structured content. If you already have clean pages with clear headings and structure, that's already what search engines need.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you really consolidate your pages, or could you risk losing strategic traffic?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

Before consolidating pages, it's necessary to analyze the queries that generate traffic and verify whether the new pages can still meet the important queries with a good ROI. If so, the consolidated pages will be stronger. If not, it's better to keep...

Domain Age & History

Does Google really consolidate paginated pages into a single entity?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★

Google does not assign products to a specific category nor consolidate paginated pages. Paginated category pages are used to discover individual products. Google shows either the first category page or the product page based on the query, without a c...

Domain Age & History E-commerce Links & Backlinks

How does Google decide when to show images in search results?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★

When a query arrives, Google sends it to different systems (web, images, videos). Each system returns results with a relevance score. If the images are considered highly relevant to the query, Google will display them in the results, potentially at t...

Domain Age & History Images & Videos Local Search

Is the context of images really more important than their visual content for Google?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

Google focuses mainly on the image file and all the context around it (alt text, titles, captions, file names, page sections) rather than just the visual content itself. A beach photo can be relevant for travel or pollution depending on the context o...

Domain Age & History Content Images & Videos PDF & Files

Does Google really index HTTPS even with an invalid SSL certificate?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

Google will switch to the HTTPS version as canonical even if the certificate is no longer valid, if critical elements are missing, or if mixed content generates warnings in the browser. All other signals indicating that HTTPS is the correct version a...

Content Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security

Is it true that translated content is free from duplicate content issues in Google's eyes?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

If you translate content from one language to another, Google does not consider it duplicate content because the words are different. Search engines look at the words on the page, and if the words differ, the content is treated as different.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO International SEO

Can lazy loading without dimensions really jeopardize your CLS score?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

If you are using lazy loading and a gray rectangle appears without fixed dimensions before the image loads, causing text shifts once the image is loaded, this can be a problem for visual stability (CLS) in Core Web Vitals. You need to include the ima...

Domain Age & History Content Images & Videos Pagination & Structure Web Performance

Do 301 redirects really pass SEO juice even when the content changes completely?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

301 redirects transmit signals (link juice) even if the content of the destination page is different from the original page. This is normal in the evolution of a site. The exception would be the purchase of many domains to redirect all to a central s...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Redirects

Should You Really Fix All the 404 Errors Reported in Search Console?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★

The 404 error report in Search Console highlights non-existent pages, but this is not necessarily something to fix. It can happen naturally when someone creates a link to a page that does not exist.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Search Console

Is server-side rendering truly the magic solution for JavaScript SEO?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

Google recommends server-side rendering as a robust approach, but it is absolutely necessary to test with tools like Search Console, the mobile optimization test, or the rich results test to ensure that the final HTML rendering is correct.

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

Do JavaScript charts create duplicate content on your pages?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★

Adding JavaScript charts to an existing page does not cause duplicate content issues. If the chart is the only content on the page, it may not be useful and could be disregarded.

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

Should you really bundle your JavaScript files to preserve your crawl budget?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★

For JavaScript resources, use a single bundle instead of loading multiple JavaScript files to avoid wasting crawl budget. Pre-render resources if possible; otherwise, JavaScript resources remain acceptable.

Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure PDF & Files

Could Fixing CSS Dimensions of Your Graphics Save Your Core Web Vitals?

Martin Splitt Oct 30, 2020 ★★★

To avoid impacting your Core Web Vitals, use CSS to give fixed dimensions to graphic containers so they do not cause layout shift (cumulative layout shift) when they appear.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance