What does Google say about SEO?

Why do your images stay indexed long after the text content has disappeared?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

Google does not re-index images as frequently as text. If a link to an image is found one time out of ten during crawling, the image will be indexed and remain in Google Images, even if the text on the page changes regularly.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Images & Videos Links & Backlinks

Do out of stock pages really hurt your Google rankings?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

Pages of products marked 'out of stock' or 'not available' tend to be ranked as soft 404s. When they slip into a soft 404 state, the page and its images disappear from search results.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should you really delete your out-of-stock product pages to avoid a quality penalty?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

Having hundreds or thousands of out-of-stock product pages can create a mass of low-quality content that doesn't attract attention. It's better to focus this content in a gallery or archive page so that it accumulates value over time.

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce AI & SEO

Is it really necessary to avoid any migration following a failed domain migration?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

During a problematic domain migration, the one thing you must absolutely avoid is another migration. Internal changes to the site are acceptable, especially if they don't involve modifying URLs.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Redirects

Should you really cancel a failed domain migration or commit to it fully?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

You should avoid canceling a domain migration because it does not revert everything to the original state. You're simply moving the current situation (with its issues) back to the old domain. This resolves nothing.

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

How does Google really handle the separation of a site into two distinct entities?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

Separating a site into two is not considered a domain migration by Google since a new state is being created. Using rel canonical followed by 301 redirects is an acceptable approach. It is essential to meticulously track all URLs before and after the...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Redirects

Does Google really analyze the audio of your podcasts for SEO?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

Google does not perform any textual analysis of podcast audio files to understand what is being said. If content is essential for SEO, it needs to be presented in text on the page, for example through a transcription.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO PDF & Files

Should you really index all your pagination pages?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

You need to decide whether pagination pages should be indexed based on whether they are critical for discovering products. If products are well linked elsewhere on the site, pagination does not need to be indexed. Use rel canonical to point to page 1...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Can paged pages really disappear from Google search results?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

There is no meta tag to tell Google to index paged pages but not show them in the results. If they are indexed, they may theoretically appear. In practice, page 1 usually appears first as it is stronger.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Do outbound links that are 404 really harm the perceived quality of a page?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

Having a few outbound links returning 404 on a page does not lead Google to consider the page as low quality or outdated. Google adds these links to the scheduler, and if some are 404, it’s not a problem.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Is EAT really a ranking factor or just a Google smokescreen?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

EAT is primarily used in the guidelines for Quality Raters; it is not a simple algorithmic factor. EAT recommendations reflect what regular users are also searching for. Improving EAT enhances the site independently of Google’s algorithms.

Algorithms Content

Do structured FAQs really help improve rankings on Google?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

Structured FAQs do not improve a page's ranking; they merely allow for potential display with FAQ snippets in the results. It's not a matter of competitiveness in terms of ranking, but rather visibility.

Domain Age & History Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO

Is it true that Google still indexes Flash content, or should everything be migrated to pure HTML?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

Google indexes pages with Flash solely based on the visible HTML content in the rendered DOM, not content within Flash files. The removal of Flash from browsers should not affect site traffic as Google already ignores Flash content.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files

Should you hide GDPR consent banners from Googlebot to avoid cloaking?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

Excluding Googlebot from consent banners via user-agent could be interpreted as cloaking. However, if the banner is only shown to European users and Googlebot crawls from the USA, it won’t see it anyway. The webspam team considers intent.

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

Are Quality Raters really evaluating your site to lower its ranking?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

Quality Raters do not manually rate individual sites to request their demotion. They test algorithm changes by comparing A/B results. Their evaluations serve to improve algorithms overall, not to modify the ranking of a specific site.

Algorithms

Do 302 redirects really pass on as much PageRank as 301 redirects?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

Google uses numerous signals to determine the canonical URL: 301/302 redirects, rel canonical, internal/external links, sitemap, appearance of the URL. A long-term 302 can be treated as a 301 if it stays in place for a long time. The choice of the ca...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Redirects Search Console

Does Google instantly change the canonical URL after removing a redirect?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

When a redirect is set up and then removed, the canonicalization algorithms do not perceive the site as deceptive. They look at the current state. Google tends to be persistent with the canonical URL and does not change it immediately, first observin...

Algorithms Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Redirects

Do 302 redirects really end up being treated as permanent 301s?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

There is no definitive timeframe, but Google eventually treats a 302 redirect as a 301 if it remains in place for a long time. The timeframe is more about months than days, as some 302s stay temporary for quite a while.

AI & SEO Redirects

Can you really migrate multiple sites to a single domain using Google's Change of Address tool?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

The Change of Address tool in Search Console only allows for migrating one domain to another, not multiple domains to a single one. You can still perform the migration with 301 redirects but cannot use the tool for multiple sources.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects Search Console

Does Google's URL Parameters tool still work even when its interface is broken?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

The URL parameters management tool in Search Console is still functional on Google's side, even though the display of statistics is faulty. A replacement tool is being developed, but no confirmed release date has been set.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console