What does Google say about SEO?

Are Core Web Vitals really the only speed criterion that counts for ranking?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

For 'page experience' ranking, Google will rely solely on Core Web Vitals as the speed factor. Other performance metrics may be important for user experience but are not direct ranking factors.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Is alt text truly crucial for your visibility in Google Images?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

The alt text (alt tag) is primarily used for Google Image search. It should describe what is visible in the image rather than simply copy the product description. It's an important factor for SEO if image search is relevant to your business.

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce Images & Videos

Should you really show cookie banners to Googlebot?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

Googlebot should ideally see what a normal user would see from the same location. Since Googlebot mainly crawls from the USA, if American users do not see a cookie banner, Googlebot does not need to see it either.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Should you really differentiate between the visible date and the structured data date?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

The visible date on the page should reflect substantial changes to the main content. For structured data (sitemaps, headers), you can include minor changes like new comments or sidebar adjustments, but not for the date displayed to users.

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

Is the URL Parameters Tool in Search Console a zombie or still useful for your SEO?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

The URL Parameters Tool in Search Console is still operational and is recognized by Google, but display data has been at zero for a long time. A replacement tool is under development.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console

Core Web Vitals: Why does Google ignore other performance metrics for Page Experience?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

For the upcoming Page Experience ranking factor, Google will use only the Core Web Vitals (not other performance metrics like Lighthouse). Desktop and mobile will be evaluated separately. Google will utilize real-world data from the Chrome User Exper...

Domain Age & History Mobile SEO Web Performance Search Console

Does alternative text for images really enhance SEO?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

The alternative text for images is mainly used for image search (Google Images) and for accessibility. It should describe what's visible in the image, not necessarily repeat the product description.

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce AI & SEO Images & Videos

Should you really avoid setting all your outbound links to nofollow?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

Setting all outbound links of a site to nofollow can have a slight negative impact. Google uses links to understand how a site fits into the web. If all links are nofollow, it may give the impression that the site does not trust its own links.

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Should you really hide cookie consent banners from Googlebot?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

Blocking Googlebot from cookie consent banners does not lead to a manual penalty, as long as the main content remains identical for users and for Google. Banners implemented in JavaScript or HTML above the content are generally acceptable.

Content Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure Penalties & Spam

Why does Google sometimes show your old meta descriptions in the SERPs?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

Even after updating the meta description, Google can temporarily show the old text in snippets if that content was previously on the page and considered relevant to the query. This typically normalizes after a few weeks.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Local Search

Should you return a 404 or a 200 on a product page that's out of stock?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

For temporarily unavailable products, displaying a page with a 200 code and an email alert option is acceptable. If the unavailability is long, switching to a 404 allows Google to optimize the crawl budget by reducing the frequency of visits to these...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO Images & Videos Pagination & Structure Local Search

Should you sync visible and technical dates to enhance your crawl?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

The date displayed on the page should reflect major changes to the main content, not minor modifications (comments, sidebar). Dates in the sitemap or structured data can indicate any HTML change to signal Google to recrawl.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Structured Data AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Search Console

Should you really archive out-of-stock products instead of leaving them marked as unavailable?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

For permanently out-of-stock unique products, it is preferable to move them to an 'archives' or 'reference' section rather than keep product pages marked as 'out of stock'. This allows images to remain indexed longer and avoids soft 404 classificatio...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing E-commerce Images & Videos

Does FAQ structured data really need to be 100% visible on the page?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

The content of FAQ structured data must be visible word-for-word on the page. Algorithms check that the text is present to avoid promising something in the results that the user cannot find on the page. The algorithms may become stricter.

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content Structured Data AI & SEO

Can your website's language versions really have completely different designs?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★

The English and French versions of a site can have a completely different design when implementing hreflang. Audiences, content, and keywords can vary drastically from one language to another. This is not an issue.

Content AI & SEO International SEO

Why does keeping your old sites live kill your new domain?

John Mueller Oct 29, 2020 ★★★

Maintaining two old sites active with links to a new central site prevents the new site from gaining visibility as the value is not transferred. Without redirects, the new site struggles to rank and will never surpass the old ones in visibility.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Redirects

Are 307 HSTS redirections really invisible to SEO?

John Mueller Oct 28, 2020 ★★★

The 307 redirections you see in Chrome with HSTS aren't actually present on the server. Chrome displays a 307 result code to clearly indicate that an HSTS redirection has occurred, but this is just a visual indication from the browser.

HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Images & Videos Local Search Redirects

Does Googlebot actually ignore your forced HTTPS redirects?

John Mueller Oct 28, 2020 ★★★

Googlebot attempts to crawl URLs with a clean slate and doesn’t retain any HSTS list. It accesses HTTP URLs directly without applying the browser's HSTS rules.

Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Domain Name

Can 307 HSTS redirects really harm your site's SEO?

John Mueller Oct 28, 2020 ★★

Googlebot does not see the 307 HSTS redirects that you would see in a browser, and this poses no issue for SEO. 307 HSTS redirects do not affect Google's crawling.

Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security Redirects

Does Googlebot really ignore HSTS 307 redirects, or is there a catch?

John Mueller Oct 28, 2020 ★★★

Googlebot does not interact with 307 redirects generated by HSTS. These 307 redirects are not real server-side redirects but rather redirects generated by the Chrome browser to indicate that it is applying HSTS.

Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Redirects