What does Google say about SEO?

Do You Really Need a Keyword in Your Domain Name to Rank Well?

John Mueller Sep 21, 2020 ★★

John Mueller indicated in a video from the "Ask Google Webmasters" series that the presence of a keyword in a site's domain name is not a criterion taken into account by Google: "In short, no. You don't get a special bonus if you have a keyword in yo...

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Can You Really Recover Your SEO Traffic After Being Penalized by Google?

John Mueller Sep 21, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller explained in a hangout that after being subject to a manual action, a website should not expect to regain its visibility from before the penalty.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Should You Focus Exclusively on Core Web Vitals to Optimize Web Performance for SEO?

John Mueller Sep 21, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that "webperf" (Web performance, page load times, etc.) was often a complex topic, but that for SEO, Google stuck to Core Web Vitals and that the 3 criteria of these "essential web signals" (LCP, FID, CLS) were what ...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Web Performance Social Media Search Console

Do keyword TLDs (.jobs, .tech, .pro) really boost your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 15, 2020 ★★★

Google does not grant any ranking bonus for having a keyword in the domain extension (TLD). A site with .jobs, .tech, or any other keyword TLD is not favored for that keyword. The fact that a site contains a keyword in its domain name does not make i...

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

Should you really ditch exact match domain names for better SEO?

John Mueller Sep 15, 2020 ★★

It is recommended to choose a domain name that can be used long-term rather than one that only corresponds to current offerings. Businesses evolve over time, and changing a domain is difficult. For example, if you call yourself bestbluewidgets.com an...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Do keyword TLDs (.jobs, .seo, .tech) really boost your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 15, 2020 ★★★

Having a keyword in a top-level domain (TLD) name like .jobs does not give any specific ranking bonus on Google. The highest-ranked results for a given search typically do not contain the keyword in the domain extension, nor even in the URL. A site i...

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

Should you really sacrifice keywords in your domain name for longevity?

John Mueller Sep 15, 2020 ★★

It's better to choose a domain name that can be used long-term rather than one that corresponds only to the current offering. Businesses evolve and migrating domains is difficult. For example, a site named bestbluewidgets.com will be problematic if t...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Should You Really Implement Hreflang for International SEO?

Google Sep 14, 2020 ★★★

Fabrice Canal (Bing) explained on Twitter that Microsoft's search engine pays relatively little attention to the content of the Hreflang tag, which is less important in any case than language detection through analysis of the page's text.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Social Media International SEO

Should You Still Be Using the Speakable Tag for SEO in 2024?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that the Speakable tag was still valid and not obsolete, contrary to what an email received by a publisher from a Googler working on Google News might have suggested.

Content Discover & News AI & SEO Social Media

Is it really necessary to switch from Blogger to WordPress to boost your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

Hosting a blog on Blogger with a custom domain is perfectly acceptable for SEO. There is no SEO advantage to migrating to WordPress. The Blogger infrastructure provides stability and automatic maintenance, enabling a focus on high-quality content.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Should you really wait for the next core update to reclaim your lost traffic?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★★

A site negatively impacted by a core update does not need to wait for the next update to recover. Improvements can be detected incrementally over time. Some major changes require a full reevaluation during the next core update, but many adjustments c...

Algorithms AI & SEO

Do core updates really recalculate your scores continuously between deployments?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★★

Unlike the old Panda or Penguin updates where scores were frozen until the next refresh, modern core updates see their scores regularly refreshed between two major deployments. Google can recalculate scores using new site data without waiting for the...

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Should you mimic competitors who rise after a core update?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

After a drop due to a core update, it is relevant to analyze the pages that now rank better to identify trends (e.g., informational vs commercial content). This helps to understand what users are looking for, but you should not copy blindly: the aim ...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Why is Google planning to remove the 'crawl anomaly' category from Search Console?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

Google is working on removing the generic 'crawl anomaly' category in Search Console. Instead of grouping various issues, the data will be reclassified into more specific and useful categories. This change is not imminent but is currently under devel...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Should you really implement both Merchant Center feeds and product structured data?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

It is recommended to use both the Merchant Center feed and the product structured data on the pages. The feed powers organic shopping results, while the structured data generates rich results in regular search results. Google may simplify this in the...

Domain Age & History Structured Data E-commerce Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Could cleaning up your artificial backlinks really cause your Google rankings to plummet?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★★

When cleaning up after a manual action related to artificial backlinks, the site may see a drop in rankings because it was previously ranked in an artificial situation. After correction, the ranking reflects reality without the inflated signals. The ...

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam

Does page speed really have such a minimal impact on Google rankings?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★★

Page speed is considered for ranking only on mobile and is a relatively gentle factor. Even a significant score change (e.g., dropping from 100 to 20/100) generally won’t cause a notable drop in search results.

Domain Age & History Mobile SEO Web Performance

Can switching your WordPress theme really sabotage your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

Changing a site's theme can have an SEO impact not through speed, but through the alteration of internal linking and the presentation of content. For example, a central image changing to a thumbnail can reduce the page's relevance in image search. Vi...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos Links & Backlinks Web Performance

Should you really choose the 410 code over 404 for quick deindexing of a page?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

The 410 (Gone) code removes pages from the index slightly faster than the 404, but in the long term, the difference is theoretical and negligible. For urgent removal, using the removal tool in Search Console is more effective than choosing between 40...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Is your site migration stuck in 'pending' status in Search Console? Find out why!

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

A site move displayed as 'pending' in Search Console for months after submission signals no problem. This status simply indicates that Google is keeping track of the move. There is no 'completed' status displayed. If traffic is coming from the old UR...

Domain Age & History Domain Name Redirects Search Console