What does Google say about SEO?

Restoring a 404 URL: Does Google Really Wipe All Traces of Its Past Authority?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

When a previously 404 URL returns to a 200 status, Google treats it like a fresh URL with no 'score' or 'authority' retained from the old version once it has been deindexed. However, external signals (internal links, site quality) can quickly help re...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Does Google Tag Manager affect your content to the point of impacting your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

If the 'container tag' refers to Google Tag Manager, Google processes it during the page rendering. GTM can add, modify, or remove content via JavaScript. Using URL Inspection allows you to see the rendered result and verify whether the content injec...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Search Console

Are guest posts considered a shady link scheme by Google?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★★

Guest posts are acceptable if the author seeks to reach an audience (advertising, notoriety) and does not care about the nofollow. If the sole motivation is to obtain a dofollow link in exchange for the content, it is considered a link scheme. The qu...

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Should you really worry about product duplication with infinite scrolling?

John Mueller Sep 14, 2020 ★★

For an e-commerce site, if page 2 loads products from page 1 (infinite scroll), it is not an SEO problem. Google is looking for links to product pages, and finding them duplicated across multiple paginated pages is acceptable. The risk of mixed conte...

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Does Google Really Flag Domains as "Toxic" in Its Algorithm?

John Mueller Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google doesn't have a "flag" indicating that a domain name is toxic: "We don't have a concept of a toxic domain. It's good to use tools to work on your site, but you need to understand what the tool does, interp...

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Do Core Web Vitals Really Matter for Google Rankings?

Gary Illyes Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

Gary Illyes explained on Reddit that the "Core Web Vitals (CWV)" project, which was set to launch in 2021, would not be a heavily weighted criterion in the algorithm: "Google strives to present the highest quality and most relevant results for users'...

Algorithms AI & SEO Images & Videos Web Performance

Do Images in XML Sitemaps Count Toward the 50,000 URL Limit?

John Mueller Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

We know that XML Sitemap files are limited to 50,000 URLs. We also know that for each page URL, we can indicate the URLs of the main images it contains. But do these image URLs count as part of the 50,000 URLs allowed per file? John Mueller answered ...

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Can Google Really Block a Page's Visibility Based on Country?

John Mueller Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that there is no system or mechanism on Google's search engine to limit a page's visibility to one country or another. For example, a page that could be visible on Google UK but not on Google Ireland. Not possible...

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

Is the word count really a Google ranking factor?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

The word count is not a ranking factor. If you can answer the user's need in 50 words, that's perfect. If you need 2000 words, that's also acceptable. The important thing is to provide the necessary information without unnecessary repetition, not to ...

AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you update your existing content instead of creating new pages?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

For similar content published each year (e.g., skincare routines), it's better to update the existing page and reposition it on the site rather than create a new page. Google may consider very similar pages as duplicates and canonicalize them togethe...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does having an active blog really boost your Google ranking?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

Having a blog and regularly producing new content is not a site-wide ranking factor. A blog is only beneficial if it provides relevant and useful content to users, not just to show Google that new content is being produced.

Content E-commerce AI & SEO

Why are crawl stats a completely useless indicator for assessing the performance of your content?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2020 ★★

To determine if content is underperforming, check the Performance Report in Search Console rather than the crawl stats. If you're getting a lot of impressions but few clicks, the content may need to be modified. Crawl stats are not a good indicator o...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Should you really consolidate your FAQ pages to dodge thin content penalties?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

For help centers featuring hundreds of pages addressing very specific questions in just one or two sentences, Google may treat them as thin content. It is advisable to group similar or related questions on the same page to create denser and more usef...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Should you really merge your similar content for better ranking?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

Merging similar content and implementing redirects reduces Google’s crawl workload and helps centralize relevance and information in one place. This makes it easier to identify the right content to present to users and avoids cannibalization or dupli...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Redirects

Can generated content for location pages really escape Google's duplicate content filter?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2020 ★★★

For location pages (e.g., 50 states with similar content), generated content can work if it contains enough relevant facts and differing information from one city to another. If the content is too similar (only a few different words), Google may view...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

How does Google really detect duplicate content with fingerprinting?

Martin Splitt Sep 09, 2020 ★★

Google creates a digital fingerprint of the content and uses similarity metrics to determine if two pages are duplicates. If about 95% of the content is identical (e.g., the same product description with just a price or currency difference), Google t...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing E-commerce

Hreflang in HTML or XML Sitemap: Is There Really a Difference for Google?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2020 ★★★

For implementing hreflang, Google treats the HTML tag and the declaration in an XML sitemap exactly the same. Both methods are equivalent, and the choice depends on the ease of implementation for the site.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files Search Console International SEO

How can you balance internal navigation to maximize both crawling and ranking?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2020 ★★★

Internal navigation serves two purposes for Google: enabling complete discovery of site pages and understanding which pages are important and how they are interconnected. It is essential to find a balance between overly flat structure (everything lin...

Domain Age & History Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Are structured data really unnecessary for Google SEO?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2020 ★★★

Structured data is not a requirement for a page to be indexed or ranked by Google. If a single page on a site lacks structured data or a specific type like mainEntity, it won't be an issue for SEO.

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

Should you really stop adding the current year to your SEO titles?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2020 ★★★

Adding the current year to article titles (e.g. 'how to create a website in 2020') does not help with ranking. Google does not have an algorithm that favors content featuring the current year. This practice can even be misleading when sites systemati...

Algorithms Content Discover & News AI & SEO