What does Google say about SEO?

Does Google really respect robots.txt, or is it just a suggestion?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★★

Googlebot and most search engines follow and respect the directives defined in the robots.txt file, although not all bots on the Internet necessarily do so.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files

Should you use wildcards in robots.txt to better control your crawl budget?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★

You can use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard character in your robots.txt file to simplify your rules and create more flexible URL patterns.

Crawl & Indexing Domain Name PDF & Files

Should you really declare your XML sitemap in the robots.txt file?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★

You can use the 'sitemap' directive in your robots.txt file to tell crawlers where to find your XML sitemap, making it easier for them to discover your URLs.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name PDF & Files Search Console

Does the meta robots noindex tag really prevent your pages from being indexed in Google?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★★

To prevent a page from being indexed in Google Search, you can use the meta robots tag with the 'noindex' value in the head section of your HTML. This tag tells Google not to include this page in its search index.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing

Why is robots.txt preventing Google from deindexing your pages?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★★

To prevent a page from appearing in Google's index, use the meta robots tag or the X-Robots-Tag header, but do not block the page in robots.txt. Blocking in robots.txt prevents Googlebot from seeing your deindexing directives.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Does robots.txt really block your pages from being indexed?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★★

The robots.txt file serves to tell Googlebot not to crawl certain pages, which is different from preventing them from being indexed. It's useful to prevent Googlebot from spending time on certain resources.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files

Can you really stack multiple meta robots directives in just one tag?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★

You can specify multiple directives in a single meta robots tag, such as disabling snippets and translations at the same time in Google search results.

AI & SEO International SEO

Where exactly should you place your robots.txt file for search engines to actually recognize it?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★★

The robots.txt file must be placed at the root of your domain (example.com/robots.txt). It cannot be placed in a subdirectory like example.com/products/robots.txt, or it will not work.

Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name PDF & Files

Why should you never mix robots.txt blocking and meta noindex on the same page?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★★

You should not block a page in robots.txt while using a meta robots noindex tag on that same page. Googlebot will not be able to access the page to see the noindex tag, which can paradoxically lead to the page being indexed with limited information.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing

Does Google's new robots.txt report really transform how you manage crawl access?

Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024 ★★

Google Search Console offers a robots.txt report that lets you verify how your robots.txt file influences Google Search and test its functionality.

Crawl & Indexing PDF & Files Search Console

Should You Expect a Warning Before Google Manual Penalties?

John Mueller Dec 03, 2024 ★★

On LinkedIn, John Mueller expressed his support for the idea of implementing a one-week warning before applying a manual action in case of violations of Google's rules. Responding to a suggestion from Vlad Melnic, Google's search advocate specifies t...

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam Local Search Social Media

Is Google tightening its grip on site reputation abuse?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★★

Google is strengthening its policy against site reputation abuse. This concerns the publishing of third-party content with little to no supervision, aimed at manipulating rankings by leveraging the host site's ranking signals. Manual penalties may be...

Content AI & SEO Search Console

How does Google assess reputation abuse for websites?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★★

Google employs various criteria to determine if third-party content is used abusively in the context of site reputation abuse. Penalized owners receive a notification through Search Console and can submit a reconsideration request.

Content AI & SEO Search Console

Why is link list distribution seen as spam by Google?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★★

Link list distribution can be seen as link spam. Google uses links as a relevance factor, but links intended to manipulate rankings are considered link spam, including the manipulation of inbound and outbound links.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam

Has Buying Links Really Become Useless for SEO?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★★

The detection of reliable links has significantly improved over the years. Consequently, buying links is now at risk of becoming useless, as Google is better at identifying manipulative links.

Algorithms AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Should you really worry about noindex and 404 alerts in Search Console?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★

Search Console alerts regarding intentionally noindexed pages or 404 errors on expired content can be ignored if these configurations are intentional. Search Console sends these alerts not to miss out on genuine concerns.

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

Could SafeSearch really impact your SEO visibility?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★

If a site does not appear for brand searches, comparing results with SafeSearch on versus off can reveal significant differences. The SafeSearch filter prevents the display of explicit content based on browser settings.

Domain Age & History Content

Does hreflang on A tags really not work with Google?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★★

Google currently does not take into account the hreflang attribute when placed on A elements (links), even though this practice is used by sites like Wikipedia.

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks International SEO

Why is it so challenging to gauge performance on Discover?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★

Performance on Discover is extremely difficult to measure due to the personalized nature of the product, which is based on users' individual interests. The content displayed is constantly changing according to trends. Google cannot provide clear answ...

Content Discover & News E-commerce AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Why is your site losing ground on generic queries while brand queries remain unaffected?

Google Nov 28, 2024 ★★

For a medical site, a significant decline in competitive generic queries (procedure names, common issues) while brand queries perform normally indicates an algorithmic problem rather than a technical one. There’s no quick fix; continuous improvement ...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO