What does Google say about SEO?

Do links in embedded tweets really affect your SEO?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★

When a tweet is embedded on a third-party site, Google can technically treat the links in that tweet as part of the page. However, Twitter heavily uses nofollow: these links generally have no direct SEO impact, even if they show up in Search Console.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Social Media Search Console

How does Google really discover your new URLs?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

Google doesn't guess URLs: it discovers them through links (internal, sitemaps, RSS, tweets, public emails, etc.). There is no back-door access to the server. A URL mentioned nowhere will never be crawled.

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

Is the rel=canonical really mandatory on all AMP pages, even standalone ones?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

For paired AMPs (classic page + AMP), the canonical is required. For standalone AMPs (no classic version), the page must canonicalize to itself. This rule is independent of hreflang and translations.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Mobile SEO International SEO

Should you really implement hreflang on every page of a multilingual website?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★

It is perfectly acceptable to use hreflang only on certain pages (e.g., home, about) and not to use it on other pages of the same site (e.g., localized but untranslated blogs). Hreflang applies on a page-by-page basis, not site-wide.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

Is it true that AMP is a speed factor for Google?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

AMP or non-AMP is not a speed criterion in itself: it is possible to create very fast pages without AMP and slow pages with AMP. Google measures the actual speed (future Core Web Vitals) of the version users see, whether AMP or standard. It’s not the...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Web Performance Search Console

Why does Google measure Core Web Vitals on the actual page version your visitors are really viewing?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

For Core Web Vitals (a future ranking signal, announced at least 6 months in advance), Google will analyze the page that real users predominantly view (AMP or standard HTML depending on the user journey). No deployment date has been communicated yet.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Web Performance

Is it really necessary to manually de-index your old pagination URLs?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★

When pagination is removed, old paginated URLs either return the homepage (automatically canonicalized) or a 404 (de-indexed upon recrawl). Google manages this naturally over time without any manual de-indexing action.

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Is advertising on your site harming your SEO?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

Displaying ads is not an SEO problem in itself. Google checks that the main content remains visible above-the-fold (not just ads) and that the site adheres to the Better Ads Standard (otherwise, Chrome may block ads). The indirect SEO impact mainly c...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Local Search

Does rel=canonical really protect your syndicated content from ranking theft?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

When syndicating an article with rel=canonical, two outcomes are possible: either Google indexes both pages separately (risking the syndicator ranking better), or Google chooses a unique canonical. The rel=canonical is a signal among others (internal...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News Links & Backlinks Domain Name Redirects Search Console

Can a hacked site lose its crawl budget due to Google security alerts?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★

A hacked site with malware or phishing reported in Search Console will not see its crawl reduced. The impact is on display in the search results (warnings, filtering), not on the frequency or intensity of crawling. However, a swift correction is stil...

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

Do guest post links really have no SEO value?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

If guest posts are created solely to obtain links, Google considers that these links probably have no ranking value. This position has been stable for several years.

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Why does Google ignore the lastmod dates in your XML sitemap?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

If all the URLs in a sitemap have the same modification date (e.g., today's date), Google ignores this information and uses the sitemap only to discover new URLs. The priority and changefreq fields are also generally ignored. A meaningful modificatio...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name Search Console

Can a misconfigured sitemap really cut down your crawl budget?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

A poorly configured sitemap (identical dates, etc.) does not penalize the site and does not reduce the crawl budget. Google will crawl organically rather than being guided by the sitemap. The crawl budget depends on Google's demand (indexing need) an...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Is it really necessary to eliminate all duplicate content or should you rely on rel=canonical?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★

Completely eliminating duplicates is impractical for most sites, as it's normal on the web. Using rel=canonical helps Google focus on the main content. Both approaches (manual reduction + canonicalization) are recommended together.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Should you really let Google decide your crawl limit?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★

There is no recommended request/second limit (e.g., 30 req/s). The Search Console setting is a high limit, not a target. Google recommends leaving it on 'Google decides' unless crawling overloads the server or generates excessive bandwidth costs.

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

Do cascading internal 301 redirects really drain SEO juice?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

Even if internal navigation points to old URLs that redirect via 301, Google follows the chain and treats the link as going directly to the final destination (the canonical). No loss of value. Users coming from Google go directly to the canonical, wi...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Pagination & Structure Redirects

Can Google really treat URL changes made by JavaScript and the History API as redirects?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★

When JavaScript uses the History API to modify the URL after loading (e.g., simplifying parameters), Google may interpret this as a redirect to the new URL and choose it as canonical. This can be verified through the URL Inspection tool on both versi...

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

Should you really add nofollow to footer links between sites of the same group?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

If sites belong to the same company, there's no need to add the nofollow attribute to cross links in the footer. Google recommends linking primarily by brand name. For a handful of sites, it's no problem; for hundreds of interconnected sites in the f...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam

Should you still tag your affiliate links with rel=sponsored?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

For common affiliate configurations (Amazon, Booking, eBay), Google already recognizes these URLs and treats them as nofollow links internally. Therefore, there is no risk of penalty if you have not added rel=sponsored. However, it is recommended to ...

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Do affiliate links really harm your website's SEO?

John Mueller Aug 21, 2020 ★★★

The presence of affiliate links on a site is not a sign of poor quality. Affiliate sites become problematic when they lack value-added content, for example, if they simply copy product feeds or generate spun content, but not because of the links them...

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