What does Google say about SEO?

Should you still disavow spammy links pointing to your site?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★

If spammy sites are linking to your site, Google is likely already ignoring them. The disavow tool can be used if you are really concerned, but in most cases, disavowing these low-quality links is not necessary.

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

Is it possible to mark a main page with FAQ schema, or is a dedicated page necessary?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★

It is technically possible to mark a main page with FAQ schema instead of a dedicated page, but the FAQ content must be visible on the page. Completely hiding FAQs is problematic; an accordion with visible questions and expandable answers is acceptab...

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you create a separate page for each video instead of grouping them together?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★

When multiple videos are present on a page, Google only displays a single video thumbnail. For important videos, it's better to create a separate landing page for each video, so that each video has its own clear thumbnail in the results.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Local Search

How does Google choose which sitelinks to display under your search results?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★

Sitelinks are automatically generated by Google when it understands the site's structure and important subpages. A clear hierarchy (main pages, subpages) helps Google identify and display the right sitelinks under a search result.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure Local Search

Is PageRank still a top-ranking factor that you should keep an eye on?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★★

Google still uses PageRank, but it is just one of many ranking factors. Focusing only on PageRank or links is ineffective, as many other elements influence the overall ranking.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Do YouTube two-click embeds really hurt video SEO?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★★

YouTube video embeds with placeholder (two-click for privacy) do not inhibit indexing if the VideoObject schema is used. Google can thus recognize the video and display it in results even without seeing the direct embed. For other non-video social em...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Structured Data AI & SEO Images & Videos Web Performance Local Search

Is it really possible to show different interstitials based on traffic source without SEO risk?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★★

Google devalues mobile pages displaying intrusive full-screen interstitials. Showing a partial interstitial (e.g., lower third) to organic visitors while displaying a full screen to other channels is acceptable, as long as Googlebot sees the lighter ...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Mobile SEO Pagination & Structure Local Search

Is it true that Google ignores GDPR interstitials without penalizing your SEO?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★★

Legally mandated interstitials (privacy policy, cookie consent) are recognized and ignored by Google, provided they are displayed over the HTML content (div overlay) and not instead of the content (redirecting to a separate URL).

Content AI & SEO Domain Name Web Performance Redirects

Can we truly measure the SEO impact of intrusive interstitials?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2020 ★★

There is no method to accurately measure the SEO impact of an intrusive interstitial. It is a soft factor used in mobile ranking, with no indicator in Search Console. The impact varies according to competition and query type (brand vs generic).

Mobile SEO Search Console

Can You Really Optimize Your Content for Google Discover?

Google Jul 20, 2020 ★★★

In the new version of the help page about its Discover feature, Google explains that "there is no way to create content that explicitly aims to meet Discover's interests." In other words, you cannot optimize content with rules specific to Discover...

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should You Reject Backlinks from Pages Less Popular Than Yours?

John Mueller Jul 20, 2020 ★★★

According to John Mueller, receiving links from pages with lower popularity (whether you measure it with metrics like TF, CF, DA or others) than the page receiving the link does not pose a major problem...

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

Should You Block 404 Error Pages in Your Robots.txt File?

John Mueller Jul 20, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it would be a very bad idea to block pages that return 404 errors from search engine crawling, adding that Googlebot attempts to crawl billions of URLs that return 404s every day and that this is completely norm...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Social Media

Should you really unblock all CSS files in robots.txt to avoid a Google penalty?

John Mueller Jul 20, 2020 ★★★

Google must be able to access CSS files to render pages correctly. This is essential for determining whether a page is mobile-friendly. Although CSS files are generally not indexed on their own, Google needs to be able to crawl them. Do not block *.c...

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

Should you really block server configuration files in robots.txt?

John Mueller Jul 20, 2020 ★★

Configuration files such as PHP.ini or .htaccess are not accessible from the outside by default. They are secured or located in a special place. If no one can access them, Googlebot cannot either. Therefore, it’s not necessary to block them explicitl...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files

Should you really create your robots.txt from scratch or can you take inspiration from a competitor?

John Mueller Jul 20, 2020 ★★★

You shouldn't simply reuse someone else's robots.txt file assuming it will work for your site. Instead, think about the parts of your site that you really don't want crawled, and block only those.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO PDF & Files

Does crawl budget really only concern very large sites?

Martin Splitt Jul 14, 2020 ★★★

Crawl budget should only be a concern for sites with millions of URLs. For sites with fewer than one million pages, crawl budget is generally not an issue unless the server infrastructure is failing.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Does the crawl budget really boil down to the simple sum of two variables?

Martin Splitt Jul 14, 2020 ★★★

The crawl budget consists of two elements: crawl rate (the speed at which Google can crawl without overloading the server) and crawl demand (crawl frequency based on content change frequency and not its quality).

Content Crawl & Indexing Web Performance

Should you ditch POST for crawlable APIs and switch everything to GET?

Martin Splitt Jul 14, 2020 ★★

Google cannot cache POST requests, leading to greater crawl budget consumption. For rendering APIs, use GET requests. GraphQL can be employed to reduce the number of requests, but only in GET mode.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance

How does Google really detect content changes on your site?

Martin Splitt Jul 14, 2020 ★★★

Google employs several signals to determine crawl frequency: content fingerprint, structured data with dates, ETag, HTTP Last-Modified header, and modification date in the sitemap. If these signals do not match actual changes, Google will stop relyin...

Content Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security Search Console

Does the crawl budget truly impact the rendering phase of your JavaScript pages?

Martin Splitt Jul 14, 2020 ★★★

The crawl budget affects not only the initial crawl but also the rendering, as Google needs to fetch additional resources (CSS, JavaScript, API). A poor cache can force Google to continuously re-download resources, consuming the crawl budget and pote...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance