What does Google say about SEO?

How does Google really refresh the AMP cache of your pages?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

Google regularly updates the AMP cache, particularly during user visits to pages. There is also an API that allows for forced updates of the AMP cache for specific articles. When a user accesses a page from the search results, Google can update the A...

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

Is it true that your thousands of subdomains slow down Google’s crawling?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

When a site uses thousands of subdomains, Google's crawling systems may take time to adapt because they are optimized by hostname. Initially, Google must determine whether all these subdomains share the same server capacity or if each has its own cap...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Social Media

Why does Google filter certain pages in the SERPs despite full indexing?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

If two pages would produce exactly the same snippet in the search results, Google will filter one out. The filtering depends on the query and the relevance of each site. The pages remain indexed; only the display changes based on the search.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO

Is the DMCA or Web Spam Report the most effective method against content scraping?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

To combat content scraping, the DMCA approach with Google (legal aspect) is recommended as a priority. The Web Spam Report can also be used, but primarily serves to train algorithms, not for immediate manual removals. The disavow is relevant only if ...

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

Are category pages with product snippets really free from duplicate content penalties?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

An indexed category page containing product snippets is not considered problematic duplicate content. Duplicate content is normal on the web and does not penalize a site. Google simply seeks to determine which page is most relevant for a given query.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing E-commerce Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO

Can ads drag down your Google ranking because of speed issues?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

Google assesses the speed of a page as it is served to end-users, including ads. If ads slow down the page, this affects the speed score. Speed is already a factor in mobile ranking. Future Core Web Vitals will be part of the Page Experience score, w...

Domain Age & History Mobile SEO Web Performance

Can invalid HTML really sabotage your Google ranking?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

Invalid HTML (e.g., multiple open/close tags) does not negatively affect ranking. The exception concerns meta tags or attributes that must be in the : if HTML is so broken that the slips into the , Google may not recognize these tags (e.g., hreflang...

Structured Data Pagination & Structure International SEO

Should you worry about a Google penalty when deleting content in bulk?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

Deleting a large number of articles (404) for legal reasons or at the request of authors does not penalize the rest of the site. 404 errors are normal on the web. The only consequence is that the deleted content will no longer rank, but the rest of t...

Content Discover & News AI & SEO

Can 301 redirects to fix broken URLs lead to a Google penalty?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

Fixing problematic old URLs with 301 redirects is a best practice that improves the site. It is never considered spam. If a ranking drop coincides with these corrections, it is probably independent and due to other factors.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Penalties & Spam Redirects

Why does Google take months to display your new favicon?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

Favicon modifications (URL change, corrections) take a significant amount of time to be reprocessed by Google. A delay of one to two months after a change is possible before the new favicon appears in mobile results.

AI & SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name

Is a crawlable root page really necessary for a multilingual site?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

For a multilingual site, having a crawlable root page is not mandatory. Redirecting the root domain (301) to the default language version (e.g., /en) is acceptable. Using hreflang with x-default for the main version is recommended but not critical.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Redirects International SEO

Is it really necessary to translate your content to rank in another language?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

A site entirely in one language (e.g., Marathi) will generally not be displayed for queries in another language (e.g., English). Exception: in some countries where local content is lacking, Google may translate the query and display automatically tra...

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

Do URLs with parameters rank as well as clean URLs?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

URLs with parameters (e.g., ?type=blog) rank exactly like URLs with clean paths. Parameters even facilitate crawling: Google's systems learn which parameters are critical and optimize exploration. Forcing clean URLs offers no SEO advantage. URLs are ...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Structured Data Images & Videos Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Should you really redirect all your 404 pages that receive backlinks?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

If 404 pages receive external backlinks, Google does not utilize these links (no problem). If a new page replaces the old one (e.g., a new product), redirecting the old URL is relevant for users and SEO. Redirecting all 404s to the homepage is treate...

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Redirects

Should you really worry about the impact of 404 redirects on your crawl budget?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

Switching from 404 to 301 or vice versa has no significant impact on the crawl budget. Google crawls 404s slightly less over time, but even for millions of pages, the difference is negligible.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Redirects

Does temporarily disabling your e-commerce cart really hurt your SEO ranking?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

Temporarily disabling an e-commerce site's shopping cart (for instance, due to health closures) for several weeks or months typically does not negatively impact ranking, provided the site and products remain online. Google does not penalize a site si...

E-commerce AI & SEO

Do Search Console reports really reflect your indexing status?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

Search Console aggregate reports (mobile-friendly, structured data, Core Web Vitals) only show a sample of the indexed pages, not the entirety. In extreme cases, this sample may be limited to a single page. Therefore, the number of pages in these rep...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Mobile SEO Web Performance Search Console

Does the Search Console sample size depend on your site's perceived quality?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

The sample size used in aggregated Search Console reports can be influenced by the perceived quality of the site. Sites that Google deems high quality and very visible in search results may benefit from a larger sample, while sites of uncertain quali...

AI & SEO Search Console

Why do link aggregators struggle to rank effectively?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★

Sites that primarily function as collections of links to other providers (for example, app or sports betting aggregators) may encounter ranking difficulties because Google’s algorithms may prefer to index source pages rather than these intermediary p...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Does Googlebot really ignore cookie consent banners during indexing?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2020 ★★★

Google is capable of recognizing and ignoring legal banners such as cookie consents during indexing. If the banner is a CSS/JavaScript overlay on existing HTML content, Google can exclude it and index the underlying content normally. In contrast, if ...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Redirects