What does Google say about SEO?

Why aren't all your Disqus comments indexed in the same way?

John Mueller Jun 23, 2020 ★★

The indexing of Disqus comments varies based on the implementation (caching in static HTML or not). Martin Splitt mentioned a possible bug. Indexing is not uniform across all sites using Disqus.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Web Performance

How does Google group your URLs to prioritize crawling?

John Mueller Jun 23, 2020 ★★★

Google automatically creates groups of similar URLs (e.g., all product pages) by analyzing URL patterns. This helps prioritize crawling: if 90% of a group is no-index, Google deprioritizes new URLs in that group.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO Domain Name

Why does your traffic really drop after a publishing break?

John Mueller Jun 23, 2020 ★★

A traffic drop after a few months of inactivity is generally not due to the frequency of publication, but to an algorithmic reassessment of the site's relevance. The consistency of publication is not a direct ranking factor.

Algorithms AI & SEO

Why is Google Discover more demanding than traditional search for showcasing your content?

John Mueller Jun 23, 2020 ★★★

Google Discover follows the Google News guidelines for eligibility. Since the content is shown to users who are not actively searching for it, the systems are more cautious. A decrease in visibility often means that the content no longer meets the hi...

Algorithms Content Discover & News AI & SEO

Do technical errors on a main domain really penalize its subdomains?

John Mueller Jun 23, 2020 ★★

Technical errors (404s, structured data issues, speed problems, grammar) on a domain generally do not affect subdomains. Exception: if the main domain appears completely offline, Google can deduce that all subdomains are as well.

Content Structured Data AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Web Performance

Why do your review snippets seem to disappear and then reappear every week?

John Mueller Jun 23, 2020 ★★

Weekly or monthly activations/deactivations of review snippets suggest a technical issue or algorithmic hesitation. This is not normal behavior. It's essential to share the URLs in the forum or with the Google team for diagnosis.

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

Why does your massive no-index take 6 months to a year to be processed by Google?

John Mueller Jun 23, 2020 ★★★

Adding no-index to millions of old pages takes time (6 months to 1 year) to be fully processed. Google prioritizes crawling new important pages, even though, in absolute volume, it still crawls many old URLs. Use internal architecture to clarify prio...

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

Do flat URLs really hinder Google's understanding?

John Mueller Jun 23, 2020 ★★

A very flat URL structure (with no clear folders or parameters) makes it harder for Google to understand which parts of the URL are relevant. Parameters (e.g., city=paris) allow Google to test by removing them and observing the effect.

AI & SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Should You Really Be Using the rel=sponsored Attribute on Your Paid Links?

Gary Illyes Jun 22, 2020 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated in a podcast that currently, approximately one million websites were using the "rel=sponsored" attribute in their links, 9 months after the official announcement...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Should You Worry About Ranking Fluctuations During Your Site's First Year?

John Mueller Jun 22, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller explained during a hangout that it was completely normal to observe fluctuations in the SEO of a new site, up to one year after its launch. According to him, there is no need to make major changes during the first year, even if "yo-yo ef...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Are YouTube Links Really Useless for Your SEO?

John Mueller Jun 22, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google's search engine does not use links from YouTube in its algorithm...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Penalties & Spam Social Media

Should You Really Nofollow All Guest Blogging Links?

John Mueller Jun 22, 2020 ★★★

John Mueller said (again) on Twitter that for him (and therefore for Google), all links in "guest-blogging" posts (guest posts) should be "rel=nofollow" or "rel=sponsored". Whether these links were purchased or not...

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Social Media

How does Google truly penalize low-value content?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 18, 2020 ★★★

A manual action for 'thin content with little or no added value' is applied to sites containing a significant percentage of low-quality or superficial pages that do not provide much value to users.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Penalties & Spam

How much human control does Google really have over your site's ranking?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 18, 2020 ★★★

Google scans sites to detect violations of its policies and guidelines. In these cases, a human may review the site and apply a manual action. Following a manual action, the affected pages or the entire site may be downgraded or completely omitted fr...

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO Penalties & Spam

Is it true that Google’s ‘Pure Spam’ can lead to costly Black Hat SEO penalties?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 18, 2020 ★★★

‘Pure Spam’ refers to what webmasters call Black Hat SEO. This includes complex techniques such as hosting automatically generated pages with no valid content, cloaking, scraping, and other dubious practices.

Domain Age & History Content JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Does Google really penalize for manipulative structured data?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 18, 2020 ★★★

Manual actions for structured data issues are applied to sites where the markup uses techniques outside Google's guidelines: marking invisible content to users, marking irrelevant or misleading content, or other manipulative behaviors.

Domain Age & History Content

Do you really need to fix ALL pages to lift a Google manual action?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 18, 2020 ★★★

To resolve a manual action, you need to fix the issue on ALL affected pages. Fixing only some pages will not resolve the issue. A good reconsideration request must explain the exact problem, detail the steps taken to fix it, and document the outcome ...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO PDF & Files Penalties & Spam

Manual actions vs security issues: Can you really tell the difference?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 18, 2020 ★★★

Manual actions mainly involve attempts to manipulate the Google index and result in a lower ranking or removal from results without any visual indication for the user. Security issues pertain to hacks or behaviors that could potentially harm visitors...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Images & Videos Local Search

How can you prioritize hybrid server/client rendering without harming your SEO?

Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★★

For a hybrid rendering approach (server-side + client-side), prioritize critical content server-side: title, meta description, canonical, and the main content expected by the user (product descriptions for e-commerce, articles for a blog). Secondary ...

Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News E-commerce AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Should you really ignore noindex settings for your JS and CSS files?

Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★★

Adding a noindex directive in the HTTP headers of JavaScript or CSS files is generally unnecessary as they are not usually indexed. However, you must not block their crawl via robots.txt, as this can cause rendering issues.

Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files