What does Google say about SEO?

Search through official Google statements about search engine optimization

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9617 statement(s) found
Should you really avoid JavaScript for SEO, or is it just a persistent myth?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★
A WordPress site using a theme heavily dependent on JavaScript (no content without JS) can pose an SEO problem, but only if indexing or visibility issues arise. If the site operates correctly in Google, do not modify it (don’t fix what isn’t broken)....
Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO
Can you really have a good FID while suffering from catastrophic TTI?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★
It is possible to have a good First Input Delay score while having poor Time to Interactive and Total Blocking Time scores, likely due to intermittent blocking of the main thread not captured by FID. If the real user experience is good despite these ...
Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance
Does FOUC really harm your organic SEO?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★
Flash of Unstyled Content happens because the browser can paint the content before the CSS loads by using its default stylesheet (system fonts, black headings, blue underlined links). Inlining the critical styles in the HTML avoids this phenomenon by...
Content E-commerce AI & SEO Links & Backlinks PDF & Files
Does JavaScript really consume more crawl budget than classic HTML?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★
JavaScript sites may consume slightly more crawl budget if JS makes extra network requests, but Google caches common resources (JS, CSS, identical images) between pages. The real impact on crawl budget is usually negligible except for sites with tens...
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Web Performance
Is it true that blocking a site without JavaScript risks an SEO penalty?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★
Completely blocking a site without JavaScript and displaying a 'please enable JavaScript' message does not result in a direct SEO penalty, but it poses user experience issues if JavaScript fails or is disabled. Google no longer recommends this approa...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure Local Search
Why don't your Lighthouse scores truly reflect your site's real performance?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★★
Lab data (Lighthouse) comes from powerful machines with good connections, while Field data (CrUX) reflects the actual experience of users (varied devices, slow connections, diverse geolocation). Field data is a better indicator of real user experienc...
Local Search International SEO
Does Google’s render tree really matter for your SEO strategy?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★
Google uses the render tree instead of final pixels to analyze content, but this should not concern SEOs except in extreme cases where the layout is completely broken. Checking the rendered HTML and appearance in a real browser is sufficient in the v...
Content AI & SEO
Should you really be worried about unloaded resources in Search Console?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★
The message 'X resources out of Y could not be loaded' in Search Console does not necessarily indicate a problem. Google does not load certain resources that are unnecessary for rendering (e.g., Google Analytics). 'Other error' messages generally mea...
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console
Why doesn’t Google need to download your images to index them?
Martin Splitt Jun 17, 2020 ★★
Images are often not downloaded by Search Console testing tools for performance reasons, but this does not affect indexing. For the main web crawl, Google only needs the image URL, alt text, and context, not the pixels. If the correct image URL appea...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos Domain Name Web Performance Search Console
Should we really disregard spammy automated backlinks?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★★
Google automatically ignores spammy links that are created en masse by scripts. Google's algorithms are used to seeing this type of manipulation (thousands of automatically generated links) and completely ignore them, including the anchor text. There...
Algorithms AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam
Is the Analytics bounce rate really irrelevant for your SEO?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★★
Google does not consider the Analytics bounce rate as a ranking factor. Redirects to external login systems (Google, Facebook) therefore do not affect SEO, even though they may appear as bounces in the statistics.
Redirects Social Media
Is it true that word count is really unnecessary for ranking on Google?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★★
Google does not use word count as a ranking factor. There is no minimum word count to be reached (1000, 5000 words). Sometimes short pages are excellent for users, and sometimes long pages are. The important thing is the value provided, not the numbe...
Domain Age & History
Why does Google suddenly show more non-indexed URLs in Search Console?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★★
Google now prominently displays discovered but non-indexed URLs in Search Console. This is not a change in indexing itself but in the way this information is reported. Google has always been selective and cannot index the entire web.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Local Search Search Console
Why does Google only crawl a fraction of your known pages?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★★
Google has only crawled a portion of known URLs from a site since its inception. If Google crawls 20,000 pages out of 100,000 known (via sitemap), only those 20,000 can be indexed. This number increases as the quality of the site improves. This is no...
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console
Should you include all your pages in a general sitemap?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★
General sitemaps must include all your pages. News sitemaps are limited to the last 1000 articles and are specifically meant for Google News, but can be used by any website. Including all URLs in a sitemap allows for comprehensive reporting in Search...
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Discover & News AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console
Does the source of content affect the crawl budget?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★
There is no difference in the crawl budget based on whether the content is written by you, a team of writers, or generated by users. The important factor is to structure the site so that Google can crawl and quickly find the most important pages.
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure
Does Googlebot send an HTTP referrer when crawling your site?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★
Googlebot does not send an HTTP referrer when crawling, even when following redirects or links. Consequently, pop-ups or conditional messages based on the referrer will never be seen by Google and do not affect SEO.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Redirects
Does Discover really work without strict technical criteria?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★
There are no specific technical requirements, mandatory formats, or necessary meta tags to appear in Discover (except for not blocking crawls). You need to create content that your audience really likes. Large preview images are possible by default w...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News AI & SEO Images & Videos Mobile SEO
Can removing pages from a sitemap actually limit their crawling by Google?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★
Sitemaps help Google crawl better, but do not limit what is crawled. Removing pages from a sitemap does not prevent Google from crawling or indexing them. Google crawls the site normally even without a sitemap.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console
Does structured data really influence rankings on Google?
John Mueller Jun 12, 2020 ★★★
Adding additional types of structured data (such as online schema) does not change page rankings. It provides more information to Google and can generate different rich results, but it does not affect the position in search results.
Domain Age & History Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Pagination & Structure
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