What does Google say about SEO?

Should you block automatic language-based redirects on your multilingual website?

Martin Splitt Oct 15, 2024 ★★★

Google recommends not automatically redirecting or forcing users toward a specific language version. Users must be given the choice of their preferred version.

AI & SEO International SEO

Does limiting the number of language versions on your website really help you rank better?

Martin Splitt Oct 15, 2024 ★★

Don't overdo internationalization. It's better to choose the locales and countries that truly matter and that you're prepared to support properly, rather than creating poorly translated pages.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

Should you really create different content for each local market or is translation enough?

Martin Splitt Oct 15, 2024 ★★

Instead of poor translations, you must ensure you have genuinely useful content for different audiences in targeted countries, with excellent user experience for each language variation.

Content AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

Can Google Trends really replace your dedicated SEO keyword research tools?

Omri Weisman Oct 10, 2024 ★★★

Keyword research is the practice of identifying the words and phrases your audience uses to search for information you offer on your website. Google Trends can be used for this keyword research as part of your SEO efforts.

How can you leverage search trends to anticipate demand and maximize your SEO traffic?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 10, 2024 ★★★

Google Trends data can help you plan your content for SEO. For example, by identifying seasonal peaks in search interest for certain topics, you can prepare blog articles before these periods to drive more traffic to your site from Google Search.

Content Discover & News AI & SEO

Why Should You Use Topics Instead of Exact Search Terms in Google Trends?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 10, 2024 ★★

When using Google Trends, it is recommended to select topics rather than simple search terms. Topics aggregate data across languages and include misspellings, variations, and associated acronyms.

AI & SEO International SEO

Should you monitor what your competitors' audiences are searching for to unlock hidden content opportunities?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 10, 2024 ★★

Google Trends allows you to analyze what people are searching for in connection with your competitors. This can give you ideas to expand your content by identifying topics or search terms you hadn't previously considered.

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Should you really be monitoring emerging topics in Google Trends to stay ahead of SEO opportunities?

Omri Weisman Oct 10, 2024 ★★

In Google Trends, check both the most searched topics (top topics) to see what has already generated significant interest, and emerging topics (rising topics) to understand what is gaining traction. Don't forget to browse through the pagination to se...

Pagination & Structure

Should You Really Choose Between Noindex and Canonical for SEO Optimization?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2024 ★★★

John Mueller has clarified the simultaneous use of noindex and canonical tags. While the noindex tag prevents a page from being indexed, the canonical tag indicates a preferred URL. The famous Google figure specified that it's better to choose just o...

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

Should You Really Avoid Maintenance Pages Before Launching Your New Site?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2024 ★★★

John Mueller recommends not using a generic maintenance page or activating DNS before your site is ready. This approach accelerates indexing, as a generic holding page often signals an inactive site, slowing down Google's recognition once the site go...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

How Can SEO Professionals Control AI Crawler Access to Maximize Their SEO Performance?

John Mueller Oct 08, 2024 ★★★

John Mueller states that technical SEO professionals can influence their clients' decisions regarding AI policies and decisions thanks to their knowledge of how crawlers work and their mastery of control mechanisms (such as the robots.txt file). They...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks PDF & Files

Why does Google deliberately choose not to aim for 100% reliability in Search?

Ben Walton Oct 03, 2024 ★★

Google doesn't aim for 100% reliability in Search. The SRE team defines a target reliability level (SLO) tailored to each product, because targeting 100% would be prohibitively expensive and would slow development. The chosen level depends on actual ...

E-commerce AI & SEO

Why does Google treat some search queries as less expensive than others?

David Yule Oct 03, 2024 ★★

Not all Google queries are equal in terms of CPU cost. A simple query that has already been processed can be served from cache at very low cost, while other queries consume far more computing resources. This cost difference impacts capacity planning ...

AI & SEO Web Performance

Is Google really checking user experience beyond HTTP status codes?

Ben Walton Oct 03, 2024 ★★★

Google has evolved beyond simple HTTP error monitoring. The SRE team now verifies with great precision whether the product experience is correct: not only whether a response is sent with a 200 code, but also whether what is delivered to the user func...

E-commerce HTTPS & Security AI & SEO

How is Google detecting incidents before you even know they exist?

David Yule Oct 03, 2024 ★★

Google's objective is to detect incidents internally before users report them on social media. The SRE team measures how many incidents were detected first by their systems versus reported by users. When a user reports a problem first, it reveals a s...

AI & SEO

Does Google really deprioritize certain traffic during extreme peaks without affecting your SEO?

David Yule Oct 03, 2024 ★★

During extreme traffic peaks (like the 2022 World Cup), Google uses a traffic prioritization system. Low-priority traffic (such as internal load testing) is abandoned first, followed by certain services where a few failures go unnoticed. This early-w...

AI & SEO Local Search

Does Google really steal indexing resources to stabilize its search engine during outages?

David Yule Oct 03, 2024 ★★

During major incidents, Google can shift resources between different Search components. If some systems are running normally while others are under stress, the SRE team can 'steal' resources from healthy systems to reinforce overloaded ones.

AI & SEO

How does Google anticipate and pre-provision server resources for major traffic spikes?

David Yule Oct 03, 2024 ★★

For major foreseeable events like the World Cup, Google plans 6 months in advance: forecasting expected traffic, load testing, CPU cost profiling, and provisioning additional server capacity. However, profiling actual costs before the real event rema...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Does Google really stabilize rankings with emergency mitigations before deploying permanent fixes?

David Yule Oct 03, 2024 ★★

Google distinguishes mitigations (short-term actions to restore a stable state, such as a rollback) from permanent fixes. Mitigations allow rapid incident resolution, after which the team works on the root cause to implement a permanent solution befo...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure

Why does Google suddenly shut down data centers when something goes wrong?

Ben Walton Oct 03, 2024 ★★

When a problem affects a single data center, Google's response can be to take that data center offline immediately so it stops serving users. It's a rapid mitigation that eliminates the impact on users while the root cause is identified and fixed.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO