What does Google say about SEO?

Does functional duplicate content really harm your SEO ranking?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★★

Repeating standard elements (terms and conditions, phone number, delivery information) on all pages is not penalizing. Google recognizes these repetitive blocks and assigns them less weight in page evaluation, concentrating on the main unique content...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Should you really abandon the FAQ schema on single-question product pages?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

You can mark each question of a FAQ on a dedicated page with FAQ schema. However, Google primarily displays the FAQ rich snippet when multiple questions are present on the same page. With only one question per URL, the markup will be indexed but the ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Structured Data AI & SEO Domain Name Local Search

Does schema markup really help you land featured snippets?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★★

To achieve the answer box at the top of the page (featured snippet), Google relies on the quality and clarity of the page content, not on any specific schema markup. The featured snippet team prioritizes the analysis of raw HTML and refuses to depend...

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO

Is Google penalizing CSS-hidden FAQ content in an accordion?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★★

For FAQ schema, Google accepts that the answer can be hidden with CSS (accordion) as long as it remains in the HTML. The important part is that the question is visible and the answer is in HTML, not loaded via JavaScript after interaction. Purely CSS...

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should you merge two cannibalizing pages or let them coexist?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★★

When faced with two competing pages on the same topic, merging via canonical is wise if they struggle to rank (boost visibility). Conversely, if both pages are already ranking in the 1st or 2nd position, there is no gain from merging: it is better to...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Can you really combine canonical and noindex without risk?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

Combining canonical and noindex on the same page is theoretically contradictory (one says 'index the other', the other says 'don’t index anything'). In practice, Google does not block this dual signal: the canonical suggests the preferred page, while...

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

Does the order of keywords on a page really impact Google rankings?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★★

Google breaks down queries into concepts (individual terms and recognized phrases, e.g., 'New York' = 1 concept). The exact order of words on the page is not critical; what matters is the presence of related concepts grouped in the same content area....

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Does the order of keywords in the meta description really affect CTR?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

Google generates snippets by highlighting query terms, sometimes placing them at the beginning of the description even if they appear later in the source text. Therefore, the exact order in the meta description is not crucial for display. To optimize...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should you really stuff your pages with synonyms to rank on Google?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★★

Google automatically learns synonyms, spelling variants (e.g., umlaut) and commonly used terms (e.g., 'jeans' = mainly jeans-hose, secondarily jeans-jacke) by analyzing user search behavior. This process is dynamic: new slang terms are quickly detect...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should you create mixed pages to cover all meanings of a polysemous keyword?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

When a term refers to multiple categories (e.g. 'jeans' = pants 80%, jacket 20%), Google automatically weighs the relevance of pages based on observed search behaviors. There's no need to create an artificial mixed page: it's preferable to offer high...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Should you optimize your site for synonyms, or does Google really handle it all by itself?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

John Mueller recommends checking out Paul Haahr's video (Google engineer) presented at the Webmaster Conference 2019, which explains in detail how Google algorithmically detects and utilizes synonyms. This resource sheds light on the appropriate reac...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Does Google really give a 6-month notice before any major SEO changes?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

Google Search strives to give at least 6 months' notice before any major algorithmic change requiring webmaster action (e.g., HTTPS, AMP, Page Speed). For Chrome initiatives (slowness warnings), the timeline may differ, but critical SEO impacts syste...

Algorithms Domain Age & History HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Mobile SEO Web Performance Local Search

Subdomains or Subdirectories for Internationalization: Which Hreflang Architecture Does Google Really Favor?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

For multilingual sites (3-5 languages), Google recommends subdirectories (example.com/fr/, /en/, /de/) over subdomains (fr.example.com). Subdirectories facilitate signal attribution to the overall site, simplify analytics, and enhance the perceived c...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name International SEO

Why does linking to the homepage undermine your hreflang strategy?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★★

For Google to correctly recognize language variants, each page must link to the exact corresponding version in the other language (FR article → equivalent EN article), not to that language's homepage. This 1:1 bidirectional link allows Google to grou...

Domain Age & History Discover & News AI & SEO Links & Backlinks International SEO

Should you add footer links to your multilingual homepages in addition to hreflang?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

Adding footer links to the homepages of each language variant (in addition to hreflang on a page-by-page basis) is acceptable and can help the visibility of homepages. However, the 1:1 hreflang link between equivalent contents remains the priority. B...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure International SEO

Can shared cloud IPs really harm your SEO?

John Mueller May 14, 2020 ★★

On a classic cloud infrastructure (shared IPs among dozens/hundreds of sites), Google does not penalize a site for its 'IP neighbors'. Only an IP hosting massive spam (e.g., 50,000 spam sites + 1 legitimate site) could be globally blocked by the webs...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure Penalties & Spam

Why does your hreflang markup still not work despite your efforts?

John Mueller May 13, 2020 ★★★

For hreflang to work, Google must see the markup on both linked pages. If an English page points to a Spanish page, the Spanish page must also point to the English page. If the language versions are in separate sitemaps, all sitemaps must be submitte...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console International SEO

Does Google really rewrite your meta descriptions if they contain too many keywords?

John Mueller May 13, 2020 ★★★

When Google detects that a meta description resembles keyword stuffing or appears unhelpful to the user, its systems may decide to rewrite it based on the actual content of the page. The displayed description may also vary depending on the user's que...

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

Why does altering the Analytics code hinder Search Console verification?

John Mueller May 13, 2020 ★★

For Search Console to recognize the Google Analytics code as a verification method, the JavaScript code must be exactly as provided by Analytics. Even if the code works for Analytics, a modification can prevent Search Console from recognizing it for ...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Should you choose hreflang language only or language+country for your international versions?

John Mueller May 13, 2020 ★★

With hreflang, you can define either a language (e.g., pt for Portuguese) or a language-country combination (e.g., pt-BR for Brazilian Portuguese). If you only have one Portuguese version, use just the language code without the country.

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks International SEO