What does Google say about SEO?

How does Google Safe Browsing affect your SEO and organic traffic?

Aurora Morales May 07, 2020 ★★★

Google Safe Browsing warns users before they visit misleading sites or download dangerous files. If misleading content is detected, Chrome may display a 'Deceptive Site' warning. Search Console alerts via email if pages contain social engineering con...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO PDF & Files Local Search Social Media Search Console

How does Search Console report security issues beyond just social engineering?

Aurora Morales May 07, 2020 ★★

Search Console reports several types of problems: unusual downloads (files not vetted by Safe Browsing), harmful downloads (malware or unwanted software), unclear mobile billing (insufficiently communicated mobile charges), and malware (software desi...

AI & SEO Mobile SEO PDF & Files Social Media Search Console

How can you monitor and fix security vulnerabilities that are hurting your SEO?

Daniel Waisberg May 05, 2020 ★★★

Search Console provides a Security Issues report that alerts site owners when Google detects that their site may have been hacked or used in a way that could potentially harm visitors or their devices. Verified owners receive an alert email with a li...

HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Search Console

How does Google alert you when your website gets hacked?

Daniel Waisberg May 05, 2020 ★★

When Google detects a security issue on a website, verified owners in Search Console receive an email alerting them to the problem. A banner also appears at the top of the Overview page in Search Console to signal security issues.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Search Console

How does Google detect pirated content obscured by cloaking?

Daniel Waisberg May 05, 2020 ★★★

If pirated content is not visible on the URLs provided in Search Console, this could be an example of cloaking. Cloaking shows different content to users and search engines, complicating the cleaning of a site. A page may not show visible pirated con...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Penalties & Spam Search Console

Why does Google show a 'hacked site' warning in search results?

Aurora Morales May 05, 2020 ★★★

When a site has been compromised to manipulate search rankings, Google may display the label 'This site may have been hacked' in the search results to warn users. For compromised sites that harm users, browsers with Google Safe Browsing may display i...

Domain Age & History Local Search

How can you effectively fix a security issue detected in Search Console without hurting your SEO?

Daniel Waisberg May 05, 2020 ★★★

To resolve a security issue, Google recommends: 1) Reading the problem details and following the provided information links, 2) Using the examples of affected pages to diagnose the issue, 3) Fixing the problem across the entire site (not just on cert...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Search Console

How long do you really have to wait for a Google security warning to be lifted?

Daniel Waisberg May 05, 2020 ★★

Most security reviews take a few days, but some may require up to one or two weeks. Site owners receive a confirmation message upon submission of the request and another message when the review is complete. It is unnecessary to submit another request...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Are JavaScript links really crawlable by Google if the code is clean?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★★

Client-side generated links with JavaScript are crawlable by Google as long as they are tags with an href attribute containing a crawlable URL. Client-side rendering is not an issue as long as the generated HTML is valid and visible in the rendered ...

Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Are JavaScript redirects really as effective as 301s for SEO?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★★

Google properly handles JavaScript redirects (window.location.href). They have no obvious disadvantage compared to server-side 301 redirects for Google Search, although they require the crawler to understand JavaScript. A client-side 301 redirect is ...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Redirects Search Console

Should you overlook timeout errors from the Mobile-Friendly Test?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★★

Testing tools like the Mobile-Friendly Test can show 'other errors' and timeouts more easily than Google's actual indexing infrastructure, which is much more patient. These errors in the tools do not necessarily reflect a real indexing issue.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO Pagination & Structure Local Search

Can a 2.7 MB JavaScript bundle really pass through Google without issues?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★

A total JavaScript bundle size of 2.7 MB does not pose a major problem for Google indexing. It is only from 10 MB that it becomes truly problematic. Optimization remains recommended for user experience through tree-shaking and code-splitting.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you really abandon complete unbundling of your JavaScript files?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★

Fully unbundling JavaScript bundles into multiple separate files is not recommended because browsers have a limit on simultaneous HTTP connections per host, which slows down loading. Route-based code splitting is preferable to total unbundling.

HTTPS & Security JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files

Is Googlebot still crawling your site with an outdated Chrome 41 user-agent?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★★

Since April 2019, Googlebot Search no longer uses the Chrome 41 user-agent and has become evergreen. If requests with Chrome 41 appear in the logs, you must verify that they are genuinely coming from Google IPs via reverse DNS, as they could be fake ...

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

Should you really avoid multiple H1 tags on the same page?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★★

Having multiple H1 tags on the same page is not a sign of a problem and is perfectly acceptable to Google. It is not a negative factor for SEO.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Why do your structured data intermittently vanish from Search Console?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★

The intermittent appearance and disappearance of JavaScript-generated structured data in the Search Console Enhancements report may be related to temporary rendering issues or the timing of when Google extracts this data. Dynamic rendering may serve ...

Crawl & Indexing Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Can renaming a URL parameter really force Google to reindex your duplicate pages?

John Mueller May 05, 2020 ★★★

When Google learns that a URL parameter is irrelevant and groups pages as duplicates, this learning persists for a long time. Changing the parameter name (e.g., from 'q=' to 'qu=' or 's=') forces Google to reevaluate these URLs as new and analyze whe...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name

Does Rendertron really eliminate all JavaScript from the generated HTML for bots?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★

Rendertron generates static HTML by executing the page via Puppeteer and then completely removing all JavaScript from the served HTML. Scripts like Google Analytics are executed during rendering but are not included in the final HTML sent to the bots...

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

Should you really abandon dynamic rendering for JavaScript indexing?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★

Dynamic rendering via Rendertron or others is a workaround that adds complexity and should be used only when absolutely necessary. For canonicalization or parameter issues, other solutions like renaming parameters are preferable.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does Google Really Ignore My Structured FAQ Markup in the SERPs?

Martin Splitt May 05, 2020 ★★★

Adding structured FAQ markup to a page does not guarantee that Google will display FAQ rich results in search results. The algorithms may decide to show fewer FAQs for certain queries or prioritize other pages with better content for those questions.

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