What does Google say about SEO?

Why does it sometimes take Google a year to reindex certain pages on your site?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

For pages that change rarely and appear infrequently in search results, it may take longer for them to be crawled again and updated in Google's index, sometimes up to a year or more.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

How does Google handle the indexing of duplicate images across different websites?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★

Google tries to merge identical images found on different URLs into its index by establishing a single canonical URL, although differences in the content or metadata of the images can sometimes lead to separate indexations.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Do subdomains or subdirectories really matter for SEO according to Google?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★

Google has no SEO preference between subdomains (blog.site.com) and subdirectories (site.com/blog). Mueller recommends consolidating everything under the same hostname for easier tracking, but technically both approaches are equivalent.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Should you worry about the 'site being moved' message in the Search Console's address change tool?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★

The address change tool in Search Console displays 'site being moved' as just a UI reminder for a defined period, not as an indication of a problem. The key is to maintain the redirects for at least 6 months.

AI & SEO Local Search Redirects Search Console

Do old backlinks really lose their SEO value over time?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

The value of a link does not depreciate with age per se. It’s the position of the link in the source site that evolves: an article on the homepage becomes archived, losing relevance. It’s not the link that ages, but the context that changes.

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

Should you really avoid canonicals pointing to page 1 on paginated pages?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

If all paginated pages (2 to 10) have a canonical pointing to page 1, Google deindexes pages 2-10 and their unique content. Items that are only present on these pages will be lost to the index.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing

Does the text surrounding an internal link matter as much as the anchor itself for Google?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★

Google understands the context of internal links through both anchor text and surrounding text. Whether a link is within the text or directly after a block of text does not alter anything; the context remains understood.

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Should you really choose between a fresh start and redirections during a partial migration?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

To migrate the best content to a new domain without transferring bad signals, you must choose: either start completely fresh (no redirects/links/reused content) or redirect (and accept the transfer of signals). The two approaches are incompatible.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Redirects

Does Discover really have no exploitable eligibility criteria?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

Discover is very organic, with no clear criteria to meet. Google can decide to highlight or downrank a site without any notion of a query. There is no guaranteed method to appear, unlike traditional search.

Algorithms Discover & News AI & SEO

Should you really abandon the desktop version of your site with mobile-first indexing?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

Once switched to mobile-first indexing, Google uses only the mobile version for indexing, context, and understanding of URLs. If budget is limited between desktop and mobile, prioritize mobile. But do not remove the desktop version if you still have ...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name

Is responsive design really the only viable solution for unifying desktop and mobile?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★

Mueller strongly recommends switching to responsive design to maintain a single version of the site. This avoids having to choose between desktop and mobile, and simplifies maintenance.

AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Should you really be concerned about internal PageRank on noindex pages?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★

On a normal e-commerce site, there’s no need to worry about the flow of PageRank between listed pages and noindex pages. Google systems handle this well. The major impact is on crawling (filtered URLs = useless crawl time before noindex detection).

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing E-commerce Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Does duplicating a link on the same page really enhance its SEO value?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★

Having the same link twice on a page (navigation + content) changes nothing in terms of SEO. The second link adds no extra value. However, it can improve user experience.

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

Why does Google deindex your blog articles after an update?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

When previously indexed articles are deindexed after an algorithm update, it is usually not a technical issue but a problem of perceived quality. Google decides that indexing fewer pages from this section makes more sense. It is necessary to reassess...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News AI & SEO

Should you index the internal search pages of your site?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

If internal search pages resemble categories, indexing them can make sense. If they consist of random user searches, it’s better to use noindex or robots.txt. Mueller prefers noindex because robots.txt prevents Google from seeing the noindex, risking...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks

Can content A/B testing really harm your SEO without you knowing?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

Temporarily changing content (e.g., H1) will be indexed by Google if crawled, with potential SEO impact. Testing every two weeks makes tracking very difficult because the timing of reprocessing is unpredictable. Canonicalizing variants to the stable ...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Does Google really rank websites without human intervention?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

Google's ranking is entirely algorithmic, with no human intervention to determine the order. The only manual intervention concerns webspam: the team identifies spam on important queries and takes targeted manual actions without impacting the ranking ...

Algorithms AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Is it true that Google only analyzes 10% of your URLs in mobile Search Console reports? Should you be concerned about the rest?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★

Mobile user experience reports in Search Console analyze about 10% of a website's URLs, chosen to be representative. The absence of problems on these samples generally suggests good health for the rest of the site.

Mobile SEO Domain Name Search Console

Does Google automatically remove indexed pages that are no longer needed?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

Google does not automatically remove pages that are no longer relevant unless a 'noindex' tag is applied or if they are manually removed via the Search Console's removal tools.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Is it really a concern for your organic traffic when migrating to a new domain?

John Mueller May 01, 2020 ★★★

A complete domain change with 1:1 redirects is generally handled effectively by Google with no significant loss of ranking. Conversely, splitting or merging sites can lead to more substantial fluctuations.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects