What does Google say about SEO?

Should You Really Ignore Spam Scores from SEO Tools Like Moz and SEMrush?

John Mueller Sep 10, 2024 ★★★

John Mueller confirmed that there's no need to worry about "spam scores" from third-party tools. These scores are based on unknown factors and outdated assumptions, and don't reflect a site's quality according to Google. John Mueller recommends focus...

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Why Does Google Sometimes Index Pages Blocked by Robots.txt?

John Mueller Sep 10, 2024 ★★★

John Mueller explained that pages blocked, typically by a noindex directive, can sometimes still be indexed by Google. The reason: if Google cannot crawl the page, particularly due to a disallow in robots.txt, it cannot see the noindex tag. As he poi...

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

Does Google's crawl budget really limit how fast your product prices update in Shopping results?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★

Just like with regular web search, crawl budget constraints apply to product data. On very large sites, this can create delays before price updates are reflected in Google Shopping results.

Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO

Why aren't your product listings appearing in Google Shopping carousels?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★★

Shopping results on Google come from two infrastructures: the classical web search infrastructure (which displays product rich snippets and annotated blue links) and the dedicated Shopping infrastructure (accessible via Merchant Center, which powers ...

Structured Data E-commerce AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure Local Search

How does Google display price ranges in rich snippets using Schema.org markup?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★

When you add schema.org markup to your product pages, Google can display rich snippets with price ranges (between X and Y) in standard web search results by aggregating the price information found.

Domain Age & History Structured Data E-commerce Local Search

What's the best way to feed your products into Google Shopping to maximize visibility and sales?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★★

There are three ways to integrate your products into shopping infrastructure: 1) manually upload a feed via Merchant Center, 2) use the Feeds API to automate updates, 3) enable automatic crawling which extracts products with schema.org markup directl...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Structured Data E-commerce Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you take control of your product feed refresh frequency in Merchant Center?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★

Via Merchant Center, merchants can specify the refresh frequency of their product data by feed: daily, weekly, or monthly. This feature enables better control over the freshness of information displayed by Google.

E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does Google really refresh your Merchant Center product data multiple times per day?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★

The 'automatic item uploads' feature in Merchant Center allows merchants to specify key product attributes to be refreshed automatically. Google then updates this information more frequently than daily, depending on available crawl budget.

Crawl & Indexing E-commerce

Will the Merchant Listing report in Search Console replace Merchant Center?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★★

Google has integrated Merchant Center into Search Console with a new 'Merchant Listing' report that performs shopping-specific checks on schema.org markup and indicates to users which issues need to be corrected to appear in shopping results.

Domain Age & History Structured Data E-commerce Search Console

Do you really need both schema.org AND Merchant Center to rank in Google Shopping?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★★

Google recommends using both schema.org markup on your pages AND Merchant Center. This dual approach ensures your inventory appears in shopping results and allows you to control how often your data is refreshed.

Domain Age & History Structured Data E-commerce AI & SEO

How do price and availability updates impact your product eligibility in Google Shopping results?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★★

For shopping infrastructure, price and availability are very important signals because Google wants to display the most current data. This information must be kept up to date for your products to be eligible for display.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Local Search

Should you use schema.org or feed specification for Google Shopping? Here's why you actually need both

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★

Google uses two different data formats for shopping: schema.org (open source hierarchical markup) and feed specification (Google's proprietary flat key-value structure format). These formats have largely overlapping attributes but are not yet at comp...

Domain Age & History Structured Data E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Can Schema.org really manage product variants better than flat feeds?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★

The schema.org format, being hierarchical, allows you to specify relationships between different pages (for example between size/color variants and the main product group), which is more difficult with the flat feed specification format.

Domain Age & History Structured Data E-commerce AI & SEO

Is Google really hiding your products because prices don't match between your feed and website?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★★

If the price specified in your feed doesn't match the one on your website, Google may decide not to display your product in shopping results. Data consistency across different sources is essential.

Domain Age & History E-commerce Local Search

Does Google really apply the same policy filters to Shopping as it does to organic search?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★

The Shopping infrastructure applies similar policy checks to web search (counterfeit products, prescription medications, etc.). These policies are publicly documented and vary by country and region.

E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure PDF & Files

Why is Google launching a dedicated impressions and clicks report for products in Merchant Center?

Irina Tuduce Sep 05, 2024 ★★

Google has developed a reporting system showing impressions and clicks generated by your products on google.com and Google Images. This overlay report in Merchant Center allows you to correlate the resolution of markup errors with increases in impres...

Domain Age & History E-commerce Images & Videos Search Console

Can You Publish YouTube Video Transcriptions Without Risking Duplicate Content Penalties?

Martin Splitt Sep 03, 2024 ★★★

Martin Splitt stated that publishing the text transcription of a YouTube video on a web page does not constitute duplicate content, as video and text formats are considered distinct. It is therefore possible to transform video content into text witho...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos

Have SEO Best Practices Become Insufficient to Rank on Google?

John Mueller Sep 03, 2024 ★★

John Mueller stated that following SEO best practices can have a minimal effect if the content does not meet user needs. As he points out, focusing on creating relevant, quality content is essential, as Google's algorithms prioritize what is truly us...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Should You Stop Counting Words and Links to Optimize Your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 03, 2024 ★★

On LinkedIn, John Mueller clarified that the number of words or links present on a page is not a determining factor for ranking in search results: "No one at Google counts the links or words in your blog posts, and even if they did, I would still rec...

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

Why Does Google Refuse to Index Some of Your Pages Despite Submitting Them?

Martin Splitt Aug 27, 2024 ★★★

Martin Splitt recently explained why certain pages weren't being indexed (Status "Discovered – Currently Not Indexed"), mentioning several technical factors that can negatively affect the process: prioritization of other URLs, server responses that a...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Domain Name