What does Google say about SEO?

Did Google just give SEOs the data superpower they've been begging for?

Martin Splitt Aug 22, 2024 ★★

The data availability window in Search Console has expanded from 90 days (during the Webmaster Tools era) to 16 months today.

Search Console

Should you really fix every Google Search Console notification?

Martin Splitt Aug 22, 2024 ★★★

Many notifications in Search Console are simply informational and do not require action. You need to distinguish between true errors and simple notifications that indicate your site's status.

AI & SEO Search Console

Why won't Google diagnose your ranking problems?

John Mueller Aug 22, 2024 ★★★

Google cannot help definitively with ranking questions because multiple valid approaches exist: creating more content, removing unnecessary content, improving design, simplifying it, etc. No method is universally correct.

Content AI & SEO

Does Google finally have an SEO tool for non-technical users with Search Console Insights?

Martin Splitt Aug 22, 2024 ★★

Search Console Insights is designed for casual users like small business owners, offering a simplified view of performance without requiring deep technical knowledge.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Search Console

How is the BigQuery integration transforming advanced SEO analysis beyond Search Console's standard limitations?

Martin Splitt Aug 22, 2024 ★★

Google offers a BigQuery integration for Search Console data, allowing advanced users to export and analyze their data in greater depth.

Search Console

Does Google really index all languages the same way?

Google Aug 21, 2024 ★★

Google processes content similarly regardless of the language used. If Swahili pages aren't indexed while English pages are, it's probably an internal linking issue. It's recommended to create cross-links between different language versions to facili...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks International SEO

Do 404 errors really hurt your site's search rankings?

Google Aug 21, 2024 ★★★

404 errors do not affect the ranking of the rest of your site. They are normal and an integral part of a healthy website. You should not systematically redirect to similar pages, category pages, or the homepage because this creates a poor user experi...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Should you really redirect all 404 pages to improve your SEO?

Google Aug 21, 2024 ★★★

If a product has a genuine replacement, a redirect is appropriate. But if pages are simply similar, you should return a 404 code rather than redirecting. Redirecting to an irrelevant page frustrates the user and doesn't help your SEO rankings.

Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Redirects

Can you really reset Search Console data when you take over a website?

Google Aug 21, 2024 ★★

Data in Search Console is not linked to users. Anyone who verifies a site later will see this data. There is no way to reset the displayed data. To prevent a deleted site from showing up, use domain verification and submit a temporary removal request...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Search Console

Does Google really crawl URL variations that have no internal links or backlinks pointing to them?

Google Aug 21, 2024 ★★

Google generally doesn't randomly test URL variations. Systems rely on links to discover new URLs. Unless you create links to these subdirectories, Google probably won't discover them. And even if Google tried them and they returned a 404, that's com...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Is the text-to-code ratio really a Google ranking factor?

Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024 ★★★

The text-to-code ratio is not a ranking factor, Google Search does not care about it. Unminified CSS and JavaScript are suboptimal for users because they increase data volume, but have no direct SEO implications, even if it is a good practice.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Do you really need to reply to every blog comment to boost your SEO?

Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024 ★★

Leaving user comments unanswered on blog articles has no SEO impact whatsoever. They are simply text on the pages. Google Search doesn't check whether a comment received a reply or not. The text is either present and counts, or it's absent.

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News AI & SEO

Do you really need to worry about missing X-Robots-Tag and meta robots tags?

Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024 ★★

The absence of an X-Robots-Tag or meta robots tag is not a problem. These mechanisms are only relevant if you want Google or other search engines to treat a page differently. Without these tags, the page will be treated like any other and can be inde...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Are your automatic Geo IP redirects killing your international SEO performance?

Google Aug 21, 2024 ★★★

Automatic Geo IP redirects can cause significant search engine problems because search crawlers would also be redirected, preventing them from seeing other local versions. It is recommended to display banners allowing users to click through to their ...

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Local Search Redirects International SEO

Are nofollow links and noindex tags actually hurting your SEO?

Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024 ★★★

Having many internal links with the nofollow attribute or many pages with the noindex tag does not signal to Google that the site contains low-quality pages. It simply indicates that you do not want to be associated with certain links or that you do ...

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

Does your image CDN speed really penalize your ranking in Google Images?

Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024 ★★

The response speed of a CDN when downloading an image does not determine whether the image will appear in search results. However, users appreciate images loading quickly, and CDNs offer other advantages such as dynamic resizing.

Domain Age & History Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance

Does Google really penalize you for publishing video transcriptions as text on your website?

Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024 ★★★

Creating a YouTube video and then placing the exact text on a web page will not result in a duplicate content flag. One is a video, the other is text, which constitutes unique content. It's even recommended for accessibility purposes.

Domain Age & History Content Images & Videos

Are regional subdomains enough to target a specific geographic market?

Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024 ★★★

Having different subdomains for different markets with the same content does not guarantee that these pages will rank specifically for the market mentioned in the subdomain. If the content is identical, it remains identical. Use hreflang to indicate ...

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

Why are your rich results displaying the wrong currency and what's the fix?

Google Aug 21, 2024 ★★

Wrong currencies displayed in rich results are often a side effect of Google's systems treating the page as substantially duplicated. You need to ensure pages aren't too similar or use Merchant Center feeds for price information.

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

Why does Google reject aggregated reviews in product structured data?

Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024 ★★★

You must not use aggregated reviews from a specific service and transmit them to Google via structured data for products. The technical guidelines for reviews specifically prohibit this practice, which would make pages ineligible for review results.

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce AI & SEO Local Search