What does Google say about SEO?

Should you really ignore the HTML lang attribute for multilingual SEO?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★★

Google does not use the lang attribute of HTML tags to determine a page's language because this signal has proven historically unreliable. Many CMS platforms — such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla — have long set this attribute statically, often har...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO International SEO

Will Google finally automate hreflang tag detection?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★

Google wants to reduce manual annotations and automatically learn hreflang relationships between pages. Systems capable of automatically identifying linguistic versions of the same content have existed for nearly 10 years and could replace manual ann...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO International SEO

Should you really worry about hreflang if only 9% of websites actually use it?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★

According to the 2022 Web Almanac, only 9% of crawled homepage pages use hreflang. This figure shows that relatively few sites actually require this annotation compared to the entire web.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Search Console International SEO

Should you abandon hreflang in sitemaps and switch to HTML or HTTP headers instead?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★

Hreflang implemented in HTTP headers or in HTML is processed faster than hreflang in an XML sitemap. Discovery via sitemap is not tied to a specific page and can take longer, whereas HTML/HTTP triggers immediate dependency verification.

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Do you really need to include a self-referencing hreflang tag on every page?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★

Although Google recommends including a self-referencing hreflang tag on each page, it is not strictly required technically. This recommendation exists for historical reasons related to rel=canonical and as an additional confirmation signal.

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

Why did Google discontinue its official hreflang validator tool?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★

Google no longer provides an official hreflang validator. Previously offered validation tools were removed due to low utilization. Google now recommends third-party tools such as those from Aleyda Solis or Merkle.

AI & SEO International SEO

Why does Google trust hreflang more than the HTML lang attribute?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★

Hreflang is considered more reliable than the HTML lang attribute because its implementation represents significant investment, particularly for large websites. This constraint incentivizes owners to guarantee the accuracy of their configuration.

AI & SEO International SEO

Does hreflang automatically trigger Google to crawl all your alternative URLs?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★

When Google discovers an hreflang annotation, it triggers crawling of the alternative URLs mentioned to verify they belong to the same cluster of linguistic variations. This dependency verification is automatic.

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Does Google really index your multilingual pages separately with hreflang, or does it only store one version?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★★

Pages marked as hreflang alternatives are not indexed separately but grouped into a duplication cluster. Google stores only the canonical version and can swap the displayed URL based on the user's language and location.

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Why are your hreflang pages disappearing from Search Console without being deindexed?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★★

Google Search Console only reports data for canonical URLs in hreflang clusters. Alternative language versions are not tracked individually, which can create the impression that pages are dropping out of the index when they simply change canonical st...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Images & Videos Domain Name Search Console International SEO

Can your x-default hreflang tag really point to any page on your site?

Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024 ★★

The x-default hreflang tag can point to any page, not necessarily one of the existing language variants. It can direct to a country selector, a fallback page, or any page chosen for users without a language match.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO International SEO

Is hreflang really enough to handle nearly identical pages that only differ by currency or VAT?

Martin Splitt Jul 25, 2024 ★★

Very similar pages differing only by VAT, currency, or price can be properly managed with hreflang without duplication issues. Google recognizes these variations as legitimate regional versions of the same content.

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce AI & SEO International SEO

Should You Worry About Being Unable to Block Your Content from Google Discover?

John Mueller Jul 23, 2024 ★★★

Danny Sullivan confirmed that there is currently no way to specifically block content from Google Discover, unlike Google News, where this is possible. Google's SearchLiaison representative and John Mueller have, however, acknowledged the potential u...

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News AI & SEO

Do You Really Need a Country-Specific Domain (.fr, .de) to Rank Locally on Google?

Gary Illyes Jul 23, 2024 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated that country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) benefit from a local ranking advantage. When a user searches in their local language, domains like .de, .in, .fr, or .kr do tend to be favored by Google. However, a generic top-level ...

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How Can You Maximize Your Chances of Earning Rich Results in Google?

John Mueller Jul 23, 2024 ★★★

John Mueller has provided some tips for getting more rich results for products. He identified four essential elements. First, the page must be indexed and contain valid structured data. Moreover, Google must consider that the information is worth dis...

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

Why is the HTML <a> element with an href attribute absolutely essential for Google's crawling?

Martin Splitt Jul 23, 2024 ★★★

HTML has a dedicated element for links: the A element. For an A element to be a proper link, it must have a URL in its href attribute. This can be either a relative or absolute URL — both are acceptable.

Links & Backlinks Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Why does Google insist that links should remain real HTML links?

Martin Splitt Jul 23, 2024 ★★★

Some developers try to do clever things with other elements like spans, divs, or buttons. But fundamentally, if something behaves like a link, it should be a proper HTML link.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks

Is meaningful anchor text still a decisive SEO lever in 2024?

Martin Splitt Jul 23, 2024 ★★★

Users and bots prefer meaningful anchor text. Each link should have meaningful words as anchor text, making it easy to spot where the link will lead. This improves user experience and helps with SEO.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Is your internal linking strategy hurting your SEO more than it helps?

Martin Splitt Jul 23, 2024 ★★

Don't create links to everything and everywhere on a page. Doing too much doesn't improve things. You need to apply critical judgment and ask yourself what the next logical steps are and how the content relates to other content.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

How do you strike the right balance with internal linking without overdoing it?

Martin Splitt Jul 23, 2024 ★★

Links help users and bots understand your content structure, so they must be used thoughtfully: neither too sparingly nor excessively. The goal is finding the right equilibrium.

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