What does Google say about SEO?

Search through official Google statements about search engine optimization

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9795 statement(s) found
Does local relevance always overshadow international results on Google?
John Mueller Mar 19, 2019 ★★★
Google displays results based on local relevance when possible. If local content is unavailable or does not match the user's intent, international results may be shown.
Content Local Search
Do external signals still matter for local SEO?
John Mueller Mar 19, 2019 ★★
Local rankings can be influenced by several factors, including the content of the Google My Business listing and the associated website, but there are no guaranteed shortcuts to achieving visibility.
Content AI & SEO Local Search
Should you block Googlebot-Image to protect your text SEO?
John Mueller Mar 19, 2019 ★★★
Blocking an image with Googlebot-Image prevents it from being displayed in image search and in universal results based on image search, but it does not affect the textual ranking of the web page.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos Local Search
Does Google really ignore all links in UGC and automatically generated content?
John Mueller Mar 19, 2019 ★★★
Google generally ignores links coming from user-generated content or automatically created content because they are often of low value and irrelevant. This includes website analysis sites and user profiles.
Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks
Should you really abandon rel=prev/next and simplify your canonical URLs?
John Mueller Mar 19, 2019 ★★★
It is recommended to simplify URLs by using canonical tags for main URLs and avoiding unnecessary parameters in rel=prev/next pagination tags.
Crawl & Indexing Domain Name Pagination & Structure
Should You Really Migrate Your Dedicated Mobile Site to Responsive Design in 2024?
John Mueller Mar 18, 2019 ★★★
John Mueller explained on a Reddit forum that website publishers with a dedicated mobile site should really consider migrating to a Responsive site (1 URL, 1 HTML code) in the future. And this is not for SEO reasons, but simply because, according to ...
Content AI & SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name Web Performance
Why Does Google Keep Crawling 404 Error Pages Even After Months?
John Mueller Mar 18, 2019 ★★★
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that if a URL does not correspond to a web page on a site, a 404 - Not found code (or 410: Gone) provides a logical signal to Google. A 500 code (Internal Server Error) will not provide this type of information and t...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Social Media
Do title tags and meta descriptions really affect your Google ranking?
Martin Splitt Mar 13, 2019 ★★★
Make sure that each page has a useful and descriptive title, as well as HTML meta tags to help users and search engines understand the content of the page.
Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO
Could the format of your internal links be killing your crawl budget?
Martin Splitt Mar 13, 2019 ★★★
Allow Googlebot to crawl your pages using properly anchored internal links with the HTML tag, and ensure that the descriptive text of the links is informative to facilitate user navigation and crawling by search engines.
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure
Why does Google index JavaScript in two waves, and how does it affect your SEO?
Martin Splitt Mar 13, 2019 ★★★
Indexing of JavaScript websites occurs in two phases. Content requiring JavaScript to be displayed is indexed during the second wave, which can take time.
Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO
Should You Really Add Text Content Below Product Listings in E-commerce?
John Mueller Mar 11, 2019 ★★
John Mueller explained during a hangout that adding a block of text below product listing pages on an e-commerce site, while only displaying the category name in H1 above the list, was not necessarily a good practice...
Domain Age & History Content Discover & News E-commerce AI & SEO Images & Videos Local Search Search Console
Should You Report Suspicious Practices Even When You're Not Sure They're Actually Spam?
John Mueller Mar 11, 2019 ★★★
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that there's no problem with submitting a spam report about practices implemented by a website when the author of the spam report isn't really sure whether it constitutes spam. In short, an "uncertain spam report" ca...
Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam Social Media
Should You Really Translate Image ALT Attributes on Multilingual Websites?
John Mueller Mar 11, 2019 ★★★
John Mueller explained on Twitter that a website with multiple international versions but using the same images each time could use the same files for these images while translating their ALT attribute for each country.
Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos PDF & Files Social Media International SEO
Should You Really Worry About Negative SEO and Use the Disavow File?
Gary Illyes Mar 11, 2019 ★★
At the Pubcon Florida event, Gary Illyes explained that he had previously analyzed hundreds of "negative SEO" cases and that none of them, in his opinion, had any impact on the targeted site. He also added that the disavow file is only useful in the ...
Algorithms AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files Penalties & Spam
Is it really time to ditch Google Translate for your SEO content?
John Mueller Mar 08, 2019 ★★★
For SEO, it's crucial to transform translations into high-quality content. Google Translate alone is not sufficient. Hand-translated or refined content for improved readability is preferred by both users and Google's algorithm, which can lead to bett...
Algorithms Content AI & SEO International SEO
How does Google really index your site's JavaScript?
John Mueller Mar 08, 2019 ★★★
Google indexes content in two stages: first server-side rendering, then client-side rendering. The time between discovery and final indexing can vary. For news sites, it is critical that Google can access the content quickly without needing JavaScrip...
Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks
Why does Google index your cached resources instead of in real-time?
John Mueller Mar 08, 2019 ★★★
During indexing, Google uses a cached version of a page's resources, unlike the mobile compatibility test which pulls directly from the server. This is why loading errors may appear differently between these two tools.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO Web Performance
Should you have a single page or separate pages for product variations in e-commerce?
John Mueller Mar 08, 2019 ★★
When a product has multiple variations like color, grouping these options on a single page can bolster the main page in SEO. Splitting into separate pages is relevant only if each variation has a specific user search.
Domain Age & History E-commerce AI & SEO
Does mobile loading speed really guarantee a good SEO ranking?
John Mueller Mar 08, 2019 ★★★
Google considers page loading speed an important ranking factor, but it’s not the only one. This means that slower pages can still rank well if other factors are positive, like content.
Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Web Performance
Why does Google favor JSON-LD for structured data?
John Mueller Mar 08, 2019 ★★★
Google prefers using the JSON-LD format for structured data markup and it is typically the first format supported when adding new types of structured data.
Domain Age & History Structured Data JavaScript & Technical SEO
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