What does Google say about SEO?

Should You Really Force Google to Crawl Faster During an HTTPS Migration?

Gary Illyes Aug 20, 2018 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that, in the case of an HTTPS migration, there was no reason to implement specific actions to obtain faster crawling from Google. The migration will be taken into account by the search engine, no matter what.

Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Redirects Social Media Search Console

Can a Single Toxic Link Trigger a Manual Google Penalty?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller reminded on Twitter that a manual action is never decided by the search engine's Search Quality Team based on a single "toxic" link. The problem must be much broader, and many low-quality links must be detected, for a manual action to be...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam Social Media

Does Content Placement on a Page Really Impact SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2018 ★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the geographical location (top, middle, bottom) of text on a page doesn't matter to Google. If the text is interesting and relevant, it will be taken into account in the same way, regardless of where it's locate...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Social Media

Does Page Popularity Really Influence How Often Google Crawls Your Content?

John Mueller Aug 20, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that the most important and popular pages for Google on a website are crawled more frequently than others.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Social Media

Should You Worry About Search Console Data Variations Between July and August?

Google Aug 13, 2018 ★★★

Google announced that a change had been made to the new Search Console to make the "Index Coverage" tool more relevant and accurate. The data provided since July 14th may therefore change, but this is primarily an impact of this version and not chang...

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

Does Google's URL Removal Tool Actually Delete Your Pages from the Index?

John Mueller Aug 13, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the "Remove URLs" tool in Search Console only hides the URL from search results. It will therefore continue to be crawled, analyzed, and indexed until the 90th day, which is the period during which this "disappe...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name PDF & Files Web Performance Social Media Search Console

Should You Fear Amazon and Marketplaces for Your Product SEO?

John Mueller Aug 06, 2018 ★★

When a user asked John Mueller on Twitter whether listing his products on marketplaces like Amazon would impact his own website's rankings for those products, Mueller responded in an amusing (and indirect) way through a mini-poll, which clearly indic...

Domain Age & History Content E-commerce AI & SEO Social Media

Are EMD (Exact Match Domain) Names Really Useless for SEO?

John Mueller Aug 06, 2018 ★★

John Mueller provided several pieces of information in a hangout regarding the presence of keywords in domain names: keyword domain names (EMD for Exact Match Domain) do not perform better, according to him, than domain names offering a brand, and th...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Mobile SEO Domain Name

Can You Really Use Hreflang Tags to Target Continents or Regions?

Gary Illyes Aug 06, 2018 ★★★

Gary Illyes reminded on Twitter that Hreflang tag codes only exist for countries and specifically not for continents or regions. Therefore, you cannot indicate in a page's Hreflang tags labels such as "fr-eu" or "jp-asia", etc.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Local Search Social Media International SEO

Does Positive or Negative Buzz Actually Impact Your Site's SEO Rankings?

Danny Sullivan Jul 31, 2018 ★★★

Danny Sullivan indicated on Twitter that whether people speak well or poorly of a website (for example in reviews or via links, but not limited to these) does not influence that site's ranking in search results. A "good buzz" or a "bad buzz" will the...

Algorithms AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Mobile SEO Local Search Social Media

Do Hn Tags (H1, H2, H3) Really Impact SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Jul 31, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that clearly and cleanly structuring editorial content using Hn tags (h1, then h2, then h3, etc.) could potentially help Google understand the content, but that it wouldn't play a role in comparing that content to si...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Social Media

Do You Really Need Lots of Text on Your Pages to Rank Well in Google?

John Mueller Jul 31, 2018 ★★

We asked John Mueller whether the amount of text on a web page could play a role as a quality criterion. In other words, could a significant number of pages on a website with very little text in their editorial area represent a risk in terms of low-q...

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

Does Google Really Honor the Canonical Tag Every Single Time?

John Mueller Jul 31, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller, on Twitter, explained that the "canonical" tag is not a guarantee that Google will consider a page as canonical or duplicate. Multiple signals are used and some can sometimes be contradictory.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Social Media

How does Google really transfer signals during an HTTPS migration?

John Mueller Jul 27, 2018 ★★★

When transitioning a site from HTTP to HTTPS, if the migration is done correctly, Google can easily transfer all properties from the old site to the new one. In cases of technical errors, such as misconfigured redirects or incorrect robots.txt files,...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security PDF & Files Redirects

Can Quality Rater Guidelines really penalize your site directly?

John Mueller Jul 27, 2018 ★★★

Quality Rater Guidelines are used to assess search algorithms, but they are not used directly to penalize or favor specific sites. Raters examine search results to see if our algorithms present relevant outcomes.

Algorithms AI & SEO

Can a simplified mobile navigation really sabotage your mobile-first indexing?

John Mueller Jul 27, 2018 ★★★

With mobile-first indexing, if the mobile version of a site has significantly less internal navigation than its desktop version, it could negatively impact the indexing and ranking of pages.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you still use the Fetch as Google tool to index your pages?

John Mueller Jul 27, 2018 ★★★

To submit URLs for Google's index, it is recommended to use the 'Fetch as Google' tool in Search Console, especially following the removal of public submission tools.

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

Does lazy-loading images really block Google indexing?

John Mueller Jul 27, 2018 ★★★

For lazy-loaded images, inserting an image tag within a noscript element allows Google to properly recognize and index them.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Images & Videos

Are image sitemaps really beneficial for SEO?

John Mueller Jul 27, 2018 ★★

Image sitemaps can help Google discover images, but they do not provide context around those images, which is crucial for proper indexing.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos Search Console

Does above-the-fold content really influence your Google ranking?

John Mueller Jul 27, 2018 ★★★

Google expects to find essential content above the fold on a page. The presence of interstitials that obstruct this visibility can harm user experience and perception of search result relevance.

Domain Age & History Content