What does Google say about SEO?

Do you really need to fill in every single field of structured data for Google to actually use it?

Google Jul 18, 2024 ★★

You can use structured data markup even without all the required fields, but Google's systems will likely ignore this markup because it will be considered incomplete. For cases with millions of variants, it's better to focus markup on the variations ...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Does Google really use RSS feeds to discover and index new content on your site?

Gary Illyes Jul 18, 2024 ★★

Google can use RSS feeds referenced on a site to discover new URLs or other URLs on other sites, similar to sitemaps. RSS feeds are mentioned in the official documentation on sitemaps.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name PDF & Files Search Console

Does the order of H1, H2, H3 tags really affect your Google rankings?

Gary Illyes Jul 18, 2024 ★★★

Having headings in semantic order is excellent for screen readers, but from Google Search's perspective, the disorderly use of heading tags doesn't matter. The SEO Starter Guide is regularly updated to ensure its accuracy, so this information is as p...

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

Should you panic if your hreflang disappears temporarily during a migration?

Google Jul 18, 2024 ★★★

During an incremental CMS migration, if certain pages don't yet have hreflang markup, this connection simply won't be taken into account temporarily. Once the migration is complete and the markup is restored, it will be taken into account again. This...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Redirects International SEO

Should you block GoogleOther or risk disrupting your Google services?

Gary Illyes Jul 18, 2024 ★★★

GoogleOther is a generic crawler used by various Google product teams to retrieve publicly accessible content, notably for internal research and development. It was launched to provide greater transparency and control. Blocking GoogleOther can affect...

Content Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Do local domains (ccTLD) really offer an SEO advantage for local search rankings?

Gary Illyes Jul 18, 2024 ★★

Local domain names like .kr tend to perform better because Google Search favors local content for the user. A .com can work just as well, but the local ccTLD offers a slight advantage. However, the match between the site's language and the user's sea...

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

Does Google really treat a site after massive expansion as a brand new website?

Google Jul 18, 2024 ★★

When a website grows significantly (for example, moving from 10,000 to 100,000 products), the site becomes globally very different. The old site would represent only 10% of the new one. It is therefore logical that search engines reevaluate how they ...

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

Why does Google keep displaying your old site name in search results long after a rebrand?

Gary Illyes Jul 18, 2024 ★★

When Google continues to rank links or names from an old site after a rebrand, it's normal. People may call a product by its old name long after the change. Google Search is a reflection of what people are actually searching for, so it can't always e...

Domain Age & History E-commerce Links & Backlinks

Why aren't your product structured data appearing in Google's rich results?

Google Jul 18, 2024 ★★★

To obtain product rich results, three conditions are necessary: the page must be indexed, it must contain valid structured data, and Google's systems must determine that it is relevant to display this structured data. There is also a distinct possibi...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Structured Data E-commerce Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Local Search

Is your brand really stuck being confused with a common word? How long does Google actually need to figure it out?

Google Jul 18, 2024 ★★

When a brand is confused with a common English word in search results, the situation will resolve itself over time as Google's systems recognize that users are searching for the site and not a misspelling. Depending on specifics, this can take severa...

AI & SEO

What's the only way to hide text from Google without using HTML tags?

Gary Illyes Jul 18, 2024 ★★

There is no HTML tag or annotation to tell Google to ignore certain text portions. One workaround involves injecting unwanted tags via JavaScript and blocking Google from crawling that JavaScript. If Google can't retrieve it, it can't see it.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Can Google actually transfer your SEO rankings during a domain migration?

Gary Illyes Jul 18, 2024 ★★★

Google's team cannot directly help transfer SEO rankings from an old domain to a new one, but site owners can do it themselves. Migration guidelines are available that explain how to proceed.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects

Why is your new favicon taking so long to appear in Google search results?

Google Jul 18, 2024 ★

Favicons generally don't change quickly, so Google's systems don't refresh them often. After a favicon update, you need to verify that all relevant files are updated (there may be multiple favicons tagged in separate files) and then simply wait longe...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files

Do links on crawl-blocked pages really lose all their SEO value?

Google Jul 18, 2024 ★★★

When a page is blocked from crawling or indexation, you must consider this from the user's perspective: if a page is not available, they cannot do anything with it, so links on that page become somewhat irrelevant. If an important part of the site is...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks

Does Google really require a specific sitemap structure, or can you organize them however you want?

Google Jul 18, 2024 ★★

Sitemap files can be organized as desired. Documented limits indicate 50,000 pages per sitemap file. If sitemap files are generated automatically, it is sufficient to fill them up to this limit.

Algorithms Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name PDF & Files Search Console

Why Does Reddit Outrank Expert Sites on Google – Is Credibility Still Enough?

John Mueller Jul 16, 2024 ★★

John Mueller explained why content from Reddit could outrank expert websites in search results pages. He emphasized the need to learn to look beyond the simple dimension of credibility, specifying that Google sought to provide relevant and useful res...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Should You Really Worry About Having a Massive Disavow List?

John Mueller Jul 16, 2024 ★★★

When asked about the potentially harmful impact of massive link disavow lists, John Mueller stated that there was no cause for concern regarding their existence or removal.

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Does Google really render every single HTML page without exception?

Zoe Clifford Jul 11, 2024 ★★★

Google renders all crawled HTML pages, without exception. Only non-HTML content types like PDFs are not rendered. The rendering process, although resource-intensive, is applied systematically to all HTML pages to index content exactly as a user would...

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

Does Googlebot really follow Chrome in real-time?

Zoe Clifford Jul 11, 2024 ★★★

Since 2019, Googlebot has automatically tracked the stable version of Chromium thanks to continuous integration. Previously, updates had to be done manually, which created a significant lag in support for new JavaScript features like ES6.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure

Does Google really crawl structured data injected through JavaScript?

Zoe Clifford Jul 11, 2024 ★★★

Implementing structured data via JavaScript works correctly because Google excels at executing JavaScript. However, you must ensure that the page is not too fragile in case of errors during resource loading or API calls.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO