What does Google say about SEO?

Should you fix URLs marked 'submitted URL not selected as canonical'?

John Mueller May 15, 2018 ★★★

Pages already labeled as 'submitted URL not selected as canonical' do not require additional intervention since they are not indexed.

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How Does Google's Two-Phase JavaScript Crawling Really Affect Your Rankings?

Google May 14, 2018 ★★★

At the Google I/O event, Tom Greenaway, a search engine engineer, indicated that Google crawls JavaScript pages using a two-phase process (largely due to available machine resource management): a first pass, then a second one a few days later, genera...

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Why Is Google Still Using Chrome 41 to Index Your Pages?

John Mueller May 14, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller also indicated during the Google I/O event that, to render web pages when analyzing code, Google was using Chrome version 41, even though the browser was currently and officially at version 66!

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Why Does Googlebot Still Refuse to Follow Certain Types of Links in 2024?

Google May 14, 2018 ★★

Let's wrap up with, once again, the Google I/O event and a presentation by a Google engineer outlining which types of links are followed by Googlebot on a web page. The following links will be followed: Followed link Followed link These, however, wil...

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How can you avoid duplicate content linked to URLs: does the canonical tag truly suffice?

John Mueller May 11, 2018 ★★★

Google advocates for simple and consistent URLs across your entire site. Using tracking parameters should be avoided to prevent the creation of duplicate content. The rel='canonical' tag can help indicate the preferred version of a URL when duplicate...

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Should You Keep the Same URL or Create a 301 Redirect When Updating Content?

John Mueller May 09, 2018 ★★

When an internet user asked about replacing old content with new content on a website, John Mueller explained that it's better to keep the same URL and change the content of that page rather than redirecting an old URL to a new one...

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Should You Use a 404 Instead of a 403 to Remove Pages from Google's Index?

John Mueller May 09, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that, to signal to Google that a page no longer exists and to see it disappear from the index, a 404 code (Page not Found) should be preferred over a 403 code (Forbidden).

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Can You Really Harm a Competitor's Site with External Canonical Tags?

John Mueller May 02, 2018 ★★

A method of performing negative SEO based on "canonical" tags issued from low-quality sites has resurfaced recently following an article on this subject. John Mueller has, for his part, indicated that since this tag was created, webmasters have attem...

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Should You Split Your Content Across Multiple Pages to Improve Google Indexing?

John Mueller May 02, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated during a hangout that it was not a good strategy to split content across multiple pages solely to increase the number of pages indexed by Google because, by doing so, you also reduce the volume of text for each page and therefo...

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Should You Avoid Internal Links to Noindex Pages?

John Mueller May 02, 2018 ★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that there's no problem if a website creates many internal links to pages that are deindexed from the search engine...

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Does the HTTPS SEO Boost Really Work the Same for Every Website?

John Mueller May 02, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the "SEO boost" given when a website switches to HTTPS does not depend on the type of site or its topic, but is identical for all information sources...

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Where Should Pagination Tags Be Placed for Google to Recognize Them?

John Mueller May 02, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller reminded that pagination tags (rel=next and rel=prev) must be in the "Head" section of the source code for paginated content. If these indications are found in links (A tag) and therefore in the "Body", they will not be taken into accoun...

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Should You Really Avoid Redirects in Hreflang Tags at All Costs?

John Mueller Apr 23, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that URLs specified in Hreflang tags should not be subject to 301, 302 or any other type of redirect. In other words, they must return a 200 code and not be redirected in any way (even using functions other than 30...

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Does Google Really Count JavaScript Links for SEO?

John Mueller Apr 23, 2018 ★★

John Mueller also indicated on Twitter that some JavaScript links, particularly those using "onclick" directives, could be poorly analyzed by Google and the link not taken into account.

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Should You Use Canonical Tags or Noindex to Handle Duplicate Content?

John Mueller Apr 23, 2018 ★

John Mueller indicated that Google only uses the pages it has in its index for a given site to establish an overall quality score for the information source (which seems quite logical). He also explained that it's better to use the "canonical" tag ra...

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Does Your Site's Mobile Traffic Influence Its Migration to Mobile First Index?

John Mueller Apr 23, 2018 ★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the decision to migrate a site to the Mobile First Index was not dependent on the volume of mobile traffic on that site, but solely on whether the site is technically ready for this "switch". So even if your sit...

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Are Complex Tables Really Killing Your Featured Snippet Chances?

John Mueller Apr 16, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated during a hangout that content displayed in the form of a large table or a long series of links was not optimized to appear as a featured snippet and, therefore, in the context of a voice response....

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Can a Single Misplaced Tag in Your <head> Invalidate Your Entire HTML Code in Google's Eyes?

John Mueller Apr 16, 2018 ★★★

During a recent Google event, John Mueller explained that if a tag that should normally be in the "body" is found in the "head" section of the source code, it may not be taken into account by the search engine. For example, an Hreflang tag placed in ...

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Does Having an RSS Feed Actually Improve Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller Apr 16, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that having an RSS feed on your site does not help it rank better in the SERPs, neither in Google nor in Google News.

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Do Brackets, Parentheses and Quotation Marks Really Impact Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2018 ★★★

A user asked on Twitter about characters like [brackets], (parentheses) and "quotation marks" and how they were taken into account by Google. Pete Meyers responded that they were all equivalent in terms of SEO and ignored by the search engine, as lon...

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