What does Google say about SEO?

How Do You Effectively Manage Sitemaps When Your Site Exceeds 50,000 URLs?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2018 ★★★

In his "SEO Snippets" video series, John Mueller has just published one about Sitemaps and the Sitemap Index system that allows you to create such files when a website has more than 50,000 URLs.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name PDF & Files Search Console

Should You Really Consolidate All Your FAQs on a Single Page to Avoid Thin Content?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2018 ★

John Mueller hinted on Reddit that "splitting" a Q&A page on a site into multiple pages (one per question, instead of listing them all on a single page) carried the risk of displaying numerous pages each offering low-quality content.

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content Structured Data AI & SEO Local Search

Do Structured Data Really Influence Rankings in Google?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller reminded on Twitter that integrating structured data tags could be a good thing for Google's understanding of a web page's content, since they explain and "label" a certain number of concepts contained in the page.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Social Media

Does the Code-to-Text Ratio Really Impact Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Apr 09, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller explained during a hangout that there is no system in place within Google's algorithm to account for a "code-to-text ratio" when analyzing a page. Some websites generate far more HTML code than others, but this is not taken into consider...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Should You Switch Domain Names After a Google Penalty?

John Mueller Apr 02, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Reddit that Google doesn't have a "magic button" or "reset button" that its teams would activate to make all traces of penalties disappear, even after they've been lifted by the search engine. It doesn't work that way. If th...

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

Does Your URL Extension (.html, .php, .asp) Really Impact Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller Apr 02, 2018 ★★★

In his "SEO Snippets" video series, John Mueller indicates that whether a URL ends with .html, .php, .asp or another extension (or none at all) does not influence Google's relevance algorithm. The suffix used doesn't matter.

Algorithms Content AI & SEO Domain Name

Should You Really Worry About 404 Errors in Search Console?

John Mueller Mar 26, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller released a new "SEO Snippets" video in which he answers a question about 404 errors that may appear in Search Console and correspond to an old version of a website. John explains that the best thing to do is to set up 301 redirects from ...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Local Search Redirects Search Console

Does Google's Nofollow Attribute Really Still Work the Same Way Since 2005?

Google Mar 26, 2018 ★★★

At the SMX West conference, Googler Nathan Johns recently stated that "the functioning of the nofollow attribute has never been modified since its creation" in 2005. 13 years later, therefore, it still works the same way: a nofollow link is not follo...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Does Google Really Penalize Backlinks from Adult Websites?

Google Mar 26, 2018 ★★★

Still at the SMX West conference, the same Nathan Johns explained that aside from the SafeSearch filter, no other treatment is applied to so-called "adult" sites and that the links they create or point to are treated like links from other more "mains...

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

How Long Does It Really Take to See Results After Cleaning Up Low-Quality Content?

John Mueller Mar 26, 2018 ★★

John Mueller explained during a hangout that improving overall quality or removing low-quality content from a site could have an impact (positions/traffic) sometimes only after 6 months, the time it takes for Google to fully crawl the site and have a...

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

Does Google's Algorithm Really Ignore Affiliate Links?

John Mueller Mar 19, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google's algorithm does not take into account in its relevance and PageRank calculations a certain number of links of all kinds and that "he would not be surprised if this were the case for Amazon affiliate link...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Social Media

Should You Mass-Produce Content to Improve Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Mar 13, 2018 ★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google's relevance algorithm does not give a specific advantage to websites that provide more information (in terms of volume) than another. "A website should not be a machine to broadcast content indefinitely,"...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Social Media

Does Server Location Really Impact Your Site's Geographic SEO Targeting?

John Mueller Mar 13, 2018 ★★

A user asked John Mueller on Twitter whether changing the hosting country of their server (for example from the United States to Germany) could make Google think that the website it hosts had changed its geographic target. John Mueller replied that g...

Content AI & SEO Domain Name Local Search Social Media Search Console International SEO

How Does Googlebot Really Crawl Your Website?

John Mueller Mar 05, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller published a video last week (the first "SEO Snippet" - videos succeeding those of Matt Cutts - since their launch), explaining how Google crawls a website and the way Googlebot works.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does Page Speed Really Impact Google's Mobile First Indexing?

John Mueller Mar 05, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that the Mobile First index and the page loading speed criterion were two separate things. Indexing and page ranking should not be confused, as some believe, especially since the announcement of the "Speed Update" a ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Web Performance Social Media

Is the Meta Refresh Tag Really Effective for SEO Redirects?

John Mueller Mar 05, 2018 ★★★

Google has indicated several times in the past that redirections using the "meta refresh" tag should not be used. However, John Mueller mentioned on Twitter last week that it does work anyway, but is not recommended in terms of UX and due to excessiv...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Redirects Social Media

Why Are Hreflang Tags Considered the Most Complex Aspect of SEO?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2018 ★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that "hreflang tags are one of the most complex aspects of SEO, if not the most complex. It seems as simple as a meta tag, but their implementation quickly becomes difficult".

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Social Media International SEO

Should You Worry About Google's Contradictory Statements on Search Console?

John Mueller Feb 26, 2018 ★

As is often the case unfortunately, John Mueller and Gary Illyes contradicted each other last week. John initially indicated that all features from the old Search Console would be transferred to the new version, gradually over time, while Gary, at th...

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

Are Schema.org Structured Data Really Essential for Your SEO in 2024?

Gary Illyes Feb 26, 2018 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated at the Pubcon conference that structured data tags (Schema.org) were here to stay because they allowed Google to better understand the content of a page.

Domain Age & History Content Discover & News Structured Data AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

Should You Change Your XML Sitemap Name Daily to Improve SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Feb 12, 2018 ★★★

John Mueller explained in a hangout that it's not a good idea to modify the name of your XML Sitemap files daily (for example with a date, like sitemap-2018-02-12.xml, etc.) with numerous redundant and identically copied URLs in each of these files.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name PDF & Files Search Console