What does Google say about SEO?

Does a Direct Link to an Image Boost the SEO of the Page Containing It?

John Mueller Nov 13, 2017 ★★★

A user asked John Mueller whether a link pointing directly to an image (to a file like http://www.site.com/image/image-name.jpg for example) gave more SEO weight to the page containing that image. The answer is "No".

Domain Age & History Content HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Images & Videos Links & Backlinks Domain Name PDF & Files

Why Are Structured Data Becoming Essential for SEO Success?

Gary Illyes Nov 13, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes indicated at the Pubcon conference that 2018 would be notably focused at Google on structured data (Schema.org markup) and that we should expect quite a few innovations in this area in the coming months...

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

Should You Worry About Google Removing Additional Links from the info: Syntax?

Google Nov 13, 2017 ★★★

Google has confirmed that when you type a query like [info:www..com] into the search engine, the additional links that were placed under the result and provided information such as the cached version (equivalent to the cache: syntax), some links (lin...

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Web Performance

How Can You Optimize Internal Link Anchors to Supercharge Your SEO?

John Mueller Nov 06, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller reminded us in a hangout that using descriptive anchors (link texts) is not only important for external backlinks. This is also critical for internal linking (crosslinking). When creating internal links, therefore avoid "to learn more", ...

Domain Age & History Content HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

How Can You Get Google to Index a New Page Quickly?

John Mueller Nov 06, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller shared an interesting tip on Twitter: if you want to quickly submit a new page to Google or resubmit an updated version, don't hesitate to use the Search Console and its "Crawl > Fetch as Google > Fetch and Render" feature, followed by a...

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

Do You Really Need Schema.org Markup to Get Rich Snippets in Google?

John Mueller Nov 06, 2017 ★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that, to display "rich snippets" in Google's SERPs (review stars, etc.), Schema.org structured data markup is not strictly required in principle. However, examples of rich snippets displayed without this markup are r...

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Local Search Social Media

Should You Delete or Improve Low-Quality Content on Your Website?

John Mueller Nov 06, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller discussed in a recent hangout the approach to take when you have content considered low-quality on your site. According to him (and Gary Illyes as well, who often talks about it), the best thing is clearly to improve the quality of this ...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam

How Does Google Really Index Hidden Content in Tabs with Mobile First?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller confirmed during a hangout that content inside a tab would indeed be taken into account, within the Mobile First index framework, with the same weight as content visible by default. However, he added that the content of each tab must be ...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Should You Delete Old Content from Your Website to Improve SEO?

Gary Illyes Oct 30, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated at an SEO event that it was unfortunate, in his opinion, to delete content on news sites solely on the grounds that it was "old" and therefore "obsolete". According to Gary, old content is not necessarily obsolete, and removing ...

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

Should You Really Ignore Duplicate Content Like Google Suggests?

John Mueller Oct 30, 2017 ★

John Mueller indicated in a webmaster forum that the duplicate content issue should be reserved for "a rainy day, or when a new person joins the company or for the intern hired for the summer." Basically, he explains that Google handles this issue ra...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Will Search Console Finally Offer a Full Year of Historical Data?

Gary Illyes Oct 30, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes hinted during the SMX East conference that the new version of Search Console (whose official launch date is not yet known) should provide one year of data (particularly for the "Search Analytics" section) instead of the current 90 days. B...

AI & SEO Search Console

Should You Use Search Console's "Change of Address" Tool for HTTPS Migrations?

John Mueller Oct 23, 2017 ★

When migrating a site from HTTP to HTTPS, it is necessary to set up 301 redirects from the old address to the new one. Oddly enough, in Search Console, the "Change of Address" function does not account for this type of migration. John Mueller recentl...

Domain Age & History Content HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Redirects Social Media Search Console

Does Disabling Right Click and Text Selection Really Impact SEO or Is It Just a Myth?

John Mueller Oct 23, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that disabling right-click on a web page, as well as the ability to select text with the mouse, has no impact—positive or negative—on SEO, in addition to being completely useless (it is always possible to retrieve co...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Social Media

Why Do Sites Ranking Well in France Often Struggle in Other Countries?

John Mueller Oct 16, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that the situation, for a given site and an identical query, can be very different depending on the target country. For example, a site that ranks well for a keyword in France may not achieve the same success on Go...

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO International SEO

Should You Really Optimize EXIF Metadata in Your Images for Google SEO?

John Mueller Oct 16, 2017 ★★★

In 2014, Matt Cutts indicated in a video that Google "reserved the right" to read the metadata (EXIF) present in an image. Without saying more. We could therefore think that at that time, the search engine was not yet reading this data but was consid...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos Social Media

How Many Hreflang Tags Can You Really Add to a Page Without Getting Penalized?

John Mueller Oct 16, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that there is no theoretical limit to the number of Hreflang tags integrated into HTML code. And that if you have many sites, targeting many countries, using an XML Sitemap file with these Hreflang indications is cer...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files Social Media Search Console International SEO

Do ® and ™ Symbols Actually Impact Your Pages' Search Rankings?

John Mueller Oct 16, 2017 ★★

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that the search engine does not take into consideration symbols like ® or ™, stating in any case that these symbols do not provide any specific semantic character to the analysis of the content of the page that con...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Does Grammar Quality Really Impact Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller Oct 16, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained during a hangout that Google's relevance algorithm does not consider the quality (or lack thereof) of grammar used in a web page's content. This will not affect the page's ranking one way or another...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Can an HTTPS Migration Really Be Achieved Without Losing SEO Traffic?

John Mueller Oct 16, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes and John Mueller confirmed on Twitter that a migration from HTTP to HTTPS does not imply a drop in website traffic after this action...

Content HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Redirects Social Media

Should You Remove rel="shortlink" Tags from Your Website?

Google Oct 16, 2017 ★★★

Jon Mueller indicated on Twitter that the search engine ignored tags like "rel=shortlink" such as ...

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Social Media