What does Google say about SEO?

Does Google Really Use Disavow Files to Identify Spammy Websites?

Gary Illyes Sep 25, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that the disavow file is solely used by Google to ignore certain links (those designated by the file) but that it does not use this data for other purposes, such as detecting spammy sites more broadly. He added that s...

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Has Google Really Made HTTPS Migration Instantaneous?

Gary Illyes Sep 25, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes indicated, again at the Brighton SEO conference, that during a migration from HTTP to HTTPS, there should now be virtually no transition period (and therefore no drop) in a site's rankings in Google's SERPs (previously, the search engine'...

Featured Snippets & SERP HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Redirects

Is Click-Through Rate (CTR) Really a Ranking Factor for SEO?

John Mueller Sep 25, 2017 ★★

John Mueller explained during a hangout that if Google uses the click-through rate in SERPs (or pogosticking), it's primarily to evaluate and improve relevance algorithms, but not to assign a score to a page or website for a given query. The use of t...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Search Console

How Does Google's Algorithm Adapt Its Ranking Criteria Based on Your Queries?

John Mueller Sep 25, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained during a hangout that Google's relevance algorithm doesn't use the same criteria with the same weight for all queries and that the calculations could change in their very essence depending on the keywords that were typed, the m...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Can Adding a Chatbot Actually Improve Your Website's SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Sep 25, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained during the same hangout that adding a chatbot (an automated tool that responds to visitors' questions in real-time) does not improve a site's or web page's rankings on Google.

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Should you still rely on Google's cache date to verify page crawling?

John Mueller Sep 18, 2017 ★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it's better not to pay too much attention to the date shown (last bot visit) when displaying the "Cached" version of a page (or using the "cache:" syntax for a URL). He had already stated this last year. In shor...

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Do you really need to optimize your XML sitemap loading speed?

John Mueller Sep 18, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that an XML Sitemap file doesn't need to load faster or slower, as long as a timeout doesn't occur, of course. But the loading time of this file isn't taken into account in its analysis once the search engine has rea...

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

Do HTML ID attributes have an impact on natural search rankings?

John Mueller Sep 18, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the content of "id=" attributes in an HTML tag (example: ) is not taken into account (in terms of text relevance analysis) by the algorithm...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam Social Media

How Does Google Actually Detect Duplicate Content During Indexing?

Gary Illyes Sep 11, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes provided some insights on Twitter about how Google handles duplicate content phenomena: it's done through page comparison (not based on keyword analysis), the analysis is performed during indexing, so a page considered canonical (original...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Local Search Social Media Search Console

Do Large Sites with More Pages Rank Better on Google?

John Mueller Sep 11, 2017 ★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google does not rank large sites (those with many pages) better "by default" compared to small sites...

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Does Noindexing 50% of Your Pages Actually Hurt Your SEO Rankings?

Google Sep 11, 2017 ★★

A Googler (Aaseesh Marina) indicated on a forum that noindexing a large portion of a site's pages (for example 50%) had no negative impact on the other pages that were indexed.

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

Why Aren't Your Rich Snippets Showing Up in Search Results Despite Correct Technical Implementation?

Google Sep 11, 2017 ★★

Aaseesh Marina explained that the failure of rich snippet information (stars, prices, product availability...) to appear in SERPs could stem from a third reason (in addition to the two already known: technical implementation issues with tags and poor...

Domain Age & History Content Structured Data E-commerce Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Images & Videos Local Search

Does the Absence of Google's "Cached" Link Indicate Low-Quality Content?

John Mueller Sep 11, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that the fact that the "Cached" link does not appear in the SERPs for a page is not synonymous with low-quality content for the search engine. This may mean that the processing has not yet been done, that "something"...

Domain Age & History Content Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Web Performance Local Search Social Media

Should You Really Remove All Hash (#) Links to Boost Your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google completely ignores links like (often used, for example, to open pop-up windows) since they lead "nowhere" according to John...

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Should You Build One Multi-Topic Website or Multiple Niche Sites for Better SEO?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2017 ★

John Mueller explained during a hangout that, in his opinion, it was better to create a single website, offering silos dedicated to specific topics, rather than numerous websites, each dealing with a niche, essentially for maintenance reasons and to ...

Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should You Really Stop Trying to Understand Google's Algorithms to Do Better SEO?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2017 ★★

When an internet user asked him a question about the "LSTM" algorithm (which we still haven't fully understood what it's about), John Mueller explained on Twitter that you should work on a website in a "natural" way, without trying to understand at e...

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Does the Meta Robots Noarchive Tag Actually Hurt Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that using the meta robots "noarchive" tag (which prevents the cached version of a page from being displayed in Google search results) has no negative impact on the rankings of the page in question.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Web Performance Local Search Social Media

Can We Still Trust Google's Statements About the Panda Filter?

John Mueller Sep 04, 2017 ★

Gary Illyes explained on Twitter that Google had changed its approach to the Panda filter and that what was true 5 years ago wasn't necessarily true today. It's worth noting that a year ago, John Mueller said that Panda hadn't fundamentally changed s...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO Social Media

How Will the New Search Console Transform Your SEO Data Analysis?

Gary Illyes Aug 28, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes confirmed from Japan that the new version of Search Console will be arriving soon with an extended data period (beyond the current 90 days for search analysis in particular). But no further information was provided about this or about the...

AI & SEO Mobile SEO Search Console

What Does the "Expired" Status in Search Console's URL Removal Tool Really Mean?

John Mueller Aug 28, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained what the "Expired" status means in Search Console and the "Remove URLs" tool. This status indicates that no specific action is needed to deindex the page, as it is covered by a permanent action in progress (such as a robots.txt...

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