What does Google say about SEO?

Does the Last-Modified Meta Tag Actually Help Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google ignores the "Last Modified" meta tag () indicating a page's last modification date. Therefore, it has no SEO value whatsoever.

Domain Age & History Content HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Social Media

Can You Combine Noindex and Canonical Tags on the Same Page?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2017 ★★

A user asked John Mueller the following question: "if a page contains both a 'noindex' tag and a 'canonical' tag, does the canonical transmit the indexing prohibition to the canonical page?" John Mueller seemed quite troubled by this question, as it ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO

Does Googlebot Send a Referrer When Crawling Your Pages?

John Mueller Aug 14, 2017 ★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Googlebot, when crawling a page, does not return a referrer URL, as a user would when browsing on a browser. A Googlebot visit is therefore similar to direct traffic. According to him, however, a referrer is ind...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Social Media

Should You Really Place Optimized Text Below Your Footer to Boost SEO?

Gary Illyes Aug 07, 2017 ★★★

An internet user pointed out to Gary Illyes - with examples - that certain "SEO experts" were placing several sentences (clearly intended for Google optimization) below the footer of their pages and asked if this posed a problem. Gary responded - qui...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Does Capitalization in Hreflang Tags Really Affect International SEO?

John Mueller Aug 07, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it was possible to specify language and country codes in Hreflang tags in lowercase or uppercase, regardless of case: fr-FR, fr-fr or FR-fr, everything will work.

Content AI & SEO Social Media International SEO

Does the Order of URLs in an XML Sitemap File Actually Matter to Google?

John Mueller Aug 07, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller explained on Twitter that you can structure your XML Sitemap file absolutely however you want in terms of field order, and this won't cause any problems for Google. The file is read automatically and sequentially, so you can do absolutel...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Mobile SEO Pagination & Structure PDF & Files Social Media Search Console

Do Commas in Title Tags Actually Hurt Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Aug 07, 2017 ★★★

A user asked John Mueller on Twitter whether using commas as separators in Title tags posed a problem. Unsurprisingly, John replied that he could do as he pleased in this regard.

Content AI & SEO Social Media

Does Google Really Consider a Disavow File as a Spam Signal?

Gary Illyes Aug 07, 2017 ★★★

In the series of odd questions, another internet user asked Gary Illyes whether submitting a disavow file to Google for a site was a spam signal for the search engine. Gary naturally replied that it was not.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files Penalties & Spam

Do Google's Quality Raters Really Influence Your Site's Rankings?

John Mueller Aug 07, 2017 ★

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that quality raters were there primarily to evaluate and even help correct Google's algorithms, but that their purpose was not to assess the sites appearing in search results. Their feedback is mainly used to corre...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Is Google's SEO Guide from 2010 Still Relevant Today?

Gary Illyes Aug 07, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that the SEO starter guide published and offered (in PDF format) by Google was still current and relevant, even though it hasn't been updated since 2010 (as clearly shown in the screenshots he provided).

Domain Age & History AI & SEO PDF & Files Social Media

Do Sticky Footers Actually Harm Your Site's SEO Performance?

Gary Illyes Jul 31, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes responded on Twitter to a webmaster asking about "sticky footers" - the page footer that remains displayed on screen even when users scroll up or down through the content. In short, the footer is "stuck" to the screen regardless of what h...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Social Media

Should You Really Abandon the Meta Keywords Tag for SEO?

Gary Illyes Jul 24, 2017 ★★★

Some webmasters/SEOs sometimes ask Google's officials questions from another era. For instance, Gary Illyes was asked on Twitter whether the search engine penalized websites that "stuffed" their meta keywords tag with keywords. Gary's response (somew...

AI & SEO Social Media

Do Trust Badges and Seals Really Influence Google Rankings?

Gary Illyes Jul 24, 2017 ★★★

The same Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that obtaining a "trust badge or seal" for your site (trust seal: BBB, Norton, McAfee or other) had no impact on Google rankings. This makes perfect sense since these are "awards" that are not granted by the ...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Social Media

Can You Use 301 Redirects in Hreflang Tags?

John Mueller Jul 24, 2017 ★★★

We asked John Mueller whether a URL in a hreflang tag could be subject to a 301 redirect. His answer was clear: URLs in hreflang tags must be canonical. This therefore rules out the use of such redirections in these tags: @JohnMu @methode Hi! Is it a...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Redirects International SEO

Does Geographic Hosting Location Still Impact Your Site's SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Jul 17, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the geographic location of a server no longer matters to Google. To establish the target country of a site, the search engine primarily relies on the domain extension (.fr, .ch, .es...) or on the targeting indic...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Mobile SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Social Media Search Console

Should You Really Avoid Automatic Redirects Based on Visitor IP Addresses?

John Mueller Jul 17, 2017 ★★★

We've said it often on our site, and John Mueller recently reiterated it on Twitter: don't redirect your visitors to one site or another automatically based on their IP address (and therefore their geolocation guessed this way). According to John, th...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Local Search Redirects Social Media International SEO

Should You Really Put a Canonical Tag on EVERY Page of Your Website?

John Mueller Jul 17, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller confirmed in a hangout that it was beneficial to implement a "canonical" tag on all canonical pages of a site pointing to themselves to avoid DUST (Duplicate URL, Same Text, more explanations about DUST here). Conclusion: ALL pages of a ...

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Does the Position of Internal Links Really Affect Their SEO Weight?

John Mueller Jul 17, 2017 ★★

John Mueller reminded in a hangout that the position of an internal link on a web page doesn't matter in terms of indexation: top of page, footer, sidebar, etc. In all cases, the link will be detected by the robots and followed. In other words, all i...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks

Can Googlebot Really Crawl Your Site If You Use Cookies?

John Mueller Jul 17, 2017 ★★★

This has been known for a long time, but John Mueller recently reminded us: Googlebot crawls a site using a stateless protocol, meaning it doesn't take cookies into account. It's therefore up to you to ensure that your site is accessible and crawlabl...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Should You Nofollow Links to Legal Pages and Terms & Conditions?

John Mueller Jul 17, 2017 ★

John Mueller indicated during a hangout that links to pages such as "About", "Terms and Conditions" or "Legal Notices" can be set to dofollow. For our part, we recommend nofollow (especially for large sites), or even complete deindexing (robots.txt) ...

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