What does Google say about SEO?

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) ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure

Does Embedding YouTube Videos Actually Improve Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller Jul 10, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on a webmaster forum that including a YouTube video on a web page does not increase its relevance score for the search engine. Adding videos plays no role in your Google rankings. A healthy reminder, although this information h...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos

Should you really index a site with thousands of pages gradually, or can you submit everything at once?

John Mueller Jul 10, 2017 ★★

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that it poses no problem for Google's robots to crawl, all at once, a new site or a new section within a site, comprising hundreds of thousands of pages. The only point to verify will be that the server is capable ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Will Hidden Content in Accordions and Tabs Finally Carry the Same SEO Weight as Visible Text?

John Mueller Jul 10, 2017 ★★

Following Gary Illyes a few weeks ago, John Mueller confirmed in a hangout that hidden but potentially visible content on a page (tabs, accordions, etc.) will be treated, when the Mobile First project launches, as "normal" visible text. Let's remembe...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Mobile SEO Pagination & Structure

Should You Really Avoid Massive 301 Redirects to Your Homepage?

John Mueller Jul 10, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that 301 redirects should primarily be used as "1:1" replacements, meaning: one URL replaces another. Otherwise, it's better to leave the URL as a 404. If you implement massive 301 redirects (example: to the homepage...

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Does Google Analytics Really Impact Your Website's Rankings?

Gary Illyes Jul 10, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes explained on Twitter that Google's relevance algorithm doesn't use any information from Google Analytics to measure the relevance of a page. Why would it anyway, since Chrome provides all the information it needs in an even more represent...

Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO Social Media

Do Google and Bing Actually Share the Same Search Index?

John Mueller Jul 10, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller reminded us on Twitter - but did it really need to be said given how obvious the information is? - that Google doesn't share an index with Bing (or any other competing search engine). Really? 😀 ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Social Media

How Long Does It Really Take for Google to Process a Site Migration?

Gary Illyes Jun 26, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes explained at the SMX Advanced conference that processing a site migration (domain name change and/or URL structure change) by Google can take 3 months, depending on the site's size, and not 2 weeks as sometimes announced. Processing the t...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects

Can Repetitive URLs Actually Harm Your Site's Search Rankings?

John Mueller Jun 26, 2017 ★★

John Mueller indicated in a Google webmaster forum that the search engine could ignore certain URLs if they repeat identical patterns or titles too many (excessively many) times. In short, when implementing your URL rewriting, diversify the titles as...

Content AI & SEO Domain Name