What does Google say about SEO?

Does Domain Age Really Impact Google Rankings?

John Mueller Apr 24, 2017 ★★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the age (seniority) of a domain name is not a relevance criterion for Google's algorithm (although this is a deeply rooted belief in the SEO community). It's possible that this is true in a direct way; however, ...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Penalties & Spam Social Media

Should You Avoid PageRank Sculpting with Nofollow Links to Prevent Penalties?

Gary Illyes Apr 24, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes clarified on Twitter that performing "PageRank Sculpting" by creating silos through nofollow internal links cannot generate a penalty from Google. However, he continued with a very "Gary-esque" remark, noting that "if you have time to do ...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Pagination & Structure Social Media

How Can You Check the Canonical URL of Your Pages Directly in Google?

John Mueller Apr 24, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller reminded us in a hangout of a trick that is actually quite little-known in general: the use of the "info:[URL]" search syntax on Google to find out the address considered canonical for a web page by the search engine. The result of this ...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name

Do Clicks on a 404 Page from Search Results Actually Trigger Deindexing?

Gary Illyes Apr 24, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that if a user clicks on a link in a SERP and lands on a 404 page, this will not send a signal to Google to remove that URL. For this page to be deindexed, it will be necessary to wait, logically, for the URL to be cr...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Social Media

Do Internal Nofollow Links Actually Hurt Your Page's Relevance?

Gary Illyes Apr 24, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that if a page contains internal nofollow links, this does not degrade the relevance of that page (the one containing the link) in Google's eyes. One wonders why it would be otherwise anyway...

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

Can Using Capital Letters in Title Tags Actually Get You Penalized by Google?

Gary Illyes Apr 24, 2017 ★★★

Some webmasters sometimes ask Google really bizarre questions. Like the one asking whether putting words entirely in capital letters in a Title tag could trigger a Google penalty. Gary Illyes' answer was "No". Did you doubt it? 🙂 Let's also remember ...

Content AI & SEO

Should You Really Remove the Priority Parameter from Your XML Sitemaps?

Gary Illyes Apr 10, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that the priority indexing parameters in XML Sitemap files were a "bag of noise." Basically, this indication serves no purpose and, for once, we completely agree with him...

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

Why Does Google Deliberately Hide Information About Disavowed Links in Search Console?

John Mueller Apr 10, 2017 ★

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that if Google doesn't provide information in its Search Console about whether a link has been disavowed or not (in the "Links to your site" section), it's basically (to summarize...) to prevent webmasters from foc...

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Search Console

Is Bounce Rate Really a Ranking Factor on Google?

Gary Illyes Apr 10, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes reaffirmed on Twitter for the 478th time that bounce rate is not taken into account by Google's algorithms, simply because "it's not a good relevance signal". And once again, we can only agree with him. Yet, this remains a very widespread...

Algorithms AI & SEO Social Media

How Does Google Really Interpret the Ampersand (&) in Your SEO Content?

John Mueller Apr 10, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes and John Mueller responded to a question on Twitter, indicating that, in most cases (and with some nuances in both responses however), Google understood the ampersand ("&") as an "and" in a sentence....

Content AI & SEO Social Media

Do You Really Need Backlinks for Google to Crawl Your Pages?

John Mueller Apr 03, 2017 ★

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that if a page had no backlinks, Googlebot would not crawl it. This is obviously false since a URL can be identified by the search engine via the XML Sitemap or be submitted through Search Console. Let's add that the...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name PDF & Files Social Media Search Console

Do Social Signals Like Facebook Likes Actually Impact Google Rankings?

Gary Illyes Apr 03, 2017 ★★★

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter for the 3,487th time that Google's algorithm does not take into account Facebook "Likes" (like the vast majority of social signals in general, for that matter). Some beliefs die hard...

Algorithms AI & SEO Social Media

Are Google's SEO Penalties and Adsense Really Independent From Each Other?

Gary Illyes Apr 03, 2017 ★★★

The same Gary Illyes indicated, also on Twitter, that just like with the Adwords Team, there was no interaction between the Search Quality Team (the teams that inflict penalties on websites that attempt to manipulate the engine's algorithm) and the p...

Algorithms AI & SEO Social Media

Can Store Locator Pop-ups Harm Your Mobile SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Apr 03, 2017 ★★

Be careful if you use a pop-up on your mobile site that allows users to choose the nearest store upon arriving on the site (store locator). John Mueller said on Twitter that this type of pop-up could be analyzed as intrusive and therefore fall under ...

Content AI & SEO Mobile SEO Local Search Social Media International SEO

How Have Google's Duplicate Content Detection Algorithms Really Evolved Over the Years?

Google Apr 03, 2017 ★★

Googler Paul Haahr, usually quite discreet but nevertheless highly relevant when he speaks, indicated that duplicate content detection algorithms at Google are constantly evolving, but have remained fairly stable, without any radical changes in their...

Algorithms Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Does Googlebot Really Use Cookies to Crawl Your Website?

Gary Illyes Mar 27, 2017 ★★

Gary Illyes published one of his "DYK" (Do You Know) posts about cookies: Googlebot generally doesn't make use of cookies, but it can if it detects it cannot get to the content without them?. In other words, Google's robot doesn't use cookies to acce...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

What Does Google's Fred Update Really Reveal About Penalized Sites?

Gary Illyes Mar 27, 2017 ★

The same Gary Illyes indicated during the SMX West conference the Fred update of March 9th, arguing that this algorithm update was based on points present in Google's guidelines. But he didn't say which recommendations this update concerned. As a res...

Algorithms AI & SEO

Should You Avoid Linking to Wikipedia to Prevent Google Penalties?

John Mueller Mar 20, 2017 ★★★

John Mueller indicated - in response to a question from a user on Twitter - that linking to the Wikipedia encyclopedia does not result in a penalty from Google. One sometimes wonders where such questions could possibly come from???...

Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Social Media

Why Does Google Refuse to Build a Low-Quality Page Detection Tool in Search Console?

John Mueller Mar 20, 2017 ★★★

A user asked John Mueller whether Google was currently working on a tool that could be integrated into Search Console and would provide insights into which pages on a site might be considered low-quality by the search engine. Indeed, Search Console a...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Search Console

Is Google's Page Layout Algorithm Still Penalizing Your Site in 2024?

Gary Illyes Mar 20, 2017 ★

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that the Page Layout algorithm, which has been updated several times in the past and aims to penalize pages with too many ads embedded in editorial content, somewhat like Google SERPs, was still active and had a non-n...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Social Media