What does Google say about SEO?

Should You Really Block Action URLs in Your Robots.txt File?

Gary Illyes Jun 18, 2024 ★★★

Gary Illyes reminded us of the importance of using the robots.txt file to block action URLs such as "add to cart" or "add to wishlist." This prevents crawlers from wasting server resources by accessing URLs that are unnecessary for indexing.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name PDF & Files

Can Your Site Really Recover from a Helpful Content Update Penalty?

Danny Sullivan Jun 18, 2024 ★★★

Danny Sullivan indicated that sites impacted by the Helpful Content Update could potentially recover during an upcoming Core Update, whose timing remains unknown, provided they have improved by focusing on content that is genuinely useful to users.

Algorithms Content AI & SEO

Should You Really Check Every AI Translation Before Indexing?

John Mueller Jun 18, 2024 ★★★

John Mueller advised evaluating the quality of AI-translated content before seeking to have it indexed. He specifically indicated that these translations must be tailored to users and go beyond a simple translation of words and sentences.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO International SEO

Should you really block AI-generated automatic translations from your site with noindex?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

There is no special markup to signal automatic translations. If automatically translated pages are of good quality and useful to users, their indexation is not problematic. Otherwise, use the noindex tag to prevent their indexation.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO International SEO

Are site: searches polluting your Search Console data?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★

Search Console data includes results from searches performed with the site: operator.

Search Console

Why Is Google Telling You to Ignore Your PageSpeed Insights Scores?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

PageSpeed Insights uses lab tests that can vary. It is recommended to focus on field data based on real user experience rather than on individual measurements that fluctuate.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance

Should you really stop obsessing over Core Web Vitals optimization?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

While Google uses Core Web Vitals, they're only one aspect among many others. Don't excessively focus on small changes in these metrics, but instead use them to identify improvement opportunities and monitor unexpected changes.

AI & SEO Web Performance

Should you really worry about buying an expired domain?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★

Buying a previously owned domain should not cause any issues. Simply publish high-quality content and wait for indexing. Use Search Console to monitor and correct any potential errors.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Search Console

Can AI Really Produce SEO-Quality Content with Just Human Proofreading?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

What matters is the overall quality of the published content. Using AI to create initial drafts and then having human editors revise them is not inherently problematic, but it doesn't automatically guarantee high-quality content.

Content AI & SEO

Can poor machine translation really tank your SEO rankings?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

Low-quality automatic translation can negatively affect your rankings. You must ensure that a native speaker reviews and corrects translations to guarantee the content is useful to users. Blocking crawl of this content avoids the problem.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO International SEO

Do affiliate links actually hurt your page's search rankings?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

Having affiliate links on a page doesn't automatically make pages useless or bad, nor automatically useful. Pages must be genuinely useful and provide real value within the context of the web and for users.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Should you really fix every single broken backlink pointing to your site?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★

You should fix broken backlinks that would be useful for users. It's impossible to fix them all, especially for large sites.

AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Does Next.js really require specific SEO best practices from the start?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

Most platforms perform well for SEO. For a framework like Next.js with significant JavaScript, you need to consult Google's JavaScript SEO best practices. It is crucial to configure SEO correctly before launch because adding it afterward is much more...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Can you safely canonicalize pages that are 93% identical without damaging your SEO?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★

Canonicalizing part-time course pages towards full-time course pages with 93% identical content is an acceptable strategy. From Google's perspective, this does not matter in any particular way.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you redirect or completely disable an unused subdomain for SEO?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★

If users access the old subdomain, set up a redirect to appropriate new pages. If only crawlers access it, disabling the subdomain entirely is acceptable. Removing the DNS entry prevents the server from seeing crawl requests.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Redirects

Should you really worry about toxic backlinks pointing to your site?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

Google is very effective at ignoring irrelevant links pointing to a site. It is recommended to ignore these toxic links. If necessary, you can use the disavow tool or report spam.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Penalties & Spam

Should you really match your page title and H1 tag?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★

It's not important that your title text matches the H1 tag. Do what makes sense from the user's perspective.

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Does localized content really escape the duplicate content penalty?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

Google does not penalize duplicate content for localized websites. Localized content is not considered duplicate content.

Content Local Search

Why does Google discourage using site: queries to verify indexation?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★

To verify indexation, it is recommended to use Search Console rather than third-party tools or site: queries, as the latter are unreliable and can return variable results depending on which data center is being queried.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Why does a high ranking not guarantee strong CTR on Google?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★

To understand a low click-through rate despite good rankings, you must examine actual search results and consider what users see, not just metrics. Observing the complete context of the search results page and getting external feedback is recommended...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Local Search