What does Google say about SEO?

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

Do JavaScript console errors really hurt your site's search rankings?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★

The impact of errors in the browser console depends on what's broken. An error on a benign element like a paragraph probably won't affect the site, but an error on the head element could be problematic. You need to use valid HTML.

AI & SEO

Could showing all product variants to Googlebot alone be quietly destroying your search visibility?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

Showing all product variants to Googlebot but not to humans is considered cloaking and violates anti-spam rules. The recommended alternative is to use Merchant Center to submit product variants, which will appear in results even if the URL is not ind...

Crawl & Indexing E-commerce AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Penalties & Spam Local Search

Do you really need a dedicated page per video to rank in rich video results?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

For rich video results with features like key moments, you need to have a dedicated page for each video where the video is the main focus of the page. Consult Google's video guidelines for more information.

Domain Age & History

Is content syndication really worth the risk to your organic visibility?

Google Jun 13, 2024 ★★★

Search results are not an indication of what Google considers the original source. By republishing content on other platforms, you're exchanging additional visibility for the possibility that the third-party platform appears above your site in result...

Content AI & SEO

Can a Few Problematic Pages Really Penalize an Entire Website?

John Mueller Jun 11, 2024 ★★★

On Reddit, John Mueller clarified that it was unlikely that ten problematic pages (out of 20,000 pages), affected by the HCU or reputation abuse, could cause a ranking penalty across an entire site. A ranking drop can indeed be explained by various f...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Are White Label Coupon Sites Doomed by Google's Latest Crackdown?

Google Jun 11, 2024 ★★★

Google has indicated that white label coupon and discount sites, primarily used to manipulate search rankings, may be penalized for site reputation abuse. However, sites that demonstrate transparency about the origin of coupons and offer added value ...

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO PDF & Files

How Does Google Really Decide When to Tell Us About Search Outages?

Gary Illyes Jun 11, 2024 ★★

In the latest episode of the Search Off The Record podcast, Gary Illyes and John Mueller explained how Google manages communication around incidents affecting crawl and indexing. The Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team monitors incidents and deci...

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Web Performance

Is Google really deleting 7% of its video index and how can you avoid being part of it?

Gary Illyes Jun 06, 2024 ★★★

Google has begun indexing more short videos, which required freeing up space in the video index. To do this, Google removed underperforming videos from its index, resulting in approximately a 7% reduction in the video index. This change was noticeabl...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO