What does Google say about SEO?

Search through official Google statements about search engine optimization

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8489 statement(s) found
Is rendering really a mandatory step in Google's indexing process?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★
Rendering of web pages is a step in Google's indexing process. Google must render pages to process them correctly before indexing.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO
Does Google Really Fix Your HTML Errors During Indexing?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★
During indexing, Google analyzes HTML and corrects semantic issues it encounters. This ensures that all HTML tags are in the right place and where they should be.
Crawl & Indexing
How does Google weigh different SEO signals when choosing your canonical page?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★★
Signals are information that search engines collect about web pages and websites. Some signals are simple, like HTML annotations left by site owners (rel=canonical), while others, such as a page's importance across the internet, are less obvious.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO
How does Google actually choose the canonical page in a duplicate cluster?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★★
Each cluster of duplicate pages will have a single version of content selected as canonical. This version will represent the content in search results for all other versions in the cluster.
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing
Does Google really analyze every element of your content during indexation?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★★
The indexation process includes processing and analyzing textual content, key content tags, attributes, images, and videos. These elements allow Google to calculate signals used to rank pages in search results.
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos
Can an unsupported tag in <head> really break all your SEO metadata?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★★
The element contains metadata in the form of meta and link tags. If an unsupported tag is used in this section, Google and browsers automatically close the element just before the unsupported tag, rendering the other metadata useless for indexing....
Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks
How does Google decide which version of a duplicate page to index?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★★
Once the HTML is processed, Google determines whether the page is a duplicate of another page it already knows about. It then selects which version should be retained in the index as the canonical version.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO
How does Google decide which version to index when you have duplicate content?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★★
The canonical version is the page from a group of duplicate pages that best represents that group according to the signals collected by Google on each version. Mostly, only canonical pages appear in search results.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO
How does Google really group pages with similar content together?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★
Google groups a page's main content with one or more pages presenting similar content if any exist. This process is called duplicate clustering.
Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO
Does Google really serve different versions of your pages based on search context?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★
The other versions in the cluster become alternative versions that can be served in different contexts, for example if the user searches for a very specific page within the cluster.
Domain Age & History Content Images & Videos
Does Google really decide which of your pages deserve to be indexed?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★★
Once signals are collected and duplicates are eliminated, Google decides whether or not to index the page. This process is called index selection and depends largely on the page quality and the signals previously collected.
Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing
What information does Google actually store in its index for canonical pages?
Gary Illyes Apr 04, 2024 ★★
If a canonical page is indexed, Google stores the information collected about it and its cluster in Google's index. The index is technically a large database distributed across thousands of computers.
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing
Should You Start Using AVIF Format for Your SEO Images?
John Mueller Apr 02, 2024 ★★
Unlike BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG formats, Google Search does not currently support the AVIF image format. On X, John Mueller indicated that this situation should change in the future, without specifying when. This statement comes as WordPres...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Images & Videos PDF & Files
Do Core Web Vitals Really Impact Your SEO Rankings That Much?
John Mueller Apr 02, 2024 ★★★
In a recent episode of Search Off the Record, John Mueller stated that gradual improvements in Core Web Vitals scores might not have a significant impact on search result rankings. Consequently, he advises against focusing too much on these metrics t...
Content AI & SEO Web Performance
Are Ads on Your Website Really Hurting Your Google Rankings?
Danny Sullivan Apr 02, 2024 ★★★
On X, Danny Sullivan clarified that the presence of ads on a website does not prevent it from ranking well in search results: "there are plenty of sites that rank perfectly well in Google Search and have ads, whether they're large or small sites." Ho...
Algorithms Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Penalties & Spam
Should You Really Keep Contact and About Pages for SEO?
John Mueller Apr 02, 2024 ★★★
John Mueller indicated that, although "Contact us" and "About" pages are not explicitly required according to Google's official documentation for developers, this does not mean they should be removed. He particularly emphasizes the importance of thes...
Domain Age & History Content Discover & News E-commerce AI & SEO Pagination & Structure PDF & Files
Should you really spend months perfecting your Core Web Vitals scores?
John Mueller Mar 28, 2024 ★★★
Google is warning against over-optimizing Core Web Vitals metrics. Spending months optimizing incremental improvements is likely not going to show up in your search rankings. You need to balance technical optimization with content quality and design ...
Content Web Performance
Does Googlebot really click through your pages like a real user would?
John Mueller Mar 28, 2024 ★★
Googlebot does not navigate from page to page by clicking like a real user would. It loads each URL separately in a new browser context after extracting links from the HTML. Interaction metrics like INP do not therefore apply directly to Googlebot's ...
Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name Web Performance
Can an ultra-fast but empty page rank thanks to Core Web Vitals?
John Mueller Mar 28, 2024 ★★
Google uses the extreme example of an empty page that would load very quickly to illustrate that having only good technical performance without quality content won't be beneficial for SEO. Core Web Vitals optimization must be accompanied by valuable ...
Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Web Performance Search Console
Are Core Web Vitals Really a Google Ranking Factor?
John Mueller Mar 28, 2024 ★★★
Google officially confirms that Core Web Vitals are used in search ranking systems. This usage has been documented more explicitly following a review with the ranking teams, although Google does not disclose the thresholds or precise details of this ...
AI & SEO PDF & Files Web Performance
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