What does Google say about SEO?

Do redirects really transfer all SEO signals to your new site?

John Mueller Jan 16, 2024 ★★★

It is recommended to redirect the old site to the new one. Redirects allow search engines to transfer their existing signals to the new site, thereby improving the new site's positioning.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Redirects

How long should you really keep 301 redirects active after a site migration?

John Mueller Jan 16, 2024 ★★★

Google recommends maintaining redirects in place for at least one year after migrating to the new site.

AI & SEO Redirects

What should you do when redirects are technically impossible during a domain change?

John Mueller Jan 16, 2024 ★★

If setting up redirects is not possible, it is recommended to replace the old content with text indicating that the site has moved to a new domain name.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects

Can you migrate a website without redirects without risking a Google penalty?

John Mueller Jan 16, 2024 ★★★

There is no penalty applied to the new site if redirects cannot be put in place. However, both the old and new sites could be discoverable for a certain amount of time.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Redirects

Should you really delete your old site after an SEO migration?

John Mueller Jan 16, 2024 ★★★

Google strongly recommends deleting or cleaning up the old website when launching a new site. The main reason is to avoid confusing users with potentially different information between the two sites.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Redirects

Should you really delete an old website when redirects aren't an option?

John Mueller Jan 16, 2024 ★★

If neither redirects nor replacement messages are feasible, Google suggests simply deleting the old website.

Domain Age & History Redirects

How Can You Prevent a Site Redesign from Destroying Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller Jan 09, 2024 ★★★

John Mueller advised a user who needs to launch a new site including various UI/UX improvements and new pages to carefully plan their site redesign to avoid any issues, stating: "ideally, describe all the changes in a document and annotate those that...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO PDF & Files Redirects

Should You Really Stop Focusing on Links in SEO?

John Mueller Jan 09, 2024 ★★

On Reddit, John Mueller responded to a question from a user who was wondering why a link, which he considered important, wasn't displayed in any tracking tool and he wasn't seeing any increase in Domain Authority or traffic. In his response, since de...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Is SEO Really Dying with the Rise of Artificial Intelligence?

John Mueller Jan 02, 2024 ★★★

Phew! SEO should not be taking its final bow in 2024, at least not during the first part of the year. This is more or less the prediction that John Mueller shared with us on Bluesky, in response to a user who was launching the season of "AI-generated...

Content AI & SEO

Should You Drop the prerender-status-code Tag to Avoid Soft-404s on Your Site?

Martin Splitt Jan 02, 2024 ★★★

In the December 2023 SEO Office Hours, Martin Splitt explained that Googlebot ignores the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag, stating: "I assume this comes from a single-page application that is rendered client-side and you want to avoid soft-404s. In th...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Links & Backlinks

Can Anti-Bot Protection Accidentally Trigger Noindex on Your Site?

John Mueller Jan 02, 2024 ★★★

On X, John Mueller stated that protection measures taken against bots at the server level could sometimes trigger a noindex directive. The same thing can happen with a login page or an interstitial. According to him, it is better to return HTTP 503 s...

Content Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO

Could Your Indexing Problems Really Be Caused by a Simple Domain Configuration Error?

John Mueller Jan 02, 2024 ★★★

Following an indexing problem encountered by a user with their site, which they believed could have been caused by the Core MVC framework or the HTTPS protocol, John Mueller pointed out that the site in question was actually indexed without the www s...

Content Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Does the Search Console Verification API Really Transform Property Management at Scale?

Google Dec 29, 2023 ★★

Google launched the Search Console Verification API in 2023, allowing developers to automate and manage website property verification programmatically.

JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

How can you effectively debug Core Web Vitals using your browser's DevTools?

Google Dec 29, 2023 ★★

Google recommends using browser DevTools to debug and identify issues related to Core Web Vitals, enabling in-depth technical analysis of web performance.

Content Web Performance Search Console

Should you really start with Search Console before investing in complex SEO tools?

Google Dec 29, 2023 ★★

Google advises using the browser and Google Search Console tools to perform an initial quick analysis of a site before using more complex tools.

JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Will Google's generative AI in Search Labs completely reshape your SEO strategy?

John Mueller Dec 29, 2023 ★★★

Google has launched Search Labs, which uses generative artificial intelligence to provide more information and context to user searches.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO

Is Google really updating its search standards, or is it all just noise?

Cherry Prommawin Dec 29, 2023 ★★

Google is working to evolve the standards and protocols used in search to adapt to new needs and technologies.

Content AI & SEO

How can you get your content discovered across Google's new search surfaces beyond traditional search results?

Daniel Waisberg Dec 29, 2023 ★★

Google provides guidance on how to position your content to appear in Google Search results and on emerging search surfaces.

Content AI & SEO

Should You Stop Searching for the Perfect SEO Strategy?

Google Dec 26, 2023 ★★★

During the December 2023 SEO Office Hours, John Mueller stated that no SEO (meaning SEO strategy or action) was perfect, specifying that the discipline is destined to evolve, just like the internet and search engines. "This includes both technical el...

Content AI & SEO

Are Double Slashes in Your URLs Hurting Your Google Indexing?

Gary Illyes Dec 26, 2023 ★★★

Gary Illyes stated that the presence of a double slash (or double forward slash) in a URL could cause usability issues, but more importantly, that it could disrupt certain indexing bots. Indeed, this separator can create confusion during bot crawling...

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