What does Google say about SEO?

Is Google's cache really essential to get indexed and rank in search results?

John Mueller Jun 20, 2023 ★★★

Pages do not need to have a cached copy to appear in Google Search. Caching and indexation are two distinct and independent processes.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Web Performance

Should you really trust Google's cache to diagnose indexation issues?

John Mueller Jun 20, 2023 ★★

Cached pages are separated from the indexation process and don't always reflect exactly what's indexed. While they're often identical, this isn't systematically the case.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Web Performance

Should you block Google from caching your pages with the noarchive directive?

John Mueller Jun 20, 2023 ★★★

If you don't want your pages to be cached by Google, you can use the robots 'noarchive' directive to prevent their archiving.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance

Why doesn't Google's cache always show your complete JavaScript pages?

John Mueller Jun 20, 2023 ★★

For JavaScript-based pages, the complete page may not be displayed in the cache due to browser security policies, since the cached page is loaded from a Google domain.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Web Performance Local Search

Should You Choose a National Domain (ccTLD) or a Generic One (gTLD) for Your SEO?

John Mueller Jun 13, 2023 ★★★

Following the reclassification of the .ai domain as a gTLD, John Mueller clarified the distinction between generic top-level domains (gTLD) and country code top-level domains (ccTLD). Google's well-known employee specifically indicated that the choic...

Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Penalties & Spam Search Console International SEO

Should You Really Consolidate Pages Ranking for the Same Queries?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2023 ★★

During the June 2023 SEO Office Hours, Gary Illyes recommended consolidating text results from the same domain that appear one above the other. Referred to as "host clusters" by Google, these results rank for the same query. According to Gary Illyes,...

Domain Age & History Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Does Your Video Really Need to Be at the Top of the Page to Rank as Primary Content?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2023 ★★★

Another point addressed during Google's SEO Office Hours concerns the position of videos within content. The recent change to video thumbnail display seems to have generated some confusion among certain people. Gary Illyes brought some clarity by spe...

Algorithms Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos JavaScript & Technical SEO

Do Multiple Navigation Menus Actually Hurt Your Site's SEO?

Gary Illyes Jun 13, 2023 ★★★

Finally, Gary Illyes indicated that having multiple navigation menus (for example a main menu and a secondary menu) had no impact on a site's performance: "It's highly unlikely that having multiple navigation menus has any effect on your site's SEO."

AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Web Performance Search Console

Is it really worth your time submitting an XML sitemap to Google?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★★★

Submitting a sitemap tells Google where your content is located, but it absolutely does not guarantee that URLs will be crawled or indexed. Crawling and indexing depend on content quality and relative popularity across the internet.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console

Do HSTS headers really impact your SEO performance?

John Mueller Jun 07, 2023 ★★

HSTS security headers have no impact on SEO. Google uses a canonicalization process to choose the most appropriate version of a page to crawl and index, without relying on HSTS headers.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security

Does Google really reprocess your sitemap on every crawl?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★★

Google doesn't reprocess a sitemap that hasn't changed since the last crawl, as a resource optimization strategy. As soon as a change appears (URL or lastmod), the sitemap is analyzed again. Deleting a URL from the sitemap doesn't guarantee its rapid...

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

Does Google really care about the difference between HTML and XML sitemaps? Here's what John Mueller revealed

John Mueller Jun 07, 2023 ★★

An HTML sitemap is intended for users and may indicate unclear navigation. An XML sitemap is exclusively for search engine crawlers. These are two different tools despite sharing a similar name.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Pagination & Structure PDF & Files Search Console

Does Google really ignore structured data that contains parsing errors?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★★

If structured data contains parsing errors, Google cannot extract information from it and ignores it completely.

AI & SEO

Do numbers in your URLs really hurt your search rankings?

Martin Splitt Jun 07, 2023 ★★

Numbers in URLs are not bad for SEO. You can use numbers, letters, non-Latin characters, or Unicode symbols. Only avoid temporary identifiers that change with each visit, as this complicates crawling.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name

Does index bloat really exist at Google?

John Mueller Jun 07, 2023 ★★★

Google does not have an index bloat concept that artificially limits the number of indexed pages per site. Simply ensure that the pages you submit for indexing are truly useful, regardless of the total number of pages.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing

How can you permanently block Googlebot from crawling your website?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★★

To block Googlebot permanently, add a disallow / rule for the Googlebot user-agent in robots.txt. To block complete network access, create a firewall rule denying Googlebot IP ranges, available in the verification documentation.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing PDF & Files

Does Google really issue official SEO certifications?

Martin Splitt Jun 07, 2023 ★★

There is no official SEO certification or badge approved by Google. Certifications exist for certain products like Google Ads, but not for SEO in general. Always verify the official source for any purported certification.

E-commerce HTTPS & Security AI & SEO

Do multiple navigation menus really hurt your SEO?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★★

Having multiple navigation menus (main menu and secondary menu) has virtually no effect on a website's SEO performance.

AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Web Performance Search Console

Are host groups really a sign of cannibalization you need to fix?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★★

When two results from the same domain appear with the second slightly indented, these are host groups. This indicates that you have multiple pages that can rank well for a query. You might consider consolidating these pages.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Can you really disavow toxic backlinks by targeting their IP address in Google's tool?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★

There is no way to disavow links using IP addresses rather than domain names in Google's disavow tool.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name