What does Google say about SEO?

Should you remove the NOODP meta tag from your Blogger sites?

John Mueller Jun 07, 2023 ★

The NOODP meta robots tag, often found on Blogger, has been obsolete for a long time. Google stopped using it years ago because it referenced the DMOZ project, which no longer exists. It has no effect but doesn't cause any problems either.

AI & SEO

How do you get a video thumbnail in Google search results: what does Google really mean by 'main content'?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★★★

For a video to get a thumbnail in search results, it must be the main content of the page, meaning it's immediately visible to the user without them having to actively search for it. Take inspiration from major video platforms like YouTube or Vimeo.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Images & Videos

Does canonical alone really prevent syndicated content from appearing in Discover, or do you actually need to add noindex?

John Mueller Jun 07, 2023 ★★★

To prevent syndicated versions of your content from appearing in Google Discover, use the meta robots noindex tag in addition to the canonical link. Canonical alone is an insufficient indicative signal to completely block the appearance of syndicated...

Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News Links & Backlinks

Does Google really penalize multiple domains targeting the same market, or is this just another SEO myth?

Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023 ★★★

Using two domains with different TLDs to target the same country with identical keywords may be considered search result manipulation according to Google's anti-spam policies. This can also create confusion for users.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Penalties & Spam

Are your JavaScript library vulnerabilities causing your Google rankings to plummet?

Martin Splitt Jun 07, 2023 ★★

JavaScript security warnings detected by Lighthouse for libraries with known vulnerabilities have no influence on page ranking. However, it is still highly recommended to fix these security issues.

Domain Age & History JavaScript & Technical SEO

Can you really prevent Google from crawling certain parts of a webpage?

John Mueller Jun 07, 2023 ★★★

It is not possible to block Googlebot from crawling a specific section of an HTML page. You can use data-nosnippet to exclude text from snippets, or use iframes/JavaScript blocked by robots.txt, but this latter option can cause crawl and indexation i...

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

Why isn't schema.org compliance enough to guarantee Google rich results?

Martin Splitt Jun 07, 2023 ★★

Schema.org defines data types and attributes in an open and vendor-independent manner. Google, like other vendors, may have stricter specific requirements for certain attributes in order to use structured data in features like rich results.

Structured Data AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should You Really Avoid Charitable Donations in Exchange for Google Business Reviews?

Google Jun 06, 2023 ★★★

Joy Hawkins from Sterlingsky asked Google whether making a donation to a charitable organization in exchange for a review, whether positive or not, was acceptable or not. According to Google, the practice is simply contrary to its guidelines: "Contri...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Local Search

Does Google's bulk export finally unlock all the performance metrics you've been missing?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★★

The bulk export includes performance data showing important metrics: the search queries that display your site, the click-through rate of pages, the countries where you perform best, all tracked over time.

Domain Age & History Web Performance Local Search Search Console

Why does Google use 0 as the topmost position in Search Console data?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★

The sum_top_position field represents the sum of your site's highest position in search results, where '0' corresponds to the top position on the results page.

Domain Age & History Mobile SEO Search Console

How does Google's searchdata_url_impression table break down your search performance data?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★★

The searchdata_url_impression table aggregates all performance data by individual URL rather than by site. If two pages appear in the same Google search result, you'll see two impressions—one for each page. It's the largest of the three tables.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Web Performance Search Console

Why does Google anonymize certain URLs in your Discover data, and what does it mean for your SEO strategy?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★

The searchdata_url_impression table includes a boolean field indicating whether the URL is anonymized for Discover in order to protect user privacy.

Discover & News Mobile SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Are you missing out on rich snippet opportunities? How to master search appearance fields and dominate your SERP real estate?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★

The URL table includes several boolean fields showing whether the URL was displayed with a specific search appearance, such as is_job_listing, is_events, etc.

Mobile SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Why does Google require aggregation functions when analyzing Search Console data?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★★

You must always use aggregation functions because the table rows are not guaranteed to be consolidated by date, URL, site, or any combination of keys. A query can appear multiple times for the same day, requiring a GROUP BY to count all clicks and im...

AI & SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure

Should you really limit queries by date in Search Console to optimize your performance?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★★

You should limit queries by date as much as possible to speed up queries and save processing costs. This is done with a WHERE clause to restrict the date range in the partitioned table.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Should you really filter out anonymized queries from Google Search Console to boost your data quality?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★★

You need to filter 'noquery' strings to reduce the size of your data requests. This is done by extracting only data where the is_anonymized_query field is false.

AI & SEO Mobile SEO

Do Search Console grouped exports to BigQuery really replace the Search Analytics API?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★

Data available through Search Console grouped exports to BigQuery is very similar to Search Analytics API data, but potentially much more voluminous depending on site size.

AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Search Console

Did you know Google counts only one impression when multiple pages from your site appear in the same search results?

Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023 ★★★

In the searchdata_site_impression table, data is aggregated by property. If two pages appear in the same Google search result, you will only see one impression. For position, it's the highest position of your property that is reported during aggregat...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Search Console

Does a Misconfigured Last-Modified HTTP Header Really Hurt Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller May 30, 2023 ★★★

In response to an apparently incorrect article, John Mueller left a message on Mastodon to set the record straight. In his post, Google's most famous employee stated: "I came across an article about the Last-Modified HTTP response header, which claim...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing Discover & News HTTPS & Security AI & SEO Pagination & Structure

Is JavaScript really indexed by Google, or should you still be cautious about it?

Martin Splitt May 30, 2023 ★★★

Google is capable of rendering JavaScript and indexing client-side generated content. The claim that JavaScript content is not indexed by Google is false, as long as there are no technical problems.

Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks