What does Google say about SEO? /
This category compiles all official Google statements regarding its ranking algorithms and their successive updates. Algorithms form the foundation of the search engine and determine website visibility in search results. Here you'll find Google communications about Core Updates, those major algorithm refreshes deployed several times yearly, alongside historical algorithms such as Panda (content quality), Penguin (link spam), Hummingbird (semantic understanding), and artificial intelligence innovations like RankBrain and BERT. SEO professionals will discover official positions on recent thematic updates including the Helpful Content Update, designed to reward genuinely useful content for users, and Spam Updates targeting manipulative practices. Understanding Google's official statements about these algorithms is crucial for anticipating ranking fluctuations, adapting SEO strategies to search engine evolution, and aligning practices with official recommendations rather than relying on speculation or misinformation. This resource helps practitioners distinguish between confirmed algorithmic factors and industry myths, enabling data-driven optimization decisions. Whether responding to sudden traffic changes or planning long-term SEO strategies, these official declarations provide the authoritative foundation needed for effective search engine optimization in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
Quick SEO Quiz

Test your SEO knowledge in 3 questions

Less than 30 seconds. Find out how much you really know about Google search.

🕒 ~30s 🎯 3 questions 📚 SEO Google
★★ Should You Mass-Produce Content to Improve Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google's relevance algorithm does not give a specific advantage to websites that provide more information (in terms of volume) than another. "A website should no...
John Mueller Mar 13, 2018
★★ Does Page Loading Speed Really Impact Your Page Indexing?
Regarding last month's Speed Update, John Mueller and Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that while this new algorithm would affect page rankings on mobile, it does not impact indexing in any way. A slo...
John Mueller Feb 05, 2018
★★ Should You Include GPS Coordinates in Structured Data for Local SEO?
John Mueller explained in a hangout that the search engine does not take into account Schema.org structured data tags providing GPS coordinates in its algorithm....
John Mueller Jan 29, 2018
★★★ Does URL Folder Structure Really Impact Google Rankings?
Google indicated on Twitter that including folder names in a URL (example: www.yoursite.com/folder1/folder2/folder3/page.php) has no influence on rankings....
Google Jan 08, 2018
★★ Should You Really Optimize TTFB to Improve Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google does not take TTFB (Time To First Byte or server response time) into account in its algorithm or in any other way to measure the relevance of a result....
John Mueller Dec 04, 2017
★★★ Do You Really Need Perfect Keyword-Optimized URLs to Rank Well on Google?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that a URL doesn't need to perfectly "match" the page content in its wording. For example, a page offering tomato soup recipes can have the URL tomates-leg-soup1.html...
John Mueller Nov 27, 2017
★★★ Why Do Google's Panda and Penguin Filters Keep Evolving and How Can You Adapt?
Googler Eric Kuan indicated at the Pubcon conference that the engineering teams at Google continue to work on the Panda and Penguin algorithmic filters and that they evolve over time......
Google Nov 21, 2017
★★★ Do JavaScript Links Really Pass as Much PageRank as HTML Links?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that the way a link is designed and presented on a web page doesn't matter: HTML or JavaScript, in particular. If Google can read it, it will be treated like all ot...
John Mueller Nov 13, 2017
Should You Really Ignore Duplicate Content Like Google Suggests?
John Mueller indicated in a webmaster forum that the duplicate content issue should be reserved for "a rainy day, or when a new person joins the company or for the intern hired for the summer." Basica...
John Mueller Oct 30, 2017
★★★ Does Grammar Quality Really Impact Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that Google's relevance algorithm does not consider the quality (or lack thereof) of grammar used in a web page's content. This will not affect the page's ranki...
John Mueller Oct 16, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Optimize EXIF Metadata in Your Images for Google SEO?
In 2014, Matt Cutts indicated in a video that Google "reserved the right" to read the metadata (EXIF) present in an image. Without saying more. We could therefore think that at that time, the search e...
John Mueller Oct 16, 2017
★★★ Is There Really a Top 3 of Google Ranking Criteria to Prioritize in SEO?
Two years ago, a Googler said that Google's algorithm primarily used 3 essential criteria: content, links, and RankBrain. Since then, John Mueller and Gary Illyes have repeatedly indicated that this r...
John Mueller Oct 02, 2017
★★★ Does Cart Abandonment Rate Actually Hurt Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the fact that an e-commerce site has a high shopping cart abandonment rate (abandoned pending orders) was not a relevance criterion in the algorithm......
John Mueller Oct 02, 2017
★★ Has Penguin Been Running on Autopilot for a Year – Should SEOs Still Worry About It?
Still at the Brighton SEO conference, Gary Illyes indicated that since its real-time launch a year ago, Penguin had initially undergone a few adjustments but that it had been running on its own for a ...
Gary Illyes Oct 02, 2017
★★ Should You Really React to Every Google Algorithm Update?
We continue with Brighton SEO and the same Gary Illyes who maintained that 95 to 98% of Google's algorithm updates were not "actionable" by webmasters and SEOs. Basically, it was difficult or even imp...
Gary Illyes Oct 02, 2017
★★ Is Click-Through Rate (CTR) Really a Ranking Factor for SEO?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that if Google uses the click-through rate in SERPs (or pogosticking), it's primarily to evaluate and improve relevance algorithms, but not to assign a score to...
John Mueller Sep 25, 2017
★★ Does Google's "Fetch as Google" Tool Actually Show How Googlebot Sees Your Site?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the "Fetch as Google" feature in Search Console, which displays a page as seen by both users and search engines, is not used by the search engine's algorithm. It...
John Mueller Sep 25, 2017
★★★ How Does Google's Algorithm Adapt Its Ranking Criteria Based on Your Queries?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that Google's relevance algorithm doesn't use the same criteria with the same weight for all queries and that the calculations could change in their very essenc...
John Mueller Sep 25, 2017
★★★ Do HTML ID attributes have an impact on natural search rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the content of "id=" attributes in an HTML tag (example: <div id="content" class="content"...>) is not taken into account (in terms of text relevance analysis) b...
John Mueller Sep 18, 2017
Can We Still Trust Google's Statements About the Panda Filter?
Gary Illyes explained on Twitter that Google had changed its approach to the Panda filter and that what was true 5 years ago wasn't necessarily true today. It's worth noting that a year ago, John Muel...
John Mueller Sep 04, 2017
🔔

Get real-time analysis of the latest Google SEO declarations

Be the first to know every time a new official Google statement drops — with full expert analysis.

No spam. Unsubscribe in one click.