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.
★★★ Should You Really Worry About Crawling and Indexing During Core Updates?
On LinkedIn, Gary Illyes provided some clarification about the independence of indexing systems from algorithm updates, particularly Core Updates. He states that indexing, canonicalization, and the va...
Gary Illyes Apr 16, 2024
★★★ Should You Fix Your Site Before a Core Update Finishes Rolling Out?
Regarding the March 2024 Core Update, John Mueller advised not to wait for the update to finish before making corrections, especially if the identified issues are obvious. He also emphasized diversify...
John Mueller Apr 09, 2024
★★ Does Google really preserve stop words within named entities, and how does this affect your SEO?
Google identifies specific entities in search queries. For example, with 'the Statue of Liberty', the word 'of' is preserved because it is an integral part of the recognized entity....
Gary Illyes Apr 09, 2024
★★★ Are You Measuring Your Content Against the Right Standards After HCU?
On X, John Mueller emphasized that improving a site affected by the Google Helpful Content Update wasn't about measuring it against its previous version, but rather about reassessing the entire site a...
John Mueller Apr 09, 2024
★★★ Are Ads on Your Website Really Hurting Your Google Rankings?
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 h...
Danny Sullivan Apr 02, 2024
★★ Has Google really transformed the web ecosystem with Core Web Vitals, or is it just marketing hype?
Google acknowledges that integrating Core Web Vitals into its ranking algorithm has raised awareness among more people about web performance problems and has contributed to measurable improvements in ...
John Mueller Mar 28, 2024
★★★ How is Google aiming to eliminate unnecessary content with this new update?
The March 2024 Core Update aims to enhance search quality by eliminating content created solely for the purpose of gaining clicks, while promoting the display of content that is genuinely useful to us...
Google Mar 28, 2024
★★ Should You Worry About SEO Impact When Switching from www to non-www URLs?
On Reddit, John Mueller explained that changing a site's canonical URLs from www to its non-www version doesn't have a major impact on the site's ranking in search results. However, he specified that ...
John Mueller Mar 26, 2024
★★★ Why Does Google Sometimes Launch Multiple Algorithm Updates at the Same Time?
On X, Danny Sullivan indicated that Google generally tries to avoid overlapping algorithm updates. In certain contexts, however, this can happen, as was the case with the simultaneous launch of the Co...
Danny Sullivan Mar 12, 2024
★★★ How Does Google Really Assess the Reliability of Your Content?
On X, Danny Sullivan explained that Google uses systems to detect whether content is reliable and whether there is a consensus on the web about that content. However, although Google seeks to rank con...
Danny Sullivan Mar 12, 2024
★★ How Long Does It Really Take to Recover from Google's Helpful Content Update?
How much time does it take for a site negatively impacted by the Helpful Content Update to get back into Google's good graces? According to Danny Sullivan, you'd better be patient, as it can take seve...
Danny Sullivan Feb 27, 2024
★★★ How does Googlebot decide which pages to crawl on your website?
Googlebot uses algorithms to determine which sites to crawl, how frequently to crawl them, and how many pages to retrieve from each site....
Gary Illyes Feb 22, 2024
★★★ Should You Stop Optimizing for E-E-A-T Since It's Not a Ranking Factor?
On X, Google's Danny Sullivan indicated that the quality raters guidelines, and more specifically a section concerning E-E-A-T, would likely be clarified in the near future. Although Google has repeat...
Danny Sullivan Feb 13, 2024
★★★ Why doesn’t Google notify us during a spam update?
Google generally does not send a notification when a site is affected by a spam update. Notifications for manual actions are sent only if a manual intervention is made. Most of Google's ranking system...
Google Feb 08, 2024
★★ Should you really ignore Core Updates during the holiday season?
There's no need to worry about core updates during the end-of-year period. Google recommends taking a few days off and relaxing, as core updates don't require constant monitoring during this time....
Martin Splitt Dec 20, 2023
★★ What are Google's real priorities hidden behind its latest algorithmic updates?
Google has deployed several algorithmic updates including Core Updates, a spam update, and a Reviews update. Details are available on Google's blog and the Search Status Dashboard....
John Mueller Dec 19, 2023
★★★ Should you still report bad backlinks to Google in 2024?
Bad link reports submitted to Google are used to improve algorithms overall. Google does not take individual actions on each report. This information is available on Google's official blog....
Gary Illyes Dec 18, 2023
★★★ What Causes the Significant Fluctuations in Discover Traffic?
<p>Traffic from Discover varies for several reasons: changes in user interests, types of content, and updates to Google Search. Since Discover is an extension of Google Search, it is impacted by algor...
Google Nov 30, 2023
★★★ Will Changing a Date or Minor Detail Help You Escape the Helpful Content Filter?
Danny Sullivan reminded us that the Helpful Content System is an algorithm that applies to an entire site. Therefore, changing a single character on one page has no impact: "If the Helpful Content sys...
Danny Sullivan Nov 07, 2023
What Does the Search Console's 'Hostload Exceeded' Message Really Reveal About Your Page Quality?
During last weekend, the Search Console regularly displayed the following failure message when requesting URL indexing: "Failure: hostload exceeded", which could lead some to believe the problem came ...
John Mueller Oct 24, 2023
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