What does Google say about SEO? /
The Content category compiles all official Google statements regarding textual content creation, optimization, and evaluation in the context of search engine optimization. It encompasses fundamental aspects such as editorial quality, E-E-A-T criteria (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), duplicate content issues, and thin content concerns. Google's positions on these topics are critical for understanding how algorithms assess the relevance and added value of web pages. This category also includes recommendations on structural elements like headings (H1, H2, Hn tags), meta descriptions, and semantic optimization. With the introduction of the Helpful Content system, Google has reinforced the importance of a user-first approach rather than a search engine-first methodology. SEO professionals will find here official guidance for creating content that meets algorithmic expectations while delivering genuine value to users, a balance that has become essential for achieving and maintaining strong rankings in search results. These declarations provide clarity on content strategies that align with Google's evolving quality standards and ranking factors.
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★★★ Should You Block 404 Error Pages in Your Robots.txt File?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it would be a very bad idea to block pages that return 404 errors from search engine crawling, adding that Googlebot attempts to crawl billions of URLs that retu...
John Mueller Jul 20, 2020
★★★ Should You Reject Backlinks from Pages Less Popular Than Yours?
According to John Mueller, receiving links from pages with lower popularity (whether you measure it with metrics like TF, CF, DA or others) than the page receiving the link does not pose a major probl...
John Mueller Jul 20, 2020
★★★ Can You Really Optimize Your Content for Google Discover?
In the new version of the help page about its Discover feature, Google explains that "there is no way to create content that explicitly aims to meet Discover's interests." In other words, you cannot o...
Google Jul 20, 2020
★★★ How does Google really detect content changes on your site?
Google employs several signals to determine crawl frequency: content fingerprint, structured data with dates, ETag, HTTP Last-Modified header, and modification date in the sitemap. If these signals do...
Martin Splitt Jul 14, 2020
★★★ Does the crawl budget really boil down to the simple sum of two variables?
The crawl budget consists of two elements: crawl rate (the speed at which Google can crawl without overloading the server) and crawl demand (crawl frequency based on content change frequency and not i...
Martin Splitt Jul 14, 2020
★★ How does content hashing in URLs truly enhance your crawl budget?
To optimize caching and crawl budget, use content hashes in file names (e.g., application.AEF3CE.js) instead of generic names. This allows Google to cache resources indefinitely, and only new hashes w...
Martin Splitt Jul 14, 2020
★★★ Do structured data really enhance Google's understanding of content?
Structured data is a markup that developers add to their pages so that machines can better understand their content. This markup powers rich results. Google recommends visiting the Search Gallery to b...
Daniel Waisberg Jul 08, 2020
★★★ Are rich results really an SEO lever to prioritize or just a cosmetic gimmick?
Rich results are search results that provide special features or enhanced information. For example, for recipes, you can see an image of the dish and an overview of the ingredients. For job postings, ...
Daniel Waisberg Jul 08, 2020
★★★ How does Google Search Console now monitor your video structured data?
Google announced on Twitter a minor change in how video traffic data is displayed in Search Console: "if you're using structured video data, our report is now aligned with official documentation and w...
Google Jul 06, 2020
★★★ Should You Optimize Your Mobile Site for Landscape Mode in SEO?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that the fact that a website doesn't support "landscape" mode on mobile has no impact on the search engine algorithm and therefore no SEO impact......
John Mueller Jul 06, 2020
★★ Should you really show consent screens to Googlebot to avoid possible cloaking penalties?
It is generally acceptable not to show Googlebot the user consent screen and to load the main content directly, especially if there are legal reasons preventing the content from being loaded before co...
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★ Is the content behind a login really invisible to Google?
Google cannot index content located behind a login. What happens once the user is logged in has no impact on SEO, and search engines do not care about it....
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★ Is it true that Googlebot can do without pre-rendering?
In 90% of cases, pre-rendering is unnecessary for Googlebot because it executes JavaScript. If pre-rendering is used to work around a JavaScript issue, it is essential to ensure that any remaining Jav...
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★ Should you treat Googlebot differently from users to manage redirects?
While it is technically possible to redirect only regular users to the www domain and not Googlebot, this approach makes testing and debugging more difficult. It is better to address the root cause of...
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★★ Does changing your JavaScript framework lead to a drop in Google rankings?
Changing a JavaScript framework (e.g., moving from Angular to Vue/Nuxt) should not in itself lead to a drop in ranking, as Google focuses on the content, not on the technology being used. The drops ob...
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★ Should you really redirect Googlebot to www to bypass CORB errors?
It is technically acceptable to redirect only Googlebot to the www domain while keeping users on the non-www version to avoid CORB errors caused by a service worker. However, Martin recommends fixing ...
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★★ Does switching JavaScript frameworks really ruin your SEO?
A simple change of technology (e.g., from Angular to Vue/Nuxt) should not affect SEO as long as the content, site structure, and URLs remain identical. Any drop in traffic observed during a migration ...
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★★ Why will your hash (#) URLs never be indexed by Google?
URLs containing a hash (#) cannot be crawled or indexed by Google. For temporary content (e.g., sports match) to be findable in search before or during the event, clean routes without a hash must be u...
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★★ Is content behind login really invisible to Google?
Any content located behind a login system is invisible to search engines and has no SEO impact. Webmasters can therefore freely implement JavaScript interfaces for logged-in users without SEO consider...
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
★★ Can logged-in users be redirected to different URLs without facing SEO penalties?
It is acceptable to redirect users to different URLs based on the presence of cookies as long as Googlebot can access all content versions via links. This approach does not negatively impact SEO....
Martin Splitt Jul 01, 2020
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