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.
Quick SEO Quiz

Test your SEO knowledge in 5 questions

Less than a minute. Find out how much you really know about Google search.

🕒 ~1 min 🎯 5 questions
★★ Should You Really Abandon Technical Tag Optimization After a Google Penalty?
John Mueller indicated on Reddit, regarding the Medic update of August 1st, that the work to be done if your site was impacted by this update was primarily to work in a general and macroscopic way on ...
John Mueller Dec 24, 2018
★★★ Does Having Your Content Scraped Negatively Impact Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated last week, again on Twitter, that having your content "scraped" (stolen, copied/pasted) by other websites is neither a quality criterion nor a relevance criterion for Google's a...
John Mueller Dec 17, 2018
★★★ Can Switching Hosts or Migrating to a CDN Tank Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter, in response to a specific case of a company that migrated its site to Cloudflare and saw its rankings drop, that this case was merely speculation and that a hosting ...
John Mueller Dec 17, 2018
★★★★ Do Keywords in URLs Really Impact Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller reminded us (once again) on Twitter that the presence of keywords in a URL has very little impact on SEO. Matt Cutts had also said the same thing back in the day....
John Mueller Dec 10, 2018
★★★ How Should You Structure Your FAQ to Leverage Question/Answer Structured Data?
Google launched structured data markup for "Question/Answer" type pages last week. The search engine took the opportunity to update its recommendations for this type of markup. An important piece of i...
John Mueller Dec 10, 2018
★★ Should You Create New Pages Every Year or Reuse the Same URL for Seasonal Content?
In a hangout with John Mueller, a question was raised regarding seasonal content that returns every year, such as Christmas offers, for example. Should you create new pages each time or update those f...
John Mueller Dec 03, 2018
★★★ How Does Google Actually Measure Trust When Ranking Your Website?
John Mueller confirmed in a hangout that Google uses a certain number of criteria (without specifying which ones) to evaluate the quality of a site as a whole, and therefore the quality of the content...
John Mueller Dec 03, 2018
★★★ Should You Abandon a Domain with a History of Spam or Hacking?
A webmaster asked John Mueller a question during a hangout about the historical value of a domain name that may have been used in the past for spam or hacking actions. Is there a reset - or something ...
John Mueller Nov 26, 2018
★★★ Why Does Google Crawl Your Pages But Still Refuse to Index Them?
In the new Search Console and its "Index Coverage" option, many pages are sometimes indicated as "Crawled - currently not indexed". Most of the time, these are pages that have not yet been indexed (th...
John Mueller Nov 26, 2018
★★★★ Does Buying Your Domain Name for 10 Years Actually Improve Your SEO?
John Mueller explained on Twitter for the 1,458th time 🙂 that the purchase duration or expiration date of a domain name with a registrar is not a relevance criterion taken into account by the search e...
John Mueller Nov 26, 2018
★★★ Do Business Accreditations and Certifications Actually Influence Google Rankings?
There are many organizations, particularly in the United States, that grant "accreditations" or scores to businesses based on numerous criteria. One of the most well-known is the BBB (Better Business ...
John Mueller Nov 19, 2018
★★★★ Does the Alt Attribute Really Matter for Classic Web Search Rankings?
John Mueller explained in a hangout that the Alt attribute of images plays a fairly minor role in optimizing a page for web search. Indeed, the words that this attribute contains will certainly alread...
John Mueller Nov 19, 2018
★★★ Can You Copy-Paste Legal Pages Without Hurting Your SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it poses no problem for the search engine if you copy/paste the content of pages such as Terms of Service, Terms of Sale, Legal Notices or other administrative p...
John Mueller Nov 12, 2018
★★★ Should You Merge Multiple Pages Into One to Improve Your SEO?
John Mueller explained in a hangout that combining multiple pieces of content into a single page could be beneficial for SEO but sometimes also fail to deliver good results. It will be beneficial for ...
John Mueller Nov 12, 2018
★★★ Can You Really Opt Out of Google's Mobile First Indexing?
John Mueller responded to a question on Twitter asking whether one could request not to be moved to the Mobile First Index. The answer was negative....
John Mueller Nov 12, 2018
★★★ Should You Really Use the Same Title Tag for Both Desktop and Mobile?
John Mueller advised on Twitter to use only one Title tag, identical for both desktop and mobile versions of a web page. And, within the framework of the Mobile First index, it's the mobile version's ...
John Mueller Nov 12, 2018
★★★ Does Using the Same Google Account for Search Console and Analytics Hurt Your SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Reddit that having the same Google account (same login, same email address) for Search Console and Analytics across multiple sites, or using different accounts, has no impact...
John Mueller Nov 12, 2018
★★★ Why Does Google's Structured Data Testing Tool Crawl Your Site in Desktop Mode Instead of Mobile?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google's structured data markup testing tool crawls the submitted URL as a "neutral" crawler, which is interpreted most of the time by the site as a "desktop" cr...
John Mueller Nov 05, 2018
★★ Do 301 Redirects Between Unrelated Pages Really Lose All Their PageRank?
John Mueller provided more information during a hangout on how a 301 redirect passes "link juice" (PageRank) from one page to another. He initially indicated, as was already known, that 301 and 302 re...
John Mueller Nov 05, 2018
★★★ Should You Implement Regional Hreflang Tags Instead of Country-Level Ones?
Some SEO professionals (including Aleyda Solis) have advocated for implementing hreflang tags down to the regional level, within a country, instead of staying at the country level as is currently the ...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2018
🔔

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.