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 Prioritize Technical Simplicity Over Complexity to Avoid Algorithmic Penalties?
John Mueller indicated on Reddit that it's better to implement a website for which you're certain about how search engines will process the pages. Rather than designing a site that's very uncertain at...
John Mueller Sep 24, 2018
★★★ Does Google Really Index Content Hidden in Accordions and Tabs?
Gary Illyes reminded us on Twitter that, contrary to what some recent studies had suggested, Google does properly index and gives "normal" weight to text content located in tabs or accordions. He indi...
Gary Illyes Sep 24, 2018
★★★ Should You Really Add Your Brand Name to Every Title Tag?
John Mueller indicated, also on Twitter, that adding the site name (company or brand name) at the end of each Title tag on a website's pages poses absolutely no problem whatsoever....
John Mueller Sep 17, 2018
★★★ Should You Structure Your XML Sitemaps Differently Based on How You Submit Them to Google?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that if an XML Sitemap file was submitted via an anonymous ping, the URLs it contained had to be present in the directory (and subdirectories) of the Sitemap fi...
John Mueller Sep 17, 2018
★★★ Can Cookie Banners Actually Prevent Google from Crawling Your Most Important Pages?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that Google cannot crawl a page if displaying it requires the user to accept cookies....
John Mueller Sep 17, 2018
★★ Should You Really Aim for 100ms Download Times to Optimize Google's Crawl?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that an interesting metric, in terms of page load times, could be to look at the Search Console, in the "Crawl > Crawl Stats" section, and then try to have the "Time ...
John Mueller Sep 17, 2018
★★★ How Does Google Choose Between Publication Date and Last Updated Date in Search Results?
John Mueller provided an interesting insight during a hangout about the date displayed in Google's SERPs (particularly to the left of the snippet, which usually takes the meta "description" tag): it c...
John Mueller Sep 17, 2018
★★★ What really happens when a Google manual action expires without any fixes?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that manual actions do indeed expire at some point. However, if nothing has been done to fix the problem in the meantime, it could be picked up by a new part of the...
John Mueller Sep 10, 2018
★★★ Does Google Really Ignore Links from .edu Domains?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that, "because of the misconception that .edu sites are better taken into account by Google," the search engine was ignoring tons of links coming from pages on this t...
John Mueller Sep 10, 2018
★★ Do White Spaces on Web Pages Really Hurt Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that white spaces (empty areas) on a web page, which may push textual content further down, do not pose specific SEO problems. Only ads that hinder content read...
John Mueller Sep 10, 2018
★★★ Why Is the ALT Attribute Crucial for Your Google Images SEO Rankings?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter of the critical importance of the ALT attribute for images in Google's dedicated search engine for this format....
John Mueller Sep 10, 2018
★★★ Can JavaScript Actually Prevent Your Site from Being Indexed in Mobile First?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that sites using a lot of JavaScript might not be transitioned to the Mobile First index....
John Mueller Sep 10, 2018
★★★ How Does Google Really Index PDF Files and Why Should This Change Your SEO Strategy?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that when indexing PDF documents or others (certainly Word, Excel, PowerPoint or others), it first goes through a conversion phase from PDF to HTML. And it's this doc...
John Mueller Sep 03, 2018
★★★ Should You Really Redirect All Old URLs to the Homepage During a Migration?
John Mueller had already said this in the past. He reiterated it once again in a hangout: redirecting all the old URLs of a site to the homepage (particularly during a migration with massive changes t...
John Mueller Sep 03, 2018
★★★ Should You Link from Your Homepage to Every Page on Your Site?
John Mueller discussed during a hangout the technique of implementing links from the homepage to all pages of a site, or to as many of these pages as possible. While this practice is quite logical for...
John Mueller Sep 03, 2018
★★★ Do You Really Need Third-Party Tools to Identify Toxic Links for Disavowing?
During a hangout, John Mueller indicated that, as part of a link disavow process, Search Console data (the "Links to your site" section) was most of the time sufficient to verify that no toxic links w...
John Mueller Sep 03, 2018
★★★ How Does Google Really Evaluate the Quality of a Backlink?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that the overall quality of the site linking to you is not the only source of information Google uses to qualify the quality of the link itself. Other criteria come i...
John Mueller Sep 03, 2018
★★★ Should You Really Exclude All Redirected URLs from Your XML Sitemap?
John Mueller has said it repeatedly in the past: when you create your XML Sitemap files, don't include any redirected URLs (301 or otherwise). He reiterated this on Twitter recently. Google uses this ...
John Mueller Sep 03, 2018
★★★ Which HTTP Redirect Should You Use During HTTPS Migration to Preserve Your SEO?
John Mueller indicated during a hangout that "Google strongly recommends 301 redirects during an HTTPS migration", and therefore to move URLs from HTTP to HTTPS, when he was asked about 302 or 303 red...
John Mueller Aug 27, 2018
★★★ Can You Use the Same Image Multiple Times on Your Site Without an SEO Penalty?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that an image could appear identically (under the same filename or not) on the same site, or across several different sites, this posed no problem for Google, and tha...
John Mueller Aug 27, 2018
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