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 Really Mark All Guest Blogging Links as Nofollow?
John Mueller also indicated in a hangout that, in his opinion, all links from guest blogging practices should be nofollow, which wouldn't prevent users reading the articles from clicking on the links ...
John Mueller Dec 27, 2017
★★★ Does Google Consider Hiding Structured Data from Users as Cloaking?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that showing structured data tags to Googlebot only and not to the average user was considered by Google as cloaking and that this type of technique was therefore rep...
John Mueller Dec 27, 2017
★★★ Could Your Localized Pages Be Flagged as Doorway Pages by Google?
John Mueller clarified his definition of a "doorway page" in a hangout, in addition to the official definition: it refers to numerous pages offering identical or similar content, where the only thing ...
John Mueller Dec 27, 2017
★★ Should You Really Ignore Spammy Links in 2024?
Still in a hangout, John Mueller explains that today, Google tends to ignore spammy links rather than penalize sites that use them. And that it is now impossible to know whether, precisely, such and s...
John Mueller Dec 27, 2017
★★ Should You Use Generic Disavow Files Containing Lists of Toxic Sites?
Some webmasters use "standard" disavow files containing numerous toxic sites, even when these sites don't necessarily link to their website. However, John Mueller has indicated that Google does not en...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2017
★★ Can an Expired SSL Certificate Really Not Affect Your Site's SEO?
Google recently sent a message to certain webmasters in Search Console indicating that their TLS certificate had expired and required renewal. However, John Mueller indicated in the same hangout as me...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2017
★★★ How Can You Tell If Your Site Has Moved to Google's Mobile First Index?
Regarding the Mobile First project, John Mueller indicated in a hangout that one way to know if a site has moved to the Mobile First index is to look at server logs and check Google's activity: if 80%...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2017
★★ 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
★★★ How Should You Implement Hreflang Tags in a Mobile First Context?
John Mueller, on Twitter, explained that hreflang tags should follow a "mobile-to-mobile & desktop-to-desktop" pattern within the Mobile First project framework and in the case of a dedicated mobile s...
John Mueller Dec 04, 2017
★★★ Should Your Structured Data Really Reflect What's Visible on Your Pages?
John Mueller also indicated on Twitter that structured data tags (particularly Schema.org) inserted into a web page must absolutely describe the content visible to a user when they view the page in qu...
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
★★★ Can You Really Rank on Google Without Any Link Building?
A user asked John Mueller the following question on Twitter: can a website rank on Google without implementing a "link building" strategy? John's answer was, of course: "yes" 🙂...
John Mueller Nov 27, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Disavow Nofollow Links Pointing to Your Site?
A user asked John Mueller on Twitter the following question: should you disavow a URL that links to your site with nofollow? John Mueller responded that nofollow links transmit no signals, so disavowi...
John Mueller Nov 21, 2017
★★★ Why Do Featured Snippets Change So Frequently in Google Results?
Gary Illyes indicated at the Pubcon conference that the featured snippets currently displayed in the SERPs can vary significantly for the same query from one day to the next, because Google engineers ...
Gary Illyes Nov 21, 2017
★★★ Does a Direct Link to an Image Boost the SEO of the Page Containing It?
A user asked John Mueller whether a link pointing directly to an image (to a file like http://www.site.com/image/image-name.jpg for example) gave more SEO weight to the page containing that image. The...
John Mueller Nov 13, 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
★★ Why Are Structured Data Becoming Essential for SEO Success?
Gary Illyes indicated at the Pubcon conference that 2018 would be notably focused at Google on structured data (Schema.org markup) and that we should expect quite a few innovations in this area in the...
Gary Illyes Nov 13, 2017
★★★ How Can You Get Google to Index a New Page Quickly?
John Mueller shared an interesting tip on Twitter: if you want to quickly submit a new page to Google or resubmit an updated version, don't hesitate to use the Search Console and its "Crawl > Fetch as...
John Mueller Nov 06, 2017
★★★ Should You Delete or Improve Low-Quality Content on Your Website?
John Mueller discussed in a recent hangout the approach to take when you have content considered low-quality on your site. According to him (and Gary Illyes as well, who often talks about it), the bes...
John Mueller Nov 06, 2017
★★★ How Can You Optimize Internal Link Anchors to Supercharge Your SEO?
John Mueller reminded us in a hangout that using descriptive anchors (link texts) is not only important for external backlinks. This is also critical for internal linking (crosslinking). When creating...
John Mueller Nov 06, 2017
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