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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★★★ Does the Absence of Google's "Cached" Link Indicate Low-Quality Content?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that the fact that the "Cached" link does not appear in the SERPs for a page is not synonymous with low-quality content for the search engine. This may mean that the ...
John Mueller Sep 11, 2017
★★ Why Aren't Your Rich Snippets Showing Up in Search Results Despite Correct Technical Implementation?
Aaseesh Marina explained that the failure of rich snippet information (stars, prices, product availability...) to appear in SERPs could stem from a third reason (in addition to the two already known: ...
Google Sep 11, 2017
★★★ How Does Google Actually Detect Duplicate Content During Indexing?
Gary Illyes provided some insights on Twitter about how Google handles duplicate content phenomena: it's done through page comparison (not based on keyword analysis), the analysis is performed during ...
Gary Illyes Sep 11, 2017
Should You Build One Multi-Topic Website or Multiple Niche Sites for Better SEO?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that, in his opinion, it was better to create a single website, offering silos dedicated to specific topics, rather than numerous websites, each dealing with a ...
John Mueller Sep 04, 2017
★★★ Does the Meta Robots Noarchive Tag Actually Hurt Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that using the meta robots "noarchive" tag (which prevents the cached version of a page from being displayed in Google search results) has no negative impact on the r...
John Mueller Sep 04, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Remove All Hash (#) Links to Boost Your SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google completely ignores links like <a href="#"> (often used, for example, to open pop-up windows) since they lead "nowhere" according to John......
John Mueller Sep 04, 2017
★★ Should You Really Stop Trying to Understand Google's Algorithms to Do Better SEO?
When an internet user asked him a question about the "LSTM" algorithm (which we still haven't fully understood what it's about), John Mueller explained on Twitter that you should work on a website in ...
John Mueller Sep 04, 2017
Can We Still Trust Google's Statements About the Panda Filter?
Gary Illyes explained on Twitter that Google had changed its approach to the Panda filter and that what was true 5 years ago wasn't necessarily true today. It's worth noting that a year ago, John Muel...
John Mueller Sep 04, 2017
★★ Does Your Choice of Browser Actually Affect Your Google SEO Rankings?
John Mueller indicated during a hangout that to his knowledge, Google's relevance algorithm did not take into account the browser used by the user. Search results were supposedly the same on Chrome, F...
John Mueller Aug 28, 2017
★★★ What Does Google Do When Your Site Sends Conflicting Canonical Signals?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that when contradictory and/or conflicting signals are sent to Google regarding "canonical" tags (for example: an HTTPS URL containing a "canonical" tag pointing to t...
John Mueller Aug 28, 2017
★★ Can You Really Contact Google for Personalized SEO Support on Your Website?
A few days after Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that he doesn't provide SEO support for specific sites privately, John Mueller said the opposite by approving a user asking if they could send him a p...
John Mueller Aug 28, 2017
★★★ What Does the "Expired" Status in Search Console's URL Removal Tool Really Mean?
John Mueller explained what the "Expired" status means in Search Console and the "Remove URLs" tool. This status indicates that no specific action is needed to deindex the page, as it is covered by a ...
John Mueller Aug 28, 2017
★★★ Does Googlebot Always Start Crawling from a Website's Homepage?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Googlebot generally crawls a site's homepage first, simply because it's the first page it finds. But that it's not mandatory....
John Mueller Aug 28, 2017
★★★ Do Internal and External Links Really Carry Different Weight for Google Rankings?
When asked "Are there differences in how Google treats internal versus external links?", John Mueller responded: "definitely"....
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★★ Does Google Really Consider Server Load Balancing as Cloaking?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that redirecting a user to a faster server based on the load observed at a given time was not considered cloaking....
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★★ How Can You Prevent Google from Indexing Your Pre-Production Site?
John Mueller posted a fairly lengthy message on Google+ about the best way to prevent a test site (pre-production) from being indexed by Google, as we unfortunately see so often. If this mishap happen...
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★ What are the only two fields in an XML sitemap that Google actually cares about?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that in XML files, the two most important fields are the URL (<loc>) and the last modification date (<lastmod>)....
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★★ Does URL Architecture Really Impact Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the URL structure (the fact that the hierarchy is shown in a page's address, as opposed to a site where all URLs would be at the root level, for example), has on...
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★★ How Does Google Actually Handle Invalid or Non-Standard HTML Attributes in Your Page Code?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that when Google "parses" (analyzes) the HTML code of a page, erroneous attributes (badly coded, non-existent, non-standard...) of a tag are generally ignored....
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★★ Why Is Google Indexing More URLs Than Those Declared in Your XML Sitemap?
A user pointed out to John Mueller that in their Search Console, the XML Sitemaps report indicated there were more indexed URLs than URLs in the Sitemap. John responded that this likely came from the ...
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
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