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 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
★★★ Does the Last-Modified Meta Tag Actually Help Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google ignores the "Last Modified" meta tag (<meta http-equiv="last-modified" content="YYYY-MM-DD">) indicating a page's last modification date. Therefore, it ha...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★★ Should You Use WWW or Non-WWW for Better SEO Performance?
A user asked on Twitter whether it was preferable in SEO to use a WWW address (www.yoursite.com) or not (yoursite.com) for a website. Another user replied that it had no impact on SEO. John Mueller ag...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
Are PBNs Really Detected and Penalized by Google?
John Mueller indicated in a hangout that Google's algorithms detect PBNs without too much difficulty and, for those that slip under the radar, the "webspam team" loves diving into them......
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★ Does Googlebot Send a Referrer When Crawling Your Pages?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Googlebot, when crawling a page, does not return a referrer URL, as a user would when browsing on a browser. A Googlebot visit is therefore similar to direct tra...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★ Should You Really Deindex Your Internal Search Results Pages?
John Mueller explained on Twitter why Google requires internal search results pages from a website to be deindexed: they create infinite crawl spaces, are often low-quality pages, and frequently prese...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★★ Does CSS File Size Really Impact Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the size of a stylesheet (CSS) file does not impact the search engine's algorithm. It can be several tens of MB....
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★ Can You Combine Noindex and Canonical Tags on the Same Page?
A user asked John Mueller the following question: "if a page contains both a 'noindex' tag and a 'canonical' tag, does the canonical transmit the indexing prohibition to the canonical page?" John Muel...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★★ Should You Still Use Geographic Meta Tags for Local SEO?
John Mueller indicated that Google does not take into account geo-type meta tags (<meta name="geo.position" content="latitude; longitude">, <meta name="geo.placename" content="Place">, <meta name="geo...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★ What's the Maximum Page Size Google Will Actually Crawl?
John Mueller explained that Googlebot's current crawl limit for a web page is 200 MB (the last known limit in 2015 was 10 MB)....
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
Do Google's Quality Raters Really Influence Your Site's Rankings?
John Mueller indicated in a hangout that quality raters were there primarily to evaluate and even help correct Google's algorithms, but that their purpose was not to assess the sites appearing in sear...
John Mueller Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Does Capitalization in Hreflang Tags Really Affect International SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it was possible to specify language and country codes in Hreflang tags in lowercase or uppercase, regardless of case: fr-FR, fr-fr or FR-fr, everything will work...
John Mueller Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Do Commas in Title Tags Actually Hurt Your SEO Rankings?
A user asked John Mueller on Twitter whether using commas as separators in Title tags posed a problem. Unsurprisingly, John replied that he could do as he pleased in this regard....
John Mueller Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Place Optimized Text Below Your Footer to Boost SEO?
An internet user pointed out to Gary Illyes - with examples - that certain "SEO experts" were placing several sentences (clearly intended for Google optimization) below the footer of their pages and a...
Gary Illyes Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Does the Order of URLs in an XML Sitemap File Actually Matter to Google?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that you can structure your XML Sitemap file absolutely however you want in terms of field order, and this won't cause any problems for Google. The file is read autom...
John Mueller Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Do Sticky Footers Actually Harm Your Site's SEO Performance?
Gary Illyes responded on Twitter to a webmaster asking about "sticky footers" - the page footer that remains displayed on screen even when users scroll up or down through the content. In short, the fo...
Gary Illyes Jul 31, 2017
★★★ Can You Use 301 Redirects in Hreflang Tags?
We asked John Mueller whether a URL in a hreflang tag could be subject to a 301 redirect. His answer was clear: URLs in hreflang tags must be canonical. This therefore rules out the use of such redire...
John Mueller Jul 24, 2017
Should You Nofollow Links to Legal Pages and Terms & Conditions?
John Mueller indicated during a hangout that links to pages such as "About", "Terms and Conditions" or "Legal Notices" can be set to dofollow. For our part, we recommend nofollow (especially for large...
John Mueller Jul 17, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Put a Canonical Tag on EVERY Page of Your Website?
John Mueller confirmed in a hangout that it was beneficial to implement a "canonical" tag on all canonical pages of a site pointing to themselves to avoid DUST (Duplicate URL, Same Text, more explanat...
John Mueller Jul 17, 2017
★★★ Can Googlebot Really Crawl Your Site If You Use Cookies?
This has been known for a long time, but John Mueller recently reminded us: Googlebot crawls a site using a stateless protocol, meaning it doesn't take cookies into account. It's therefore up to you t...
John Mueller Jul 17, 2017
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