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 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
★★★ Should You Really Avoid Automatic Redirects Based on Visitor IP Addresses?
We've said it often on our site, and John Mueller recently reiterated it on Twitter: don't redirect your visitors to one site or another automatically based on their IP address (and therefore their ge...
John Mueller Jul 17, 2017
★★ Does the Position of Internal Links Really Affect Their SEO Weight?
John Mueller reminded in a hangout that the position of an internal link on a web page doesn't matter in terms of indexation: top of page, footer, sidebar, etc. In all cases, the link will be detected...
John Mueller Jul 17, 2017
★★★ Does Geographic Hosting Location Still Impact Your Site's SEO Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the geographic location of a server no longer matters to Google. To establish the target country of a site, the search engine primarily relies on the domain exte...
John Mueller Jul 17, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Avoid Massive 301 Redirects to Your Homepage?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that 301 redirects should primarily be used as "1:1" replacements, meaning: one URL replaces another. Otherwise, it's better to leave the URL as a 404. If you impleme...
John Mueller Jul 10, 2017
★★★ Does Embedding YouTube Videos Actually Improve Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on a webmaster forum that including a YouTube video on a web page does not increase its relevance score for the search engine. Adding videos plays no role in your Google ranking...
John Mueller Jul 10, 2017
★★ Will Hidden Content in Accordions and Tabs Finally Carry the Same SEO Weight as Visible Text?
Following Gary Illyes a few weeks ago, John Mueller confirmed in a hangout that hidden but potentially visible content on a page (tabs, accordions, etc.) will be treated, when the Mobile First project...
John Mueller Jul 10, 2017
★★★ Do Google and Bing Actually Share the Same Search Index?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter - but did it really need to be said given how obvious the information is? - that Google doesn't share an index with Bing (or any other competing search engine). Rea...
John Mueller Jul 10, 2017
★★ Should you really index a site with thousands of pages gradually, or can you submit everything at once?
John Mueller indicated in a hangout that it poses no problem for Google's robots to crawl, all at once, a new site or a new section within a site, comprising hundreds of thousands of pages. The only p...
John Mueller Jul 10, 2017
★★★ How Long Does It Really Take for Google to Process a Site Migration?
Gary Illyes explained at the SMX Advanced conference that processing a site migration (domain name change and/or URL structure change) by Google can take 3 months, depending on the site's size, and no...
Gary Illyes Jun 26, 2017
★★ How Is Google Rolling Out Mobile First Indexing Site by Site?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google was considering launching the Mobile First index site by site, as soon as the algorithm determines that the site in question will be ready for it. Therefo...
John Mueller Jun 26, 2017
★★ Can Repetitive URLs Actually Harm Your Site's Search Rankings?
John Mueller indicated in a Google webmaster forum that the search engine could ignore certain URLs if they repeat identical patterns or titles too many (excessively many) times. In short, when implem...
John Mueller Jun 26, 2017
★★★★ How Does Google Actually Distinguish Near Duplicate Content from Pure Duplicate Content?
Gary Illyes explained on Twitter his vision of "near duplicate content": he sees it in two forms: either it's slightly modified content on another page, or the same content, but in a different environ...
Gary Illyes Jun 19, 2017
★★ Should You Create a Specific Meta Tag to Optimize Your Content for Featured Snippets?
Gary Illyes explained at the SMX Advanced conference that Google would not be offering specific data on the appearance of your site's content in featured snippets in the Search Console in the short te...
Gary Illyes Jun 19, 2017
★★ How Does Google Use Machine Learning to Assess Website Quality?
John Mueller explained in a hangout that machine learning algorithms were primarily used by Google to understand whether a site is generally of good or poor quality, but not in the context of a specif...
John Mueller Jun 19, 2017
★★ Do You Really Need Hreflang Tags on a Monolingual Website?
Still on the subject of Hreflang tags, John Mueller indicated, also on Twitter, that if your site is published in a single language, you are not obligated to use Hreflang tags. Logical there too. Howe...
John Mueller Jun 12, 2017
★★ Should You Worry About a Drop in Your Site's Crawl Rate?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that the fact that a website experiences a lower crawl rate at a given time from the search engine's robots is not necessarily a negative signal for your future visib...
John Mueller Jun 12, 2017
★★★ Does the Order of Hreflang Tags Really Matter for SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that hreflang tags in a page's source code could be listed in any order, it didn't matter at all. Makes sense......
John Mueller Jun 12, 2017
★★★ How Long Can You Use a 503 Code Before Risking Deindexation?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that using a 503 code (Service Unavailable) is not a problem if it's implemented for a few hours (for a quick maintenance operation, for example), but it should not...
John Mueller Jun 12, 2017
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