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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★★★ How will Google's 'Helpful Content' update shake up SEO?
Google has announced a new algorithm update called the 'Helpful Content Update.' If the content is not useful to users, the ranking will decrease. The entire site with this type of content will also s...
Google Sep 01, 2022
★★ Is adding a job application button really not considered SEO cloaking?
For job searches, inserting a job application button in view when visiting the site via search parameters does not pose a cloaking problem, as long as the content is not different between the search e...
Google Sep 01, 2022
★★ Can automatic updates in Merchant Center fix your product data without manual intervention?
Enabling automatic article updates in Merchant Center allows it to automatically update price and inventory data based on web page content when discrepancies are detected....
Alan Kent Aug 29, 2022
★★★ Should You Index Comment Pages to Improve Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that it's better not to index pages that would only contain comments, whether on a blog, product page, or elsewhere. However, high-quality comments beneath editorial ...
John Mueller Aug 29, 2022
★★★ Should You Cloak Your Affiliate Links to Improve Your SEO?
John Mueller responded on Twitter to a question about the merits of cloaked affiliate links. His answer: "I don't think you gain anything by masking affiliate links, it just adds complexity. You can a...
John Mueller Aug 29, 2022
★★★ Should You Follow the Quality Raters Guide to Improve Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the Quality Raters guidelines document was not a list of tips for ranking better on Google. However, reading it could provide insights into content quality and h...
John Mueller Aug 29, 2022
★★★ Does Google really index only a fraction of the web because of storage costs?
Google does not have infinite storage capacity. Indexing requires storage (hard drives, memory, SSDs) that costs money. Google therefore does not index all available content on the Internet, only what...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★ Are you wasting your crawl budget on JavaScript files that add no value?
If a significant proportion of crawl budget (35% or 90%) is consumed by JavaScript files that add no content, it is recommended to consolidate these files or use X-Robots-Tag headers to prevent their ...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★★ What does your "discovered but not crawled" URL status really reveal about your site?
If a large proportion of URLs appears as "discovered but not crawled" in Search Console, this indicates either a content quality issue (Google doesn't think users are searching for this content), or a...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★★ Are 404s and robots.txt Really Wasting Your Crawl Budget?
HTTP status codes 404 and 410, as well as URLs blocked by robots.txt, do not consume crawl budget because Google only receives the status code without content. Conversely, soft 404s (pages that return...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★ Should you block your decorative JavaScript files to optimize your crawl budget?
If JavaScript files are purely decorative and add neither content nor value to the page rendering, they can be blocked via robots.txt or X-Robots-Tag. Rendering will fail for these resources but this ...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★ Should you really rely on CMS plugins to handle your structured data automatically?
If you use a content management system like WordPress or Squarespace, the best approach is to find a plugin that automatically exposes structured data for content already present on your web pages....
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ What's the point of perfect structured data if Google can't actually crawl your pages?
The most important thing as a website owner is to first make sure Google can crawl your content. If Google cannot crawl your content, then it cannot find the structured data on your page....
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Can structured data really boost your qualified SEO traffic?
When you tell Google what's on your webpage in a structured way, it allows Google to interpret your content more precisely and create visual treatments like product review stars or search filters. Thi...
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Why does Google rely on Schema.org as its primary language for understanding your content?
Google primarily uses Schema.org to describe the content of your page. Schema.org is a public collaboration between several different organizations to create a shared vocabulary describing data....
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Can off-topic structured data really penalize your website?
Using structured data that has nothing to do with the page's content is considered abuse and can result in penalties. You need to focus on describing the primary meaning of the page....
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Why does Google recommend JSON-LD over Microdata or RDFa for structured data implementation?
Google's recommended approach is to use JSON-LD because it's the simplest syntax. JSON-LD is a separate block of JSON syntax placed on the web page within a script tag alongside the visible content....
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Why Does Google Refuse to Index Some SEO Content Even When It's Optimized?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that "a lot of SEOs and websites produce very low-quality content that isn't worth indexing (...) Just because it exists doesn't mean it's useful to users."...
John Mueller Aug 22, 2022
★★★ Is HTTPS Really Mandatory to Rank Well on Google in 2024?
John Mueller reminded on Twitter that having a website in HTTPS is absolutely not a requirement to be (well) ranked in Google's search results. Many HTTP sites are well indexed and rank in the top res...
John Mueller Aug 22, 2022
★★★ Should You Abandon Dynamic Rendering for SEO in 2024?
Google has updated its documentation for JavaScript developers and now indicates that Dynamic Rendering is "a workaround and not a long-term solution for JavaScript-generated content issues in search ...
Google Aug 16, 2022
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