What does Google say about SEO? /
The Crawl & Indexing category compiles all official Google statements regarding how Googlebot discovers, crawls, and indexes web pages. These fundamental processes determine which pages from your website will be included in Google's index and potentially appear in search results. This section addresses critical technical mechanisms: crawl budget management to optimize allocated resources, strategic implementation of robots.txt files to control content access, noindex directives for page exclusion, XML sitemap configuration to enhance discoverability, along with JavaScript rendering challenges and canonical URL implementation. Google's official positions on these topics are essential for SEO professionals as they help avoid technical blocking issues, accelerate new content indexation, and prevent unintentional deindexing. Understanding Google's crawling and indexing processes forms the foundation of any effective search engine optimization strategy, directly impacting organic visibility and SERP performance. Whether troubleshooting indexation problems, optimizing crawl efficiency for large websites, or ensuring proper URL canonicalization, these official guidelines provide authoritative answers to complex technical SEO questions that shape modern web presence and discoverability.
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★★★ Should you really return a 404 for temporarily empty e-commerce categories?
For a category that is temporarily emptied of all its products, using a 404 status code is the simplest and most effective solution. The noindex has the same effect. A canonical to another category wi...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2020
★★★ Should you really block the indexing of certain pages to improve your crawl?
For sites with crawl and indexing difficulties, it’s essential to limit the number of indexable pages. Using noindex on filter pages allows Google to focus on the truly important pages. Fewer links to...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2020
★★ Does web accessibility really boost indexing and SEO?
Making a site accessible generally improves indexing. Adding alt attributes to images and providing textual details helps Google better understand the content. Therefore, accessibility is more of an a...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2020
★★★ How long does it really take for a navigation change to impact your SEO?
After a major change like the main navigation, most processing is done within 2-3 weeks. Google attempts to recrawl all pages within 6 months. The most important pages are updated within a few weeks. ...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2020
★★ Can you geotarget your Web Stories in country subfolders without risking SEO?
For Web Stories, geotargeting functions just like it does for regular pages. If Web Stories are placed in country subfolders (e.g., /UK/, /US/), the geotargeting is applied normally. In countries with...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2020
★★★ Does Google Measure Core Web Vitals on Noindex Pages?
John Mueller indicated during a hangout that a web page with a "noindex" tag could be analyzed as part of the Page Experience / Core Web Vitals project, since it is available online and can be read by...
John Mueller Dec 14, 2020
★★★ Should you really show the complete content to Googlebot if the paywall blocks users?
Googlebot must be able to see the complete content to understand the ranking topic, AND see the structured paywall markup. Users do not need to see this markup, but it is essential for Google to see i...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★ Should you really update all backlinks after a domain migration?
After a domain migration, updating external links pointing to the old site helps Google with canonicalization. If Google hesitates between the old and new version, external links to one version help i...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★ Are Web Stories really indexable like regular pages?
Web Stories are canonical AMP pages (without an alternative HTML version). They can be indexed individually like regular content. Google does not yet display them in all countries in specific features...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★★ How does cleaning up your URL structure really enhance the ranking of your strategic pages?
When poor pages (tags similar to categories) rank better than good ones, cleaning up the structure helps: reducing internal links to these pages, using rel=canonical, or redirecting to the desired pag...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★★ Should you block pages receiving backlinks with robots.txt?
If a page is blocked by robots.txt, Google does not know its content and cannot indirectly transfer external links to the main content of the site. It is important to avoid blocking important pages th...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★★ Does blocking a folder via robots.txt kill the PageRank transfer to your strategic pages?
Completely blocking a folder with robots.txt prevents Google from knowing the content of the pages. If external links point to these blocked pages, Google cannot indirectly transfer those links to the...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★★ Can Web Stories really rank like traditional pages?
Web Stories are canonical AMP pages (not alternates). They can be indexed just like any regular content. They show up in the Web Stories features in certain countries; otherwise, they appear in standa...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★★ How can cleaning up your URL structure solve your ranking problems?
When multiple similar pages exist and the wrong ones rank, cleaning up the site structure helps Google to identify the right pages. This includes reducing internal links to unwanted pages and using re...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★★ Does client-side JavaScript really enhance your SEO strategy?
Google can perfectly index and rank sites using client-side JavaScript, but developers should only use it when absolutely necessary. For simple sites like blogs or marketing sites, server-side renderi...
Martin Splitt Dec 10, 2020
★★ Does Safe Search really apply during indexing?
Safe Search is a signal calculated during the indexing phase to determine if a page contains adult content. This helps prevent surprising users with inappropriate results for innocent searches....
Gary Illyes Dec 10, 2020
★★★ Should you ditch infinite scroll to ensure proper indexing by Google?
For infinite scroll, it is recommended to split the content so that it is accessible via specific URLs, to submit individual elements via sitemap, or to offer a paginated version as an alternative....
Martin Splitt Dec 10, 2020
★★★ Does canonicalization really impact Google rankings?
Canonicalization is completely independent of ranking. The signals used to choose the canonical URL (like presence in the sitemap) do not serve to improve that page’s position in search results....
Gary Illyes Dec 10, 2020
★★★ Can the canonical tag really be ignored by Google?
The link rel canonical tag is a strong signal to indicate to Google which URL should be canonical, as it represents an explicit specification from the author. However, it is part of a set of weighted ...
Gary Illyes Dec 10, 2020
★★ How does Google categorize your pages into duplicate clusters before selecting the canonical one?
When Google calculates and compares the digital fingerprints of pages, those that are similar or partially similar are grouped together in a duplicate cluster before selecting a canonical URL....
Gary Illyes Dec 10, 2020
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