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.
Quick SEO Quiz

Test your SEO knowledge in 5 questions

Less than a minute. Find out how much you really know about Google search.

🕒 ~1 min 🎯 5 questions
★★★ Does the canonical tag really transfer 100% of PageRank without any loss?
When Google follows a canonical tag, all SEO signals including PageRank are transferred to the canonical URL. There is no loss of value when the canonical is used correctly....
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★ Does Google instantly change the canonical URL after removing a redirect?
When a redirect is set up and then removed, the canonicalization algorithms do not perceive the site as deceptive. They look at the current state. Google tends to be persistent with the canonical URL ...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★ Is it true that Google still indexes Flash content, or should everything be migrated to pure HTML?
Google indexes pages with Flash solely based on the visible HTML content in the rendered DOM, not content within Flash files. The removal of Flash from browsers should not affect site traffic as Googl...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ How does Google really handle the separation of a site into two distinct entities?
Separating a site into two is not considered a domain migration by Google since a new state is being created. Using rel canonical followed by 301 redirects is an acceptable approach. It is essential t...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ How can you confirm if Google is truly indexing your lazy-loaded content?
To check if content is indexed, search for an exact phrase in quotes on Google. This is the ultimate proof that the content is indexed. The Inspect URL tool also allows you to view the fully rendered ...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★ Should you sync visible and technical dates to enhance your crawl?
The date displayed on the page should reflect major changes to the main content, not minor modifications (comments, sidebar). Dates in the sitemap or structured data can indicate any HTML change to si...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ Why does blocking robots.txt prevent noindex from working?
You should not block noindex URLs in robots.txt, as this prevents Google from seeing the noindex directive, and these pages may stay indexed. Instead, use the URL Parameters Tool to reduce crawling of...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★ Why does Google keep crawling your old 404 URLs?
Google continues to occasionally crawl old URLs that return 404, particularly if they had backlinks or were significant. This crawl is done at very low priority and does not block the crawl of new pag...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★ Should you really show cookie banners to Googlebot?
Googlebot should ideally see what a normal user would see from the same location. Since Googlebot mainly crawls from the USA, if American users do not see a cookie banner, Googlebot does not need to s...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ Do 302 redirects really pass PageRank like 301 redirects?
Google treats both 301 and 302 redirects similarly when it comes to the transmission of SEO signals. Both types of redirects pass PageRank and other signals. The difference mainly lies in the choice o...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ Do 302 redirects really pass on as much PageRank as 301 redirects?
Google uses numerous signals to determine the canonical URL: 301/302 redirects, rel canonical, internal/external links, sitemap, appearance of the URL. A long-term 302 can be treated as a 301 if it st...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★ Can paged pages really disappear from Google search results?
There is no meta tag to tell Google to index paged pages but not show them in the results. If they are indexed, they may theoretically appear. In practice, page 1 usually appears first as it is strong...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ Should you really archive out-of-stock products instead of leaving them marked as unavailable?
For permanently out-of-stock unique products, it is preferable to move them to an 'archives' or 'reference' section rather than keep product pages marked as 'out of stock'. This allows images to remai...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ Does lazy loading really harm your content's indexing by Google?
When rendering a page, Google uses a fairly high viewport and indexes everything that loads within this viewport. If content requires a specific action (scroll, click on 'Read more'), it will probably...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ Should you return a 404 or a 200 on a product page that's out of stock?
For temporarily unavailable products, displaying a page with a 200 code and an email alert option is acceptable. If the unavailability is long, switching to a 404 allows Google to optimize the crawl b...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★★ Should you really use cross-domain canonicals to consolidate multiple thematic sites?
Using canonical tags across multiple domains (e.g., 25 thematic stores pointing to a main store) is technically correct. It avoids duplicate content but may redistribute SEO strength among the domains...
John Mueller Oct 29, 2020
★★ Can 307 HSTS redirects really harm your site's SEO?
Googlebot does not see the 307 HSTS redirects that you would see in a browser, and this poses no issue for SEO. 307 HSTS redirects do not affect Google's crawling....
John Mueller Oct 28, 2020
★★★ Does Googlebot really ignore HSTS 307 redirects, or is there a catch?
Googlebot does not interact with 307 redirects generated by HSTS. These 307 redirects are not real server-side redirects but rather redirects generated by the Chrome browser to indicate that it is app...
John Mueller Oct 28, 2020
★★ Does Googlebot really follow HTTP redirects to HTTPS like a regular browser?
When Googlebot accesses an HTTP URL that redirects to HTTPS (which is typically the case for a site with both HTTP and HTTPS), it will follow this actual server-side redirect normally....
John Mueller Oct 28, 2020
★★★ Does Googlebot actually ignore your forced HTTPS redirects?
Googlebot attempts to crawl URLs with a clean slate and doesn’t retain any HSTS list. It accesses HTTP URLs directly without applying the browser's HSTS rules....
John Mueller Oct 28, 2020
🔔

Get real-time analysis of the latest Google SEO declarations

Be the first to know every time a new official Google statement drops — with full expert analysis.

No spam. Unsubscribe in one click.