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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★★★ How Does Google Warn Webmasters About Mobile First Index Risks?
John Mueller indicated in a hangout that Google will send messages via Search Console to webmasters who own sites that could be impacted in one way or another (and especially negatively, for example f...
John Mueller Jan 16, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Resubmit Already Indexed URLs in Search Console Regularly?
John Mueller indicated in a hangout that it's not necessary to resubmit via Search Console a URL that is already indexed by Google. Well, obviously... :). This was in response to a question from a web...
John Mueller Jan 16, 2017
★★★ Do errors in my XML Sitemap actually penalize the indexing of my other pages?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the fact that certain URLs are erroneous or return errors when reading an XML Sitemap file does not affect the reading and processing of other URLs (as on Bing f...
John Mueller Jan 16, 2017
★★★ Should You Modify Your Canonical Tags When Switching to Mobile First Index?
As long as Mobile First indexing is being tested by Google, there is no reason to change the "canonical" tags if you have a dedicated mobile site whose pages point to their desktop equivalents. John M...
John Mueller Jan 16, 2017
Why Doesn't Google Index Every Page on Your Website?
John Mueller stated in a hangout that it's normal for Google not to index all pages of a website or XML Sitemap. However, he didn't explain why certain pages are left out :(......
John Mueller Jan 09, 2017
★★ Will Mobile PageSpeed Really Be Ignored as a Ranking Factor with Mobile First Indexing?
John Mueller indicated that when Mobile First indexing launches in a few months, a page's mobile PageSpeed score will not be considered as a relevance criterion, at least initially (currently it's the...
John Mueller Jan 09, 2017
★★★ Should You Already Be Optimizing Your Site for Google's Mobile First Index?
Gary Illyes reminded (with a Japanese Googler) on Twitter that the "Mobile First" index was not yet live. Let's remember that nothing will really happen before - at least - the second quarter of 2017 ...
Gary Illyes Jan 02, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Optimize Your Mobile and Desktop Sites Differently in 2017?
John Mueller indicated that it was important in 2017 to ensure that mobile site optimization was as good as desktop site optimization. This was in the context of the Mobile First index launch, logical...
John Mueller Jan 02, 2017
★★★ How Can You Ask Google to Speed Up Your Site's Crawl in an Emergency?
John Mueller indicated in a forum that there is a procedure, through an appropriate form, that allows you to ask Google's "crawl" team to perform a specific crawl of your site or ask a question about ...
John Mueller Jan 02, 2017
★★ Should You Really Worry About Crawl Budget for Your Site's SEO?
John Mueller indicated in a hangout that the notion of "crawl budget" (time allocated to Googlebot to crawl a site) was very often misunderstood or misanalyzed by webmasters and SEOs. Overall, accordi...
John Mueller Dec 12, 2016
★★★ Does the Noindex Tag Really Save Google Crawl Budget?
An obvious point but reminded by John Mueller on Twitter: implementing a meta robots "noindex" tag will not save "crawl budget" (time allocated to Googlebot to crawl your site) since, to read this tag...
John Mueller Dec 05, 2016
Is the Google Cache Date Really Reliable for Measuring Your Pages' Crawl Frequency?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the date displayed when viewing a page's cached version (for example, using the "cache:" syntax) is not necessarily representative of either the page's crawl fre...
John Mueller Nov 28, 2016
★★★ How Can You Prepare for Google's Mobile First Index Rollout?
Regarding the "Mobile First" index, about which very little is currently known, Gary Illyes confirmed that more information for webmasters will be made available in due course (certainly when the proj...
Gary Illyes Nov 28, 2016
★★★ Are Mobile First Indexing and Mobile-Friendliness Really Two Different Things?
Gary Illyes clarified that the Mobile First indexing project is separate from the mobile-friendliness criteria Google uses to determine whether a site is compatible or not. The two subjects have nothi...
Gary Illyes Nov 14, 2016
Should You Still Worry About Hidden Content in Accordions and Tabs for SEO?
Until now, Google had indicated that hidden but "potentially visible" content, for example in tabs or accordions, was taken into account and analyzed, but with a lower weight in the algorithm. Gary Il...
Gary Illyes Nov 14, 2016
★★★ Should You Request Frequent Recrawls of Your Site to Improve Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that if you request (for example via Search Console) that Googlebot recrawl a site, it will not negatively impact a site. And if the search engine's robots crawl a si...
John Mueller Nov 07, 2016
★★★ Do You Really Need a Dedicated XML Sitemap for Your AMP Pages?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that using the AMP standard on your site does not require creating a specific XML Sitemap for this format. A "classic" Sitemap is sufficient and Google will find the ...
John Mueller Oct 24, 2016
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