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
★★★ How does Googlebot index your JavaScript in two phases and what does that mean for your SEO?
Googlebot carries out indexing in two waves. The first wave deals with server-side content and the second, delayed wave handles client-side rendered content. This can delay the indexing of sites that ...
Tom Greenaway May 10, 2018
★★★ Should You Use a 404 Instead of a 403 to Remove Pages from Google's Index?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that, to signal to Google that a page no longer exists and to see it disappear from the index, a 404 code (Page not Found) should be preferred over a 403 code (Forbid...
John Mueller May 09, 2018
★★★ Do technical bugs really affect Google rankings in the long run?
Technical issues such as incorrect indexing on development sites can temporarily influence rankings, but they are generally corrected without long-term impact....
John Mueller May 03, 2018
★★ Can you list the same URL in multiple sitemaps without any risk?
Having an URL in multiple sitemaps is not an issue, but conflicting information such as dates can confuse Google....
John Mueller May 03, 2018
★★★ Is Mobile-First Indexing Hiding Your Desktop Content from Search Results?
When a site switches to mobile-first indexing, only the mobile version of the site is used for indexing. If significant differences exist between the mobile and desktop content, it might lead to probl...
John Mueller May 03, 2018
★★★ Should you really block videos via robots.txt to exclude them from rich snippets?
To prevent videos from being included in search result snippets, blocking them through the robots.txt file or preventing their crawling can be effective....
John Mueller May 03, 2018
★★ Do canonical tags really suffice for managing product variants in SEO?
While canonical tags are recommended for product variants, they do not ensure that Google will display the main page in its results. The structure and content of the page influence this choice....
John Mueller May 03, 2018
★★ Is it true that PWAs don't guarantee a spot in Google's mobile carousel?
Even though PWAs are fast and mobile-friendly, there is no guarantee they will automatically be added to the mobile carousel....
John Mueller May 03, 2018
★★★ Is it true that hidden content accessible after interaction is really indexed with a mobile-first approach?
With mobile-first indexing, content that is invisible at the initial loading of a page but becomes visible after interactions is taken into account just as much as immediately visible content....
John Mueller May 03, 2018
★ Should You Avoid Internal Links to Noindex Pages?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that there's no problem if a website creates many internal links to pages that are deindexed from the search engine......
John Mueller May 02, 2018
★★★ Should You Split Your Content Across Multiple Pages to Improve Google Indexing?
John Mueller indicated during a hangout that it was not a good strategy to split content across multiple pages solely to increase the number of pages indexed by Google because, by doing so, you also r...
John Mueller May 02, 2018
★★ Can You Really Harm a Competitor's Site with External Canonical Tags?
A method of performing negative SEO based on "canonical" tags issued from low-quality sites has resurfaced recently following an article on this subject. John Mueller has, for his part, indicated that...
John Mueller May 02, 2018
★★★ Should you really use rel="next" and rel="prev" for pagination?
For paginated pages, use rel="next" and rel="prev" to indicate the order. Ensuring that content URLs are stable is helpful for Google indexing when paginated pages contain content that frequently chan...
John Mueller May 01, 2018
★★ Does Googlebot really wait for JavaScript before indexing your pages?
Google does not have a fixed time to wait for JavaScript to execute before considering a page fully loaded during rendering....
John Mueller May 01, 2018
★★★ Could Googlebot completely miss entire pages due to geolocation?
Googlebot mainly accesses content from the United States, so if you display location-based content for users, Googlebot may not see all the location-based variations....
John Mueller May 01, 2018
★★★ Is a static fallback really necessary for JavaScript-generated URLs?
For dynamic URLs generated by JavaScript (HTML5 pushState), ensure that you include a fallback in the form of a regular static link so that Google can properly index them....
John Mueller May 01, 2018
★★★ Should you really include Googlebot in your A/B tests, or could it lead to an SEO penalty?
When conducting A/B tests, do not exclude Googlebot from the different content variants. Ensure that Googlebot is an integral part of the test....
John Mueller May 01, 2018
★★★ Does hidden content behind tabs really harm mobile SEO?
In mobile-first indexing, we consider content that is not visible by default, such as content behind tabs or drop-down menus, as normal due to space limitations on mobile....
John Mueller May 01, 2018
★★★ Are URLs with a hash (#) truly ignored by Google during indexing?
Google does not index URLs with hashes separately. If the content you want indexed is loaded when you access the URL without the hash, then it is acceptable....
John Mueller May 01, 2018
★★★ Does Mobile First Indexing really penalize unoptimized mobile sites?
The mobile compatibility of a site can impact its ranking with the Mobile First Indexing algorithm. It is important to ensure that the site is optimized for mobile devices to avoid losing traffic....
Google Apr 25, 2018
🔔

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.