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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★★ Does the Google sandbox really exist or is it just an SEO myth?
Google does not have a 'sandbox'. What may seem like one is often due to the time required to understand and properly index new or uncertain content....
John Mueller Nov 29, 2016
★★★ Should you really include old HTTP URLs in the sitemap when migrating to HTTPS?
During a migration to HTTPS, it's useful to submit the old URLs in the sitemap, whether on the old HTTP property or the new HTTPS property. This will speed up the re-crawling process and facilitate Go...
John Mueller Nov 29, 2016
★★ Why do images slow down your website migration?
During a website migration, it is essential to properly redirect image URLs as well as their corresponding pages. The indexing of images is generally slower, which can prolong the migration process fo...
John Mueller Nov 29, 2016
★★ Is AngularJS compatible with optimal Google indexing?
For sites using AngularJS, it is essential to ensure that the site is SEO compatible. Resources such as the Tutorials on Progressive Web Apps and the recent video on Angular Connect provide guidance t...
John Mueller Nov 29, 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
★★★ How can you prevent technical SEO errors that block your site's indexing?
Errors such as using modern technologies without clean URLs, unintentional no-index tags, or total blockage by the robots.txt file are major technical errors that must be avoided....
John Mueller Nov 24, 2016
★★★ Does Google really index JavaScript as it claims?
To ensure that pages using JavaScript are well-indexed, it is essential to have distinct URLs and appropriate rendering of the content. Use the Fetch and Render tool in Search Console to verify....
John Mueller Nov 24, 2016
★★★ Does Google really use 200 ranking signals, or is that just a myth?
Google uses over 200 signals for crawling, indexing, and ranking websites, integrating both site quality and links....
John Mueller Nov 15, 2016
★★★ Should you block hotlinking to protect your images without risking a cloaking penalty?
It is not advisable to serve different content to Googlebot compared to users (cloaking). For hotlinking, the main interest is that images used by other sites can count for image search. But if server...
John Mueller Nov 15, 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 duplicate hreflang tags for both mobile and desktop when using mobile-first indexing?
With mobile-first indexing, it may be necessary to implement hreflang tags on both the desktop and mobile versions of a site to ensure the correct application of multilingual and geographic configurat...
John Mueller Nov 11, 2016
★★★ Does Google PageSpeed Insights really analyze Single Page Apps effectively?
Google Page Speed Insights does not make specific distinctions for single page apps or Angular. The improvement suggestions might not apply exactly to these types of applications. However, this does n...
John Mueller Nov 11, 2016
★★★ Does hidden mobile content really carry as much weight as visible content in mobile-first indexing?
With the transition to mobile-first indexing, content hidden for mobile user interface reasons is generally taken into account. However, for desktop, content that is not visible at load is considered ...
John Mueller Nov 11, 2016
★★★ Does the cross-domain canonical tag really work?
You can use the 'rel=canonical' attribute between different domains to indicate which version of the page you want to index. However, this may not always work perfectly and may still display other ver...
John Mueller Nov 11, 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
★★ How can blocking crawl with robots.txt harm your indexing?
Using the robots.txt file to block the crawling of parts of your site must be done carefully, as it can affect the inclusion of pages in search results, especially for systems like AdSense. Specifical...
John Mueller Nov 04, 2016
★★★ Should you really avoid changing the URL structure during a site migration?
During a site migration, try to avoid changing the URL structure if possible, as this adds additional complexity for Google to index the site correctly....
John Mueller Nov 04, 2016
★★★ Should you really noindex author archives in WordPress to avoid duplicate content?
For content management systems like WordPress, ensure that the article page is the most comprehensive and consider using noindex on pages like author archives to manage the indexing of duplicate conte...
John Mueller Nov 04, 2016
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