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
★★ Why does Google separate web indexing and image indexing?
Google has separate indexes for web search and image search, which is why an image can appear in image search while being reported as unindexed in Search Console....
Google May 30, 2024
★★ Does having separate URLs for mobile and desktop really hurt your images?
When a site uses different URLs for mobile and desktop with different image URLs, the transition to Mobile-First Indexing may cause a temporary loss of traffic to images....
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ Does a temporary URL removal really take effect within 24 hours?
When a temporary URL removal request is made through Search Console, the page disappears from search results within a maximum of 24 hours. However, indexing is not removed, and the page will reappear ...
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ Should you use 'noindex' to manage hosted content and protect your site's reputation?
If the site hosting third-party content uses the noindex tag on these pages, it complies with the policy against site reputation abuse and will not be considered a violation....
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ Why is the removal tool not suitable for normalizing URLs?
Using the removal tool to normalize URLs (for example, removing the HTTP version during an HTTPS migration) is a bad practice. The correct method is to use the canonical tag and 301 redirects....
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ What are the risks of blocking images in robots.txt for your SEO?
Blocking the indexing of images via robots.txt or HTTP headers stops Google from crawling the site and accessing structured data. This prevents the display of images in image search AND thumbnails in ...
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ How does Mobile-First Indexing affect your mobile SEO?
After the implementation of Mobile-First Indexing, if the mobile content is significantly less developed than the desktop version, a drop in traffic can be expected because Google primarily indexes th...
Google May 30, 2024
★★ How can you regain Google's trust using lastmod tags?
If lastmod in the XML sitemap has been used incorrectly (fake dates to force crawling), Google will recognize it and ignore it. However, if the lastmod becomes accurate again, Google will eventually t...
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ Could Mobile-First Indexing be harming your SEO traffic?
If the mobile version intentionally contains less content than the desktop version, enabling Mobile-First Indexing is likely to lead to a decrease in traffic because Google accesses less information f...
Google May 30, 2024
★★ Can we really count on the lastmod field in sitemaps again?
If Google stops trusting the lastmod field of a sitemap due to inaccurate use, it can start trusting it again if the site uses it correctly afterward. The loss of trust is not permanent....
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ Should you use noindex on hosted third-party pages to stay in Google's good graces?
If a site hosting third-party content uses the noindex tag on these pages, it aligns with Google's policy on site reputation abuse and is not seen as a violation....
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ Why is the removal tool unsuitable for canonicalization?
The removal tool should never be used for the canonicalization of URLs. For instance, during an HTTPS migration, removing the HTTP versions via this tool will also delete all other versions of the sit...
Google May 30, 2024
★★ Is it really impossible to selectively target image indexing?
It is not possible to block image indexing in Google Images while retaining thumbnails in web search results. Robots.txt or HTTP headers block access everywhere, preventing Google from recognizing dat...
Google May 30, 2024
★★★ What’s the best way to permanently delete content without leaving any SEO traces?
To permanently remove content: delete the file from the server (for all users), add password protection (for certain users), or use noindex for bots (to exclude from search results)....
Google May 30, 2024
★★ Should the SEO Starter Guide Really Remain a Minimalist Document for Beginners?
The SEO Starter Guide is designed as a document for beginners presenting high-level concepts. It should not include all technical details (such as complete robots.txt rules) but rather introduce conce...
Lizzi Sassman May 23, 2024
★★★ What Happens to Your SEO Data When Your Pages Get Deindexed by Google?
On LinkedIn, Gary Illyes stated that Google Search Console retains almost no data on non-indexed/deindexed sites, though he specified that one element remains "if the URL comes back." This statement w...
Gary Illyes May 21, 2024
★★★ Is using the canonical tag as a hidden redirect costing you your SEO rankings?
The canonical tag should only be used for equivalent content. Using it as a disguised redirect toward enriched or different content is not best practice....
Lizzi Sassman May 09, 2024
★★★ Does Google Merchant Center crawling count against your SEO crawl budget?
On X, Christian Radny asked SEOs a question: "Does Merchant Center exploration (automatic updates) count towards crawl budget?". John Mueller responded: "Of course, it's a load on your server. The goa...
John Mueller Apr 30, 2024
★★ Are You Falling into the Common Video Indexing Traps on Your Website?
Two common issues prevent video indexing: 1) some pages have structured data, while others do not; 2) in the rendering, the video does not load and the area appears empty to Googlebot, preventing its ...
Google Apr 25, 2024
★★ Are geolocation redirects killing your Google crawl?
Automatic redirects based on user IP addresses are not the most SEO-friendly method. Google typically crawls from a single location and may only see one version of your site if all other versions are ...
John Mueller Apr 25, 2024
🔔

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.