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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★★★ Should you really create a dedicated sitemap for 410 pages to speed up their deindexing?
It is possible to use a specific sitemap to speed up crawling and removal of pages returning a 410 code. However, it is recommended to redirect old pages to new ones rather than simply deleting them....
John Mueller Jun 16, 2016
★★★ Why does Google reject dynamic multilingual URLs for indexing?
To avoid indexing issues, create standalone pages for each language version of your content instead of dynamically changing the content on a single URL based on the user's language....
John Mueller Jun 16, 2016
★★★ Are URLs with fragments (#) really invisible to Google?
Google does not treat URLs that only contain the '#' character as distinct pages. Use clean URLs or properly apply the Ajax crawling scheme to ensure indexing....
John Mueller Jun 16, 2016
★★ Why does Googlebot ignore your JavaScript image galleries?
For Googlebot to follow links, the image URLs must be explicitly defined. Otherwise, it cannot follow links rendered dynamically by JavaScript....
John Mueller Jun 16, 2016
★★★ Do canonical tags really provide enough control over your page indexing?
Canonical tags help indicate which version of a page should be indexed, especially in cases of indexing errors related to URL parameters. The URL in the sitemap should match the canonical URL....
John Mueller Jun 16, 2016
★★ Does Google really prioritize mobile apps for indexing?
Google does not necessarily favor mobile apps or mobile sites. The choice depends on user preferences, which can differ from one country to another....
John Mueller Jun 16, 2016
★★★ Is Google really planning to ditch desktop indexing for mobile?
Currently, Google uses the desktop version of a site for indexing, but this may change if the mobile version becomes more relevant. Ensure that the content of both versions is accurately represented....
John Mueller Jun 16, 2016
★★★ Canonical page, mobile site, AMP: Why does Google differentiate between these three versions?
A canonical page is generally the main and complete version of the site, while a mobile site is optimized for mobile devices and AMP is a very fast, lightweight version of the site, often in simplifie...
Emeric Jun 15, 2016
★★★ Does Google really index all the JavaScript you serve it?
Google can see content rendered through JavaScript if it appears in the rendered view, but it may not always understand or extract that content. If the text is in the HTML view, Google should be able ...
John Mueller Jun 14, 2016
★★★ Do 301 redirects really pass all link signals?
When redirecting one URL to another, Google attempts to transfer all signals from the old URL to the new one. However, the choice of canonical URL can influence which URL will actually receive the sig...
John Mueller Jun 03, 2016
★★★ Do AMP pages really boost your ranking on Google?
Currently, AMP pages use a rel=canonical tag pointing to the desktop version, which is the one directly taken into account for ranking by Google. Direct SEO improvements can be made on the desktop pag...
John Mueller Jun 03, 2016
★★★ Does hreflang really help with ranking, or is it just for switching URLs?
Google treats language and geographic versions of pages as distinct pages for ranking and indexing. Hreflang tags are used solely to swap URLs in search results where relevant....
John Mueller Jun 03, 2016
★★ Why does Google first test your new site with optimism before potentially downgrading it?
It takes time for a new site to establish itself in Google's search results. Google first tries to assume the best case, then adjusts based on the signals received from the site....
John Mueller Jun 03, 2016
★★★ Could a Blocked CDN Be Hurting Your Images' Indexing on Google?
If your CDN is blocked for robots, Google cannot index the images. Therefore, it is advisable to unblock at least access for Googlebot-Images....
Google May 31, 2016
★★★ Can duplicated content really undermine your crawl budget?
Duplicate content reduces crawling efficiency. Adjust your server and content to minimize excessive duplications in order to optimize crawling by avoiding having 100 times more duplicated URLs than un...
John Mueller May 31, 2016
★★★ How does Google adjust its crawling based on your server's capabilities?
Google limits the crawling of a site based on the server's capacity to handle load. In case of slow responses or frequent errors, Googlebot will reduce its crawling pace to avoid causing issues....
John Mueller May 31, 2016
★★★ Is Fetch as Render truly the essential tool for checking how your pages are rendered?
To check if a page is rendering correctly for Google, it is best to use the Fetch as Render tool in Search Console to identify blocked resources....
Google May 31, 2016
★★★ Should you really keep your out-of-stock product pages indexed?
If your pages are temporarily unavailable, a temporary server error code can be used. For longer periods, it is advisable to use 'noindex'. For out-of-stock products, it is acceptable to keep them ind...
Google May 31, 2016
★★★ Does hreflang really work between non-canonical URLs?
Hreflang tagging helps Google present the correct version of a site to international users, but it must be carefully configured between canonical URLs to be effective....
John Mueller May 31, 2016
★★★ How does Google actually index sites written in Romanized Hindi using Latin characters?
Google attempts to understand sites in Romanized Hindi as Hindi, since many users input requests in Hindi using Latin letters....
Google May 31, 2016
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