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
★★ Does your FAQ schema markup really need to be on the ranking page to generate rich snippets?
FAQ markup can be displayed in search results for the page where it is found. If the markup is on a separate page that doesn't appear in the results, Google won't be able to display this rich snippet....
John Mueller Mar 14, 2022
★★ How many internal links should you actually place on each page to boost your SEO?
There is no optimal number of internal links per page. What matters is being able to recognize the site structure during crawling: homepage, first-level categories, second level, and so on. The struct...
John Mueller Mar 14, 2022
★★ Are ranking fluctuations really normal, or could they be hiding a technical issue?
Ranking changes where pages move up and down in search results are completely natural. This isn't necessarily a sign of content quality or technical problems. Pages can even temporarily leave the inde...
John Mueller Mar 14, 2022
★★★ Does Your Robots.txt Really Need to Return 404 or 200 to Keep Googlebot Happy?
The robots.txt file must return the correct response code. If it doesn't exist, the server must return 404. If a server error is returned, Google treats it as a problem and won't crawl the site. This ...
John Mueller Mar 14, 2022
★★ Does your homepage distance really impact how fast Google indexes your pages?
Pages closer to the homepage are generally indexed faster. For most sites, the homepage is the central point, but for some, this can be a specific major category or product....
John Mueller Mar 14, 2022
★★★ Should you still trust the site: operator to diagnose your indexation status?
The numbers displayed by site: queries are not intended for diagnosis. They are not a reflection of what is actually indexed, but merely a quick approximation. The figures can be wrong by several orde...
John Mueller Mar 14, 2022
★★ Can Google really index short-form videos if they have a crawlable URL?
Short-form videos can be indexed by Google if they are accessible via a URL, even if they are primarily viewed in mobile applications....
Danielle Marshak Mar 10, 2022
★★★ Could blocking your video files be secretly destroying your search visibility?
Many sites block access to video files through content protection measures, preventing Google from accessing the content. Without access to the file, Google loses an important signal for indexation....
Danielle Marshak Mar 10, 2022
★★ Should you really use reverse DNS verification to authorize Googlebot?
Publishers can use reverse DNS verification or consult the IP addresses published by Google to specifically authorize Googlebot to access protected videos....
Danielle Marshak Mar 10, 2022
★★★ Why do video structured data markups remain indispensable despite Google's AI advances?
Despite progress in video understanding, structured data remains crucial. It helps Google comprehend content, context, and relevant search queries for each video....
Danielle Marshak Mar 10, 2022
★★ Why is Google finally making Googlebot IP addresses publicly available?
Google recently published its IP addresses to make it easier for publishers to identify Googlebot without requiring multiple reverse DNS lookups....
Gary Illyes Mar 10, 2022
★★★ Does URL cache-busting really prevent Google from indexing your videos?
If a video's URL changes with every page load (cache-busting), Google cannot properly index the video because the URL becomes invalid when Google tries to retrieve it....
Danielle Marshak Mar 10, 2022
★★★ Should SEO experts really be involved from the technical design phase?
It is essential to involve SEO experts from the design phase (roadmap, design doc, PRD) for features affecting indexable pages, in order to avoid having to fix problems after deployment....
Martin Splitt Mar 09, 2022
★★★ Are accordions and collapsible content still hurting your mobile SEO rankings?
With mobile-first indexing, Google has become more tolerant of certain elements like accordions or collapsible content, since mobile screens have limited space. These elements do not penalize your SEO...
Martin Splitt Mar 09, 2022
★★ Does JavaScript package size really impact your SEO rankings?
The size of JavaScript packages added to a page impacts performance, loading time, and user experience, which can negatively affect your SEO score and index rating if the packages are too large....
Martin Splitt Mar 09, 2022
★★★ Do Core Web Vitals Really Affect Your Google Rankings?
Performance metrics like LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) matter for SEO. Improving these indicators has a positive impact on your site's index rating and search visibility....
Martin Splitt Mar 09, 2022
★★★ Is Google really ignoring 95% of your submitted URLs—and what does that say about your content?
When Google indexes only a tiny fraction of submitted URLs (86 out of 4,500), beyond basic technical checks, you need to seriously evaluate the site's overall quality with external people who aren't i...
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022
★★★ Is Google really refusing to index your pages even though they're crawled regularly and have no technical issues?
When a page is crawled multiple times but not indexed (excluding technical errors, noindex, or duplications), it's generally related to the perceived quality of the entire site or that specific sectio...
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022
★★ Do H2 tags in your footer actually hurt your SEO rankings?
Google can recognize common elements that repeat across all pages (like footers) and automatically de-emphasizes them for ranking purposes. Using H2 tags in the footer is not problematic. Google will ...
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022
★★★ Should you really be using canonicals on your filtered internal search pages?
For internal search results pages with different sorts and filters, it is recommended to define a main sort order and use rel=canonical on filtered or sorted variants to point to the main version. Thi...
John Mueller Mar 05, 2022
🔔

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.