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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★★★ Can you really use rel=canonical between different domain names?
It is possible to use the rel=canonical link element across different top-level domain names, such as between different country-code domains (ccTLDs). The rel=canonical tag is not limited to the same ...
John Mueller Jan 05, 2022
★★★ What's Google's HTML Code Size Limit for Indexing?
John Mueller reminded us, also on Twitter, that the size of a web page's source code indexed by Google had a limit in terms of weight, but that it was very high: "We don't have a documented limit, the...
John Mueller Jan 03, 2022
★★★ Does Google really index hidden text in your HTML code?
If text is present in the HTML code but visually hidden from users, Google can still index it and use it. However, this is not an intentional good practice. Text intended for indexing should be visibl...
John Mueller Dec 31, 2021
★★ Does Google really assign an EAT score to your website?
Google does not assign an EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) score to websites. There is no EAT metric that could increase or decrease. Author pages can be no-indexed without affectin...
John Mueller Dec 31, 2021
★★ Does Googlebot really ignore all browser permissions when crawling?
When rendering pages, Googlebot ignores and does not accept browser permission dialogs (geolocation, pop-ups, etc.). If the content depends on permission acceptance, it will not be accessible to the b...
John Mueller Dec 31, 2021
★★★ Should you prefer rel=canonical over user-agent redirects for unindexed pages?
For unindexed pages receiving external links, it is better to use the rel canonical tag instead of specific 301 redirects for Googlebot. User-agent redirects are technically acceptable but more comple...
John Mueller Dec 31, 2021
★★ Should You Really Use Google's Indexing API to Speed Up Your Content Indexing?
Google's Indexing API is designed for job listing content, not for news sites. It has limitations on the number of URLs. While it may speed up crawling, it does not affect the indexing of news article...
John Mueller Dec 31, 2021
★★ Does Google really favor sequential links or multiple pages for SEO pagination?
There is no better or worse approach for pagination (sequential links vs multiple pages). Google treats pagination like normal links between pages. Sequential pagination reinforces the first page, whi...
John Mueller Dec 31, 2021
★★ No Google cache on my page: Should I be worried about my indexing?
It is normal for an indexed page not to have a cached version available in search results. Cached pages are managed separately from indexing. The absence of a cache does not indicate a problem and is ...
John Mueller Dec 31, 2021
★★★ Does Google really support JavaScript for SEO, or is it just a trap?
Google is capable of processing and indexing sites built with JavaScript. Google's support for JavaScript is officially confirmed, even for sites that are 100% client-side rendering (CSR)....
Martin Splitt Dec 29, 2021
★★★ Does JavaScript really slow down your site's indexing?
JavaScript sites may take longer to be indexed because Google has to render each page. If the rendering is poorly designed, it can significantly slow down the indexing process....
Martin Splitt Dec 29, 2021
★★★ Should you really abandon JavaScript for SSR in SEO?
If a site can be built without JavaScript, it is recommended to do so. Server-side rendering (SSR) is an official recommendation from Google for optimizing indexing....
Martin Splitt Dec 29, 2021
★★ Should you really choose SSR or CSR based on the type of site?
The choice between client-side rendering and server-side rendering should depend on the type of site: SSR for a news site, CSR acceptable for a highly interactive social network where search performan...
Martin Splitt Dec 29, 2021
★★★ Does client-side rendering with React really create ranking challenges for Google?
A React site using client-side rendering, even if the page is empty without JavaScript, should not pose ranking issues. Google renders and processes the JavaScript. The URL Inspect tool allows you to ...
John Mueller Dec 24, 2021
★★ Should you really block advertising URLs in robots.txt?
Blocking advertising parameters in robots.txt for Googlebot is technically acceptable for SEO, but it can lead to campaign rejections in Google Ads. It's important to check with the Ads team....
John Mueller Dec 24, 2021
★★ Robots.txt or noindex: which option should you choose to block indexing?
For small sites, noindex and robots.txt are practically equivalent. Noindex requires periodic crawling, while robots.txt can leave the URL indexed without content. The choice depends on the ease of te...
John Mueller Dec 24, 2021
★★★ Should you really worry about crawl budget on a site with fewer than 10,000 URLs?
For a site with 5,000 to 10,000 URLs, crawl budget is not a concern. Google can crawl this volume in a few days. Noindex pages will be crawled less frequently over time, but they will still be checked...
John Mueller Dec 24, 2021
★★★ Should you really block all internal search URLs in robots.txt?
The URLs generated by the site's internal search should generally not be indexed. They should be blocked with robots.txt to avoid an infinite space of URLs and to prevent spam. This does not provide a...
John Mueller Dec 24, 2021
★★★ Can an invalid AMP page still be indexed by Google?
If an AMP page is not valid, Google will still index the page as normal HTML. It just won't benefit from the advantages of the AMP cache, but that doesn't affect the rest of the SEO....
John Mueller Dec 24, 2021
★★★ Can Google arbitrarily choose which language version to index when the content is identical?
If the content is identical across multiple language versions (only the currency changes), Google can choose a canonical version and index only that one. Hreflang will still work to display the correc...
John Mueller Dec 24, 2021
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