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 Change Your Dedicated Mobile Site's Technical Configuration When Moving to Mobile-First Indexing?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that when a website is not responsive and has a dedicated mobile version (two different URLs for the desktop site and the mobile site), nothing special needs to be ...
John Mueller Jan 25, 2021
★★★ Does a slow server really slow down crawling without affecting rankings?
If Google detects that a server is becoming slower, crawling will slow down, but this will not affect the site's visibility in search results or Discover....
John Mueller Jan 22, 2021
★★★ Does mobile-first indexing really require a mobile-friendly site?
For mobile-first indexing, Google does not care whether the site is mobile-friendly. However, mobile-friendliness is separately used as a ranking factor for positioning....
John Mueller Jan 22, 2021
★★★ Does mobile-first indexing really impact your site's rankings?
The transition to mobile-first indexing has no direct effect on rankings. The potential impact comes from the fact that Google might not have access to certain content if it is missing from the mobile...
John Mueller Jan 22, 2021
★★ Does Google struggle to index certain oral languages?
Google faces challenges with some languages that are not really intended to be written, even if they are today for preservation purposes. Indexing and ranking these special languages is very difficult...
Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021
★★ Why does Google store recent news articles in the RAM of its index?
Recent news articles from major news outlets are stored in the fastest level of the index (RAM). Older articles, such as those from the previous year, are moved to slower and less expensive storage li...
Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021
★★★ Does Google really favor certain languages in its indexing?
Google has no bias towards any particular language. The company pays considerable attention to ensure that each language has the same indexing potential, whether it’s smaller languages like Hungarian ...
Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021
★★★ How does Google determine the storage type for your pages in its index?
When building the index, Google uses signals like PageRank to estimate how frequently documents will be served (every second, once a week, or once a year) and uses different types of storage according...
Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021
★★ Is it true that Google is struggling to find enough quality content in certain Asian languages?
Google faces a challenge of insufficient content in certain Southeast Asian languages and vertical sectors. This is not an indexing issue but rather a lack of quality content created in these language...
Cherry Prommawin Jan 19, 2021
★★★ Is your content trapped on Google’s hard drive instead of in RAM?
Google uses different types of storage for its index based on the estimated frequency of service of documents. Documents likely to be served every second are stored in RAM, those that are less frequen...
Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021
★★ How does Google really decide which pages to index?
Google uses the signals collected during earlier phases of indexing to decide whether or not a document should be indexed. This selection is a very sophisticated process that considers multiple factor...
Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021
★★ Why are your academic contents disappearing into the depths of Google's index?
Old doctoral theses and academic publications are generally stored at the lowest levels of Google's index because they are not consulted as frequently as other types of content....
Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021
★★★ Does Google really use indexing quotas by language?
Google utilizes a quota system to ensure that non-English languages are not overwhelmed by the massive amount of English content. This guarantees that all languages have an equal chance to be indexed,...
Gary Illyes Jan 19, 2021
★★★ Why Does Google Flag a Redirected URL as Blocked by Robots.txt When It Actually Isn't?
SEO expert Glenn Gabe indicated on Twitter that, in Search Console, if URL A redirects to URL B which is blocked by robots.txt, URL A will be marked as also blocked by this file, even though, in reali...
John Mueller Jan 18, 2021
★★ Do noindex pages really block the transmission of value through their links?
If an entire page is set to noindex, Google understands that there is no need to transmit value to the links present on that page. Adding the 'sponsored' attribute to the links helps Google's machine ...
John Mueller Jan 15, 2021
★★★ Does the URL removal tool really prevent Google from crawling your pages?
Using the URL removal tool in Search Console simply hides pages from search results for about 6 months, but does not stop crawling or indexing. Pages remain in Google's systems and continue to be proc...
John Mueller Jan 15, 2021
★★★ Should you really be concerned about Google’s HTTP/2 crawling?
Google has begun rolling out HTTP/2 crawling. The rollout is being done gradually across samples of compatible sites, with notifications sent via Search Console. The goal is to ensure everything works...
John Mueller Jan 15, 2021
★★★ Are Your HTML Buttons Sabotaging Your Crawl Budget?
HTML button elements are not considered links by Googlebot. For a link that looks like a button, use a normal HTML link styled in CSS instead of a button with JavaScript....
John Mueller Jan 15, 2021
★★★ Does using noindex during migration mean you're losing all your SEO value in Google's eyes?
If you use noindex on old URLs during a migration instead of redirecting, all the value collected by those old URLs will be lost....
John Mueller Jan 15, 2021
★★★ Is x-default really essential for a homepage with language redirection?
For a multilingual site where the homepage redirects based on the user's browser language, it is crucial to add x-default to the homepage. Without x-default, Google assumes that the homepage is not pa...
John Mueller Jan 15, 2021
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