What does Google say about SEO? /
This category compiles official Google statements regarding Google Discover and Google News, two critical content distribution platforms for publishers. Google Discover has emerged as a significant traffic source, operating on a personalized recommendation model without user queries. Official Google positions on these topics are vital for understanding content selection criteria, eligibility factors, and necessary technical optimizations. SEO professionals will find guidance on E-E-A-T quality requirements, technical specifications including structured data markup, AMP formats, and editorial policy compliance. Google News maintains strict inclusion standards, while Discover prioritizes engagement metrics and contextual relevance. Mastering these official guidelines enables publishers to optimize visibility within these feeds, maximize referral traffic, and align content strategies with recommendation algorithms. These declarations also illuminate algorithm updates specific to these platforms and evolving journalistic standards expected by Google. Understanding the nuances between these two services helps publishers differentiate their optimization approaches and capitalize on opportunities for increased content distribution beyond traditional search results.
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★★★ 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 Discover really apply the same quality standards as traditional search?
Google Discover uses many of the same quality algorithms as web search. Broad Core updates that affect search generally also impact Discover....
John Mueller Jan 22, 2021
★★★ Does Google really limit Discover traffic based on server capacity?
Google imposes no traffic limits coming from Discover based on server capacity. If a site is deemed relevant to users, it will be displayed without visitor restrictions....
John Mueller Jan 22, 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
★★ Should you worry about a SEO penalty for being featured in Google News?
There is no disadvantage to being visible in Google News in addition to traditional search results. Google algorithmically checks whether the content meets News criteria. It is recommended to submit y...
John Mueller Jan 15, 2021
★★★ What does Google really consider to be crossing the line with paid links?
Paying bloggers to write articles with links or paying for PR articles with links constitutes paying for links, which goes against the guidelines. These links must have nofollow or rel=sponsored to be...
John Mueller Jan 15, 2021
★★ How will Google News Showcase's new Search Console metrics transform editorial analysis for news publishers?
As part of the Google News Showcase announcement, Google indicated in early December that new reports would soon be available in Search Console for news publishers: "Google News Showcase metrics will ...
Google Dec 28, 2020
★★ Should you publish every day to rank well on Google?
There is no ideal frequency for publishing articles (daily, weekly, monthly). It depends on the available content and what users are searching for. Some sites publish little, while others publish a lo...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2020
★★ Does Google Discover really require a minimum number of articles to be featured?
There is no minimum number of articles required to be eligible for Google Discover. Discover's content policies differ from those of traditional search. Check the Discover content guidelines and adapt...
John Mueller Dec 18, 2020
★★★ Does content originality really ensure top rankings on Google?
The original source of content is not always the most relevant for users. For instance, someone might copy a Google blog article and add in-depth analysis that could be more useful for certain searche...
John Mueller Dec 11, 2020
★★★ Can Google really tell the difference between your soft 404s and legitimate content on error pages?
Google detects error pages that return an HTTP 200 status (soft 404). The system has a large corpus of error pages and tries to match text to identify these pages and stop their processing. This can s...
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020
★★ Should You Really Deindex Your Out-of-Stock Product Pages?
Google considers that out-of-stock pages without additional functionality (like sign-up for alerts) generally do not add value for users in the index. The answer depends on context: for a unique vinta...
Gary Illyes Dec 09, 2020
★★ Should you really worry if Google suddenly starts indexing your comments?
If comments on a site suddenly start being indexed, it deserves scrutiny, but it’s probably not the highest priority. It is not critical to immediately clean up all comments from old articles....
John Mueller Dec 08, 2020
★★★ Does Passage Ranking truly change the game for long-form content?
Passage Ranking aims to better understand the relevant parts of particularly long pages, in order to display them appropriately in search results. It is not an overall ranking improvement, but rather ...
John Mueller Dec 04, 2020
★★★ Are Longer Link Anchors Actually Better for SEO Than Short Ones?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that providing a long link anchor could be a good thing because it gives more contextual information about what the target page offers and this may potentially ...
John Mueller Nov 30, 2020
★★ Can Web Stories really boost your visibility in Google Search and Discover?
Web Stories are now prominently featured in Google Search and also in Google Discover. An updated WordPress plugin significantly simplifies the creation of Web Stories....
John Mueller Nov 25, 2020
★★ Why is Google shifting from Webmasters to Search Central?
Google has changed the name from Google Webmasters to Google Search Central to reflect the diversity of roles involved in the success of websites. All content for site owners is being migrated to a ce...
John Mueller Nov 25, 2020
★★★ Are Web Stories really indexed like regular pages by Google?
Web Stories are built on AMP and are canonical AMP pages. They are treated like regular web pages that can be indexed and appear in search, Discover, and even image search....
Pascal Birchler Nov 16, 2020
★★★ Does the length of an article really influence its Google ranking?
There is no direct relationship between the length of an article and its ranking. What matters is meeting user needs. For some topics, users expect long articles, while for others they do not. There i...
John Mueller Nov 13, 2020
★★★ Does the length of an article really influence its ranking on Google?
There is no relationship between the length of an article and its ranking. For some topics, users expect long articles; for others, they do not. The important thing is to meet user needs, not to reach...
John Mueller Nov 13, 2020
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