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.
★★★ Does Adding Audio to Your Articles Really Boost Your SEO?
According to Martin Splitt, adding an audio version to a blog article does not directly improve its SEO. During a recent Q&A session, he clearly stated: "I don't think it will have an effect... It's a...
Martin Splitt Feb 25, 2025
★★★ Does adding audio to your articles really boost your SEO?
Adding an audio version to a blog article will probably not have any impact on the page's ranking in search results. While this is beneficial for user experience, it is not a ranking factor....
Google Feb 19, 2025
★★ Why do your traffic data differ between Search Console and Analytics?
Search Console breaks down traffic by Web, Image, Video, News, and Discover. These segmentation categories differ from those used in Google Analytics, which explains certain data divergences....
Daniel Waisberg Jan 29, 2025
★★★ Is your crawl budget being wasted? Here's what Google just revealed about how Googlebot really explores your pages
Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt have published comprehensive blog articles on crawling, explaining how and why Googlebot explores websites, the role of HTTP caching, and insights on faceted navigation. ...
John Mueller Jan 14, 2025
★★ Is Google finally turning those old blog posts into official documentation—and should you care?
Google is updating its documentation in 2024 to close gaps by converting historical information from blog articles (dating back to 2005-2006) into official documentation and documenting technical deta...
Gary Illyes Dec 30, 2024
★★ Which HTTP encodings does Googlebot actually accept to crawl your pages effectively?
Google Bot and Google crawlers support three specific types of HTTP encoding for compressing server responses. This information was officially documented in 2024 after being found only in scattered ol...
Gary Illyes Dec 30, 2024
★★ Can you really control Googlebot News and Googlebot Search separately with distinct meta robots tags?
You can target specific robots by using their name in the name attribute of the meta tag. For example, 'googlebot-news' instead of 'robots' allows you to give instructions only to Googlebot for Google...
Martin Splitt Dec 04, 2024
★★ Why is it so challenging to gauge performance on Discover?
Performance on Discover is extremely difficult to measure due to the personalized nature of the product, which is based on users' individual interests. The content displayed is constantly changing acc...
Google Nov 28, 2024
★★ Why should you include both publication and modification dates in your NewsArticle structured data?
For NewsArticle structured data, it is recommended to include both the publication date (datePublished) and the modification date (dateModified), even if only the modification date is visible on the p...
Google Oct 31, 2024
★★★ How can you leverage search trends to anticipate demand and maximize your SEO traffic?
Google Trends data can help you plan your content for SEO. For example, by identifying seasonal peaks in search interest for certain topics, you can prepare blog articles before these periods to drive...
Daniel Waisberg Oct 10, 2024
★★★ Why are cookie-cutter SEO formulas doomed to fail?
An approach that looks identical for everyone (X links per month at this price, Y blog articles at this price) is probably ineffective. SEO must be personalized according to your specific business, in...
Erika Varangouli Sep 19, 2024
★★ Should You Stop Counting Words and Links to Optimize Your SEO?
On LinkedIn, John Mueller clarified that the number of words or links present on a page is not a determining factor for ranking in search results: "No one at Google counts the links or words in your b...
John Mueller Sep 03, 2024
★★★ Why Does Google Refuse to Index Some of Your Pages Despite Submitting Them?
Martin Splitt recently explained why certain pages weren't being indexed (Status "Discovered – Currently Not Indexed"), mentioning several technical factors that can negatively affect the process: pri...
Martin Splitt Aug 27, 2024
★★ Do you really need to reply to every blog comment to boost your SEO?
Leaving user comments unanswered on blog articles has no SEO impact whatsoever. They are simply text on the pages. Google Search doesn't check whether a comment received a reply or not. The text is ei...
Martin Splitt Aug 21, 2024
★★ How can you optimize Sitemaps for large e-commerce sites according to Google's latest guidance?
Google offers specific recommendations on using Sitemaps to optimize large e-commerce sites, with a dedicated article addressing this challenge....
John Mueller Aug 07, 2024
★★★ Does product variant markup really change the game for e-commerce SEO?
Google now offers specific markup to tag product variants (like different colors of the same item), enabling better representation of product variations in search results....
John Mueller Aug 07, 2024
★★★ Should You Avoid Noindex on Pages That Contain Important Links?
In the July 2024 SEO Office Hours episode, John Mueller explained that blocking a page from crawling suggests that internal or external links present on the page are not relevant. "You can block the i...
John Mueller Jul 30, 2024
★★★ Should You Worry About Being Unable to Block Your Content from Google Discover?
Danny Sullivan confirmed that there is currently no way to specifically block content from Google Discover, unlike Google News, where this is possible. Google's SearchLiaison representative and John M...
John Mueller Jul 23, 2024
★★★ Why do indexing incidents cripple news sites so severely?
During an indexing incident in February 2024, search results became outdated and Google struggled to index new content. This particularly affected news portals that couldn't reach their users, and use...
Gary Illyes Jun 06, 2024
★★★ Should you avoid the word "news" in your domain name to prevent SEO penalties?
On Google Webmaster Help, John Mueller responded to a question from a webmaster wondering whether using the word "news" in their site name could be detrimental in terms of SEO and rankings. Answer: "f...
John Mueller May 14, 2024
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