What does Google say about SEO? /
Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping search engine optimization and Google's algorithms. This category compiles Google's official statements regarding AI usage in search, including machine learning technologies, large language models (LLMs), and new generative search experiences like SGE and AI Overview. SEO practitioners will find Google's positions on how AI-generated content (ChatGPT, Gemini, Bard) impacts website rankings and organic visibility. Google has clarified its guidelines concerning artificial intelligence for content creation, distinguishing acceptable practices from manipulative techniques that violate search quality standards. Understanding these official declarations is crucial for adapting SEO strategies to algorithmic evolutions, particularly with the increasing integration of machine learning into ranking systems. This category also covers the impact of AI-generated answers in SERPs, E-E-A-T quality criteria applied to AI-assisted content, and recommendations for maintaining organic search presence in the era of generative search. Essential insights include how Google evaluates content quality regardless of production method, focusing on helpfulness and user value rather than creation process. A must-follow resource for staying ahead in modern search engine optimization.
★★★ Why can't anyone truly master SEO 100%?
John Mueller stated that SEO is not a matter of belief, that no one knows everything, and that practices are continually evolving. He also claimed that anyone calling themselves an "SEO guru" is, in h...
John Mueller Apr 28, 2026
★★ Can we really afford to do anything in SEO without facing consequences?
On Bluesky, Google's John Mueller stated that because SEO is complex, multifaceted, and resilient, you "can do a lot of things that don't work, but still get away with it." In summary, you can make mi...
John Mueller Apr 28, 2026
★★ Do you really need to master SQL and BigQuery for SEO in 2025?
Writing SQL queries in BigQuery is essential for extracting and analyzing web data at scale, though you must be mindful of the associated costs by optimizing queries....
Gary Illyes Apr 23, 2026
★★★ Does Google use custom JavaScript scripts to evaluate your pages?
Google uses custom metric scripts to extract more specific data during website page tests, providing flexibility in the pursuit of information that is otherwise unavailable....
Martin Splitt Apr 23, 2026
★★★ Is BigQuery really essential for analyzing your SEO data at scale?
Google encourages the use of BigQuery to query large web datasets, although it can sometimes be costly, it is crucial for gaining detailed insights into elements such as robots.txt files....
Martin Splitt Apr 23, 2026
★★ Should you really stick to the 100KB limit for your robots.txt file?
Robots.txt files that do not exceed 100KB are common, which is convenient for ensuring optimal performance during crawling by search engines....
Martin Splitt Apr 23, 2026
★★★ Why is Google suddenly sharing massive data on robots.txt usage?
Google has integrated new metrics to analyze robots.txt files through HTTP Archive, allowing for large-scale data extraction with BigQuery to better understand and document the most widely used rules....
Gary Illyes Apr 23, 2026
★★★ Is Google finally revealing how it really analyzes your pages with HTTP Archive?
HTTP Archive is used by Google to analyze how web pages evolve in terms of performance, JavaScript usage, and other essential SEO metrics....
Gary Illyes Apr 23, 2026
★★★ Can Google really ignore all links from a spammy site?
John Mueller reminds us that if a site violates Google's anti-spam policies, its outgoing links can simply be ignored altogether by Google. In other words, a site considered spammy no longer transmits...
John Mueller Apr 21, 2026
★★★ Could a domain name similar to a competitor harm your SEO?
A webmaster was concerned about having a domain very close to another (only one letter difference). John Mueller responds that this is generally not an issue for SEO in itself. The only real risk iden...
John Mueller Apr 21, 2026
★★ Should you offer Markdown versions of your content to enhance your visibility in AI-generated results?
An SEO consultant saw claims circulating that Google Search Central would serve Markdown versions of its blog articles to boost its visibility in AI-generated results. He delved into the topic, inspec...
John Mueller Apr 21, 2026
★★★ Does Markdown Really Work for SEO, or Should You Always Use HTML Instead?
On LinkedIn, someone asked John Mueller whether Google treats .md pages (that is, Markdown) differently from standard HTML pages, and more specifically whether they are properly rendered and accessibl...
John Mueller Apr 14, 2026
★★★ Why does Google stagger Core Updates over multiple weeks instead of releasing them all at once?
John Mueller explains that Core Updates are not deployed all at once, but in stages, because they affect multiple systems and components that must be pushed out progressively. He also clarifies that t...
John Mueller Apr 07, 2026
★★★ Should you really avoid using unique canonicals on multi-page e-commerce sites?
On LinkedIn, Rowan Collins, SEO Consultant, exchanged with John Mueller on a specific point about e-commerce structured data. For a multi-page site, each product variant with its own URL should not be...
John Mueller Mar 31, 2026
★★ Are structured data slowing down your pages enough to harm your SEO?
Structured data, which are intended for machines rather than users, can considerably increase the weight of a page. Google supports many types of structured data, and their accumulation on a page can ...
Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026
★★ Is lazy loading really essential to optimize your initial page weight and boost Core Web Vitals?
Lazy loading allows you to load only images and heavy content that are actually visible or near the user's viewport, rather than loading everything upfront, thereby reducing the initial weight of the ...
Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026
★★ Does Google really block 40 billion spam URLs daily—and how does your site avoid the filter?
Google processes and blocks approximately 40 billion spam URLs per day, which illustrates the scale of the spam problem on the internet and the challenges search engines face in combating it....
Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026
★★ Does network compression really improve your site's crawl budget?
Network-level compression reduces the amount of data transferred, but doesn't decrease the storage space needed on the user's device or crawler side. It only helps accelerate the transfer....
Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026
★★★ Why is mobile-desktop parity sabotaging your rankings in Mobile-First Indexing?
When transitioning to Mobile-First Indexing, Google observed that a large number of pages lacked parity between mobile and desktop versions. Content was missing, links were absent, navigation and meta...
Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026
★★★ Does page size really matter for SEO when internet connections keep getting faster?
Although internet connections are getting faster, the increase in webpage size is outpacing the increase in median transfer speeds for mobile connections. Size therefore remains an important factor fo...
Martin Splitt Mar 30, 2026
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