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.
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★★ Should you avoid emojis and special characters in your URLs to ensure proper indexing?
Googlebot is capable of processing URLs that include emojis, Chinese characters, accents, and other special characters. However, the search engine's behavior towards these elements can be unpredictabl...
Google Oct 16, 2026
★★★ Are domain names with non-Latin characters really an SEO advantage?
Google follows the RFC standards 1035 and 1123 for domain names, which permit the use of non-English characters through internationalized domain names (IDN). This can be beneficial for local brand rec...
Gary Illyes Oct 14, 2026
★★★ Should you really favor hyphens over underscores in your URLs?
Google recommends using hyphens instead of underscores to separate words in URL paths. Hyphens are more readable for both its systems and users....
Gary Illyes Oct 14, 2026
★★★ Do keywords in URLs still influence SEO?
Including keywords in URLs has an insignificant impact on SEO. Only a totally empty URL might benefit slightly, but as soon as a page has content, the keywords in the URL become almost irrelevant....
Gary Illyes Oct 14, 2026
★★ Can you really use emojis and special characters in URLs without risking an SEO penalty?
URL paths can contain special characters, such as emojis, which will be encoded in UTF-8. Googlebot can read and process these paths, but they may appear unreadable in certain browsers or applications...
Gary Illyes Oct 14, 2026
★★★ Should you really avoid restaurant menus in PDF format for SEO?
Using PDFs to publish restaurant menus is acceptable if it is more convenient than not publishing a menu at all. However, HTML pages are generally preferable for interaction and SEO, unless the PDF fo...
John Mueller Oct 13, 2026
★★ Should you really apply a rel canonical to your PDFs?
To prevent content duplication with PDF files, it is advisable to use the canonical rel header. This can help clearly indicate the source of the document and facilitate its indexing management by sear...
John Mueller Oct 13, 2026
★★★ What mistakes can lead to a domain migration failing months after it began?
At the beginning of the year, a user changed the name and domain of their website. After setting up redirects and the Change of Address feature in Google Search Console (GSC), traffic quickly rebounde...
John Mueller Oct 13, 2026
★★★ How does Google really handle PDF files for SEO?
Google converts PDF files into HTML for processing in its standard pipelines. Links and other elements remain usable once converted, ensuring indexing and ranking similar to other document formats....
John Mueller Oct 13, 2026
★★ What is the real size limit for indexing your PDFs on Google?
Google sets a size limit during the crawling of PDF files. Although this limit is higher than for standard web pages, it exists because storage space is restricted. Generally, this limit is sufficient...
John Mueller Oct 13, 2026
★★★ Is it true that Google is massively ignoring product aggregation sites?
A large product aggregator website is facing an indexing anomaly. Googlebot has crawled the site 1.17 million times in just a few weeks. Only 4 pages are indexed out of a total of 180,000, and even th...
John Mueller Oct 06, 2026
★★★ Is it really necessary to stick to 50,000 URLs per sitemap?
Each sitemap file can contain up to 50,000 URLs and has a size limit of around megabytes. Files can be compressed, but the size limit concerns the uncompressed version....
John Mueller Oct 01, 2026
★★★ Why does Google fail to crawl your sitemaps and how can you fix it?
The 'Couldn't Fetch' errors can be due to the host load, where Google did not have time to extract the sitemap file, or to an insufficient crawl request, often based on the perceived quality of the si...
John Mueller Oct 01, 2026
★★★ Is a XML sitemap really necessary for small websites?
Google recommends keeping a sitemap file activated, even for small sites, as most content management systems generate it automatically. There is no negative impact, even if the site remains small....
John Mueller Oct 01, 2026
★★★ Do sitemaps really influence Google's choice of the canonical URL?
Google uses sitemaps to help choose the canonical version of a URL. If a URL is listed in a sitemap, it increases the chances that Google will select it as the canonical version....
John Mueller Oct 01, 2026
★★ Should you hide your sitemaps in robots.txt instead of submitting them publicly?
Sitemap files can be submitted via Search Console or indicated in the robots.txt file. Google can discover sitemaps through these methods, which is useful for sites that do not want their sitemap to b...
John Mueller Oct 01, 2026
★★★ Are XML News Sitemaps Really Essential for News Websites?
News websites benefit from specific sitemaps that list the last 1,000 modified pages. This facilitates the tracking of significant updates by Google's systems....
Martin Splitt Oct 01, 2026
★★ Why does Google deindex your pages due to errors served with HTTP 200?
A business and supplier site has seen its pages deindexed by Google. The search engine has chosen a third-party online betting site as the canonical URL, with no apparent content relation. Live testin...
John Mueller Sep 29, 2026
★★★ Should we abandon traditional position tracking in SEO?
John Mueller responded on Reddit to questions about how impressions are counted for generative AI results in Search Console. Google already has a help document on the subject, but John Mueller admits ...
John Mueller Sep 16, 2026
★★★ Is it true that programmatic SEO is incompatible with quality content?
In a response published on Bluesky, John Mueller warns against programmatic SEO. According to him, this practice can lead the site to be perceived as spam or nearly so, or of low quality. To recall, p...
John Mueller Sep 08, 2026
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