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.
Quick SEO Quiz

Test your SEO knowledge in 5 questions

Less than a minute. Find out how much you really know about Google search.

🕒 ~1 min 🎯 5 questions
★★★ Do Forum Backlinks Still Work for SEO?
John Mueller explained in a Reddit discussion that including links (backlinks) in forum posts worked "very badly" for SEO....
John Mueller Jun 18, 2018
★★ Why Doesn't Google Images Crawl Images Embedded with DIV Tags?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that when an image is embedded in the source code using a DIV tag, it is not, in his opinion, taken into account and crawled by the image search engine robot....
John Mueller Jun 18, 2018
★★★ How Long Should You Really Wait After a Website Merger or Split?
John Mueller reminded us in a hangout that when multiple sites merge or "split" (one site broken into several different ones), it can take quite a long time for the search engine algorithms to fully p...
John Mueller Jun 11, 2018
Does Word Order in Title Tags Really Impact SEO Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that changing the word order in a Title tag does not, in his opinion, modify the page's ranking in search results....
John Mueller Jun 11, 2018
★★★ Should You Really Worry About Crawl Budget for Your Website?
John Mueller indicated, again on Twitter, that the notion of "crawl budget" was often overestimated by webmasters. Focusing on this point can be effective for very large sites, not for smaller ones....
John Mueller Jun 06, 2018
★★★ Does Frequent Crawling Really Improve Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller, once again, explained on Twitter that regular crawling of a site was not synonymous with better rankings and that, as a general rule, crawl frequency has no direct correlation with ranki...
John Mueller Jun 06, 2018
★★★ Are PDF Files Penalized by Google for Not Being Mobile-Friendly?
John Mueller reminded us of an obvious fact on Twitter by explaining that a PDF document cannot be "mobile friendly" or at least that Google does not see them as such......
John Mueller Jun 06, 2018
★★★ Should You Block Certain CSS or JavaScript Resources to Improve Your Site's SEO?
Once again, John Mueller explains in a hangout that he doesn't recommend blocking resources solely for Google, as this can affect how the search engine "sees" the page. And this can therefore modify i...
John Mueller Jun 06, 2018
★★ Subdomain or Subdirectory: Which Structure Should You Choose for Better SEO?
John Mueller, him again, confirmed in a hangout that Google treats subdomains (blog.example.com) and subdirectories (www.example.com/blog/) in the same way....
John Mueller May 28, 2018
★★★ Should You Duplicate Your Page Title in the Main Image's Alt Attribute?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that duplicating a page's title (Title tag) in the Alt attribute of that page's main image was not a problem in itself......
John Mueller May 28, 2018
★★★ Can You Really Use a Single robots.txt File to Declare Sitemaps for Multiple Different Domains?
Always John Mueller and always Twitter with the fact that a robots.txt file that would be identical and shared by several websites contains the addresses of several XML Sitemap files, one for each sit...
John Mueller May 28, 2018
★★★ Does the Number of Slashes in a URL Actually Affect Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated, again on Twitter, that the number of slashes ("/") in a URL had no impact for Google and that the search engine does not count how many times this character appears for any ana...
John Mueller May 28, 2018
★★ Does Shared Hosting Really Hurt Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller stated repeatedly on Twitter that using the same IP address for multiple websites (for example in the case of shared hosting) does not cause any problems in terms of "search". And that th...
John Mueller May 21, 2018
★★ How Do EAT Criteria Actually Influence Your Chances of Winning Featured Snippets?
John Mueller also indicated during a hangout that, to appear in a featured snippet, a website must meet "EAT" criteria (Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness). In short, everything will depend prim...
John Mueller May 21, 2018
Does Google Personalization Really Affect Your SEO Rankings?
Danny Sullivan indicated on Twitter that personalization of SERPs at Google was primarily based on geolocation and the language used by the user. Other criteria (search history and visited sites, etc....
Danny Sullivan May 21, 2018
★★★ Does Fast Server Response Time Really Boost the Number of Pages Google Crawls?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the faster a website's response time, the more pages search engine bots could crawl: "The faster we can crawl, the more we can crawl"......
John Mueller May 21, 2018
★★★ Should You Drop Standout and Editors' Picks Tags for Google News?
Google has indicated that, as part of the launch of the new version of Google News, the Editors' Picks feed and the Standout HTML tag - which allowed highlighting certain articles considered to be of ...
Google May 21, 2018
★★★ How Does Google's Two-Phase JavaScript Crawling Really Affect Your Rankings?
At the Google I/O event, Tom Greenaway, a search engine engineer, indicated that Google crawls JavaScript pages using a two-phase process (largely due to available machine resource management): a firs...
Google May 14, 2018
★★ Why Does Googlebot Still Refuse to Follow Certain Types of Links in 2024?
Let's wrap up with, once again, the Google I/O event and a presentation by a Google engineer outlining which types of links are followed by Googlebot on a web page. The following links will be followe...
Google May 14, 2018
★★★ Why Is Google Still Using Chrome 41 to Index Your Pages?
John Mueller also indicated during the Google I/O event that, to render web pages when analyzing code, Google was using Chrome version 41, even though the browser was currently and officially at versi...
John Mueller May 14, 2018
🔔

Get real-time analysis of the latest Google SEO declarations

Be the first to know every time a new official Google statement drops — with full expert analysis.

No spam. Unsubscribe in one click.