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 Use a 404 Instead of a 403 to Remove Pages from Google's Index?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that, to signal to Google that a page no longer exists and to see it disappear from the index, a 404 code (Page not Found) should be preferred over a 403 code (Forbid...
John Mueller May 09, 2018
★★ Should You Keep the Same URL or Create a 301 Redirect When Updating Content?
When an internet user asked about replacing old content with new content on a website, John Mueller explained that it's better to keep the same URL and change the content of that page rather than redi...
John Mueller May 09, 2018
Should You Avoid Internal Links to Noindex Pages?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that there's no problem if a website creates many internal links to pages that are deindexed from the search engine......
John Mueller May 02, 2018
★★ Can You Really Harm a Competitor's Site with External Canonical Tags?
A method of performing negative SEO based on "canonical" tags issued from low-quality sites has resurfaced recently following an article on this subject. John Mueller has, for his part, indicated that...
John Mueller May 02, 2018
★★★ Where Should Pagination Tags Be Placed for Google to Recognize Them?
John Mueller reminded that pagination tags (rel=next and rel=prev) must be in the "Head" section of the source code for paginated content. If these indications are found in links (A tag) and therefore...
John Mueller May 02, 2018
★★★ Does the HTTPS SEO Boost Really Work the Same for Every Website?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the "SEO boost" given when a website switches to HTTPS does not depend on the type of site or its topic, but is identical for all information sources......
John Mueller May 02, 2018
★★★ Should You Split Your Content Across Multiple Pages to Improve Google Indexing?
John Mueller indicated during a hangout that it was not a good strategy to split content across multiple pages solely to increase the number of pages indexed by Google because, by doing so, you also r...
John Mueller May 02, 2018
★★ Does Google Really Count JavaScript Links for SEO?
John Mueller also indicated on Twitter that some JavaScript links, particularly those using "onclick" directives, could be poorly analyzed by Google and the link not taken into account....
John Mueller Apr 23, 2018
Does Your Site's Mobile Traffic Influence Its Migration to Mobile First Index?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the decision to migrate a site to the Mobile First Index was not dependent on the volume of mobile traffic on that site, but solely on whether the site is techni...
John Mueller Apr 23, 2018
★★★ Should You Really Avoid Redirects in Hreflang Tags at All Costs?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that URLs specified in Hreflang tags should not be subject to 301, 302 or any other type of redirect. In other words, they must return a 200 code and not be redirec...
John Mueller Apr 23, 2018
Should You Use Canonical Tags or Noindex to Handle Duplicate Content?
John Mueller indicated that Google only uses the pages it has in its index for a given site to establish an overall quality score for the information source (which seems quite logical). He also explai...
John Mueller Apr 23, 2018
★★★ Are Complex Tables Really Killing Your Featured Snippet Chances?
John Mueller indicated during a hangout that content displayed in the form of a large table or a long series of links was not optimized to appear as a featured snippet and, therefore, in the context o...
John Mueller Apr 16, 2018
★★★ Can a Single Misplaced Tag in Your <head> Invalidate Your Entire HTML Code in Google's Eyes?
During a recent Google event, John Mueller explained that if a tag that should normally be in the "body" is found in the "head" section of the source code, it may not be taken into account by the sear...
John Mueller Apr 16, 2018
★★★ Does Having an RSS Feed Actually Improve Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that having an RSS feed on your site does not help it rank better in the SERPs, neither in Google nor in Google News....
John Mueller Apr 16, 2018
★★★ Do Brackets, Parentheses and Quotation Marks Really Impact Your Google Rankings?
A user asked on Twitter about characters like [brackets], (parentheses) and "quotation marks" and how they were taken into account by Google. Pete Meyers responded that they were all equivalent in ter...
John Mueller Apr 09, 2018
Should You Really Consolidate All Your FAQs on a Single Page to Avoid Thin Content?
John Mueller hinted on Reddit that "splitting" a Q&A page on a site into multiple pages (one per question, instead of listing them all on a single page) carried the risk of displaying numerous pages e...
John Mueller Apr 09, 2018
★★★ Does the Code-to-Text Ratio Really Impact Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that there is no system in place within Google's algorithm to account for a "code-to-text ratio" when analyzing a page. Some websites generate far more HTML cod...
John Mueller Apr 09, 2018
★★★ How Do You Effectively Manage Sitemaps When Your Site Exceeds 50,000 URLs?
In his "SEO Snippets" video series, John Mueller has just published one about Sitemaps and the Sitemap Index system that allows you to create such files when a website has more than 50,000 URLs....
John Mueller Apr 09, 2018
★★★ Do Structured Data Really Influence Rankings in Google?
John Mueller reminded on Twitter that integrating structured data tags could be a good thing for Google's understanding of a web page's content, since they explain and "label" a certain number of conc...
John Mueller Apr 09, 2018
★★★ Does Your URL Extension (.html, .php, .asp) Really Impact Your Google Rankings?
In his "SEO Snippets" video series, John Mueller indicates that whether a URL ends with .html, .php, .asp or another extension (or none at all) does not influence Google's relevance algorithm. The suf...
John Mueller Apr 02, 2018
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