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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★★ Do Clicks on a 404 Page from Search Results Actually Trigger Deindexing?
Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that if a user clicks on a link in a SERP and lands on a 404 page, this will not send a signal to Google to remove that URL. For this page to be deindexed, it will be ...
Gary Illyes Apr 24, 2017
★★★ Should You Avoid PageRank Sculpting with Nofollow Links to Prevent Penalties?
Gary Illyes clarified on Twitter that performing "PageRank Sculpting" by creating silos through nofollow internal links cannot generate a penalty from Google. However, he continued with a very "Gary-e...
Gary Illyes Apr 24, 2017
★★★ Can You Really Use Multiple H1 Tags Without Hurting Your SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it is possible to use as many H1 tags as desired on a web page. No surprise here, the Googler is simply reiterating the specifications of the HTML language, whic...
John Mueller Apr 24, 2017
★★ Is Bounce Rate Really a Ranking Factor on Google?
Gary Illyes reaffirmed on Twitter for the 478th time that bounce rate is not taken into account by Google's algorithms, simply because "it's not a good relevance signal". And once again, we can only a...
Gary Illyes Apr 10, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Remove the Priority Parameter from Your XML Sitemaps?
Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that the priority indexing parameters in XML Sitemap files were a "bag of noise." Basically, this indication serves no purpose and, for once, we completely agree with ...
Gary Illyes Apr 10, 2017
Why Does Google Deliberately Hide Information About Disavowed Links in Search Console?
John Mueller indicated in a hangout that if Google doesn't provide information in its Search Console about whether a link has been disavowed or not (in the "Links to your site" section), it's basicall...
John Mueller Apr 10, 2017
★★ How Does Google Really Interpret the Ampersand (&) in Your SEO Content?
Gary Illyes and John Mueller responded to a question on Twitter, indicating that, in most cases (and with some nuances in both responses however), Google understood the ampersand ("&") as an "and" in ...
John Mueller Apr 10, 2017
★★★ Are Google's SEO Penalties and Adsense Really Independent From Each Other?
The same Gary Illyes indicated, also on Twitter, that just like with the Adwords Team, there was no interaction between the Search Quality Team (the teams that inflict penalties on websites that attem...
Gary Illyes Apr 03, 2017
★★ How Have Google's Duplicate Content Detection Algorithms Really Evolved Over the Years?
Googler Paul Haahr, usually quite discreet but nevertheless highly relevant when he speaks, indicated that duplicate content detection algorithms at Google are constantly evolving, but have remained f...
Google Apr 03, 2017
★★★ Do Social Signals Like Facebook Likes Actually Impact Google Rankings?
Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter for the 3,487th time that Google's algorithm does not take into account Facebook "Likes" (like the vast majority of social signals in general, for that matter). Some b...
Gary Illyes Apr 03, 2017
★★ Can Store Locator Pop-ups Harm Your Mobile SEO Rankings?
Be careful if you use a pop-up on your mobile site that allows users to choose the nearest store upon arriving on the site (store locator). John Mueller said on Twitter that this type of pop-up could ...
John Mueller Apr 03, 2017
Do You Really Need Backlinks for Google to Crawl Your Pages?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that if a page had no backlinks, Googlebot would not crawl it. This is obviously false since a URL can be identified by the search engine via the XML Sitemap or be su...
John Mueller Apr 03, 2017
What Does Google's Fred Update Really Reveal About Penalized Sites?
The same Gary Illyes indicated during the SMX West conference the Fred update of March 9th, arguing that this algorithm update was based on points present in Google's guidelines. But he didn't say whi...
Gary Illyes Mar 27, 2017
★★ Does Googlebot Really Use Cookies to Crawl Your Website?
Gary Illyes published one of his "DYK" (Do You Know) posts about cookies: Googlebot generally doesn't make use of cookies, but it can if it detects it cannot get to the content without them?. In other...
Gary Illyes Mar 27, 2017
★★★ Should You Avoid Linking to Wikipedia to Prevent Google Penalties?
John Mueller indicated - in response to a question from a user on Twitter - that linking to the Wikipedia encyclopedia does not result in a penalty from Google. One sometimes wonders where such questi...
John Mueller Mar 20, 2017
Is Google's Page Layout Algorithm Still Penalizing Your Site in 2024?
Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that the Page Layout algorithm, which has been updated several times in the past and aims to penalize pages with too many ads embedded in editorial content, somewhat l...
Gary Illyes Mar 20, 2017
★★★ Why Does Google Refuse to Build a Low-Quality Page Detection Tool in Search Console?
A user asked John Mueller whether Google was currently working on a tool that could be integrated into Search Console and would provide insights into which pages on a site might be considered low-qual...
John Mueller Mar 20, 2017
★★★ Do 404 Errors Really Hurt Your Website's SEO Rankings?
John Mueller once again explained on Twitter that 404 errors returned by a website are not considered a low-quality criterion by Google and that there is no penalty that could affect a source of infor...
John Mueller Mar 20, 2017
Are Quality Comments Really an Important Ranking Signal for Google?
Gary Illyes painfully attempts to provide information on Twitter with his "DYK" (Do You Know...) posts, which are unfortunately most of the time incomprehensible and totally useless. Latest example: "...
Gary Illyes Mar 13, 2017
★★★ Do Font Choices Really Impact Your Google Rankings?
The same John Mueller also explained in this hangout that Google does not take into account the type of font used in a website's pages. It is not a relevance criterion. The only limitation: if the tex...
John Mueller Mar 13, 2017
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