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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★★★ Can you really boost your site's crawl budget by contacting Google?
Requests submitted via the Googlebot issue report form cannot be used to increase a site's crawl volume. This form is intended solely to report over-crawling problems or server overload issues....
Gary Illyes Aug 08, 2024
★★ Does Googlebot really crawl links sequentially like a user navigating from page to page?
Contrary to popular belief, Googlebot does not follow links page by page like a user would. It first collects the links and then returns to them independently. This technical distinction is important ...
Gary Illyes Aug 08, 2024
★★★ Does intensive crawling really guarantee a high-quality website?
Google may crawl a site more extensively for various reasons (quality content, hacks, new URLs, calendar scripts). High crawl volume does not automatically mean the site is high quality. Conversely, r...
Gary Illyes Aug 08, 2024
★★★ Is Google really hiding the secret to faster indexing in your Crawl Stats?
Webmasters should check crawl statistics (Crawl Stats) in Search Console to diagnose crawl problems. Average response time is displayed there: several seconds of response time constitute an objective ...
John Mueller Aug 08, 2024
★★★ Should you deploy return policy markup at the organization level instead of the product level?
Google now allows you to add structured data to indicate return policy information at the entire organization level, rather than only at the product level....
John Mueller Aug 07, 2024
★★★ How can you leverage merchant listing tracking in Google Images through Search Console to boost your e-commerce visibility?
Merchant listings appearing in Google Images are now tracked and reported in Google Search Console, providing greater visibility into the performance of these placements....
John Mueller Aug 07, 2024
★★★ Does product variant markup really change the game for e-commerce SEO?
Google now offers specific markup to tag product variants (like different colors of the same item), enabling better representation of product variations in search results....
John Mueller Aug 07, 2024
★★★ Should You Switch Your Mobile URLs (m.url) to Canonical URLs with Mobile-First Indexing?
John Mueller from Google advises against changing mobile-specific URLs (m.url) to canonical URLs, even with mobile-first indexing. He explains that this change could cause major technical issues for l...
John Mueller Aug 06, 2024
★★★ Can robots.txt really protect your site from unwanted crawlers?
Google has confirmed that the robots.txt file does not have the capability to prevent unauthorized access to a website. Gary Illyes from Google explained that this file merely requests that robots avo...
Gary Illyes Aug 06, 2024
★★★ Should You Use the X-RateLimit Header to Control Googlebot Crawling?
On Mastodon, a user asked John Mueller whether Google respects the X-RateLimit-Limit header when crawling websites. His response: "I've never heard of it," adding: "We document the use of http codes 4...
John Mueller Aug 06, 2024
★★ Does Google Trends really show you all search data, or just a fraction of the real picture?
Google Trends provides a random sample of Google searches that are aggregated, anonymized, and categorized. The tool examines a representative portion of billions of daily searches rather than the ent...
Daniel Waisberg Jul 31, 2024
★★ Why is Google filtering Google Trends data and how does it impact your SEO monitoring strategy?
Google excludes from Google Trends terms searched by very few people as well as searches repeated by the same person over a short period. This data cleaning removes noise and ensures user privacy....
Daniel Waisberg Jul 31, 2024
★★ Does Google Trends really aggregate all keyword variants together, or does it treat them separately?
Topics in Google Trends group together the exact term, misspellings, acronyms, and all languages related to an entity. This provides a complete view of interest in a concept without being restricted t...
Daniel Waisberg Jul 31, 2024
★★★ Why Can't Google Trends Ever Tell You the Real Number of Keyword Searches?
Google Trends normalizes data using a search interest metric on a 0-to-100 scale, where 100 represents the highest point. The data doesn't show absolute search volume, but allows you to compare the re...
Daniel Waisberg Jul 31, 2024
★★ Why Is Reddit Blocking Bing and Other Search Engines Except Google?
Microsoft confirmed that Reddit blocked Bing and other search engines by updating its robots.txt file on July 1, 2024. Microsoft respects this directive and no longer crawls the site. Reddit specified...
Google Jul 30, 2024
★★★ Should You Avoid Noindex on Pages That Contain Important Links?
In the July 2024 SEO Office Hours episode, John Mueller explained that blocking a page from crawling suggests that internal or external links present on the page are not relevant. "You can block the i...
John Mueller Jul 30, 2024
★★★ Can rapid content growth make Google treat your site as brand new?
John Mueller warned that exponential content growth can trigger a site reassessment by Google, treating it as a new site. A significant increase, such as going from 10,000 to 100,000 products, can pro...
John Mueller Jul 30, 2024
★★★ Should You Really Block the GoogleOther Crawler in Your Robots.txt?
Gary Illyes warned that blocking the GoogleOther bot could affect various Google products and services, although it does not directly impact search results indexed by Googlebot. GoogleOther is used fo...
Gary Illyes Jul 30, 2024
★★★ Should You Really Trust AI for Your SEO Strategy?
Google's John Mueller advises against using language models (LLMs) for SEO advice, as they learn from potentially erroneous information. This remark was made in response to a contradictory suggestion ...
John Mueller Jul 30, 2024
★★★ Should you really ignore the HTML lang attribute for multilingual SEO?
Google does not use the lang attribute of HTML tags to determine a page's language because this signal has proven historically unreliable. Many CMS platforms — such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla — ...
Gary Illyes Jul 25, 2024
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