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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★★★ Does Google really penalize multiple domains targeting the same market, or is this just another SEO myth?
Using two domains with different TLDs to target the same country with identical keywords may be considered search result manipulation according to Google's anti-spam policies. This can also create con...
Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023
★★★ Can you really prevent Google from crawling certain parts of a webpage?
It is not possible to block Googlebot from crawling a specific section of an HTML page. You can use data-nosnippet to exclude text from snippets, or use iframes/JavaScript blocked by robots.txt, but t...
John Mueller Jun 07, 2023
★★ Do multiple navigation menus really hurt your SEO?
Having multiple navigation menus (main menu and secondary menu) has virtually no effect on a website's SEO performance....
Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023
★★ Does Google really issue official SEO certifications?
There is no official SEO certification or badge approved by Google. Certifications exist for certain products like Google Ads, but not for SEO in general. Always verify the official source for any pur...
Martin Splitt Jun 07, 2023
★★ Are host groups really a sign of cannibalization you need to fix?
When two results from the same domain appear with the second slightly indented, these are host groups. This indicates that you have multiple pages that can rank well for a query. You might consider co...
Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023
★★ Does Google really reprocess your sitemap on every crawl?
Google doesn't reprocess a sitemap that hasn't changed since the last crawl, as a resource optimization strategy. As soon as a change appears (URL or lastmod), the sitemap is analyzed again. Deleting ...
Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023
★★★ Is it really worth your time submitting an XML sitemap to Google?
Submitting a sitemap tells Google where your content is located, but it absolutely does not guarantee that URLs will be crawled or indexed. Crawling and indexing depend on content quality and relative...
Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023
★★ Does Google really ignore structured data that contains parsing errors?
If structured data contains parsing errors, Google cannot extract information from it and ignores it completely....
Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023
Can you really disavow toxic backlinks by targeting their IP address in Google's tool?
There is no way to disavow links using IP addresses rather than domain names in Google's disavow tool....
Gary Illyes Jun 07, 2023
★★ Do numbers in your URLs really hurt your search rankings?
Numbers in URLs are not bad for SEO. You can use numbers, letters, non-Latin characters, or Unicode symbols. Only avoid temporary identifiers that change with each visit, as this complicates crawling....
Martin Splitt Jun 07, 2023
★★★ Should You Really Avoid Charitable Donations in Exchange for Google Business Reviews?
Joy Hawkins from Sterlingsky asked Google whether making a donation to a charitable organization in exchange for a review, whether positive or not, was acceptable or not. According to Google, the prac...
Google Jun 06, 2023
★★★ Why does Google require aggregation functions when analyzing Search Console data?
You must always use aggregation functions because the table rows are not guaranteed to be consolidated by date, URL, site, or any combination of keys. A query can appear multiple times for the same da...
Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023
★★★ Did you know Google counts only one impression when multiple pages from your site appear in the same search results?
In the searchdata_site_impression table, data is aggregated by property. If two pages appear in the same Google search result, you will only see one impression. For position, it's the highest position...
Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023
★★★ How does Google's searchdata_url_impression table break down your search performance data?
The searchdata_url_impression table aggregates all performance data by individual URL rather than by site. If two pages appear in the same Google search result, you'll see two impressions—one for each...
Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023
★★★ Should you really filter out anonymized queries from Google Search Console to boost your data quality?
You need to filter 'noquery' strings to reduce the size of your data requests. This is done by extracting only data where the is_anonymized_query field is false....
Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023
★★ Do Search Console grouped exports to BigQuery really replace the Search Analytics API?
Data available through Search Console grouped exports to BigQuery is very similar to Search Analytics API data, but potentially much more voluminous depending on site size....
Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023
★★★ Should you really limit queries by date in Search Console to optimize your performance?
You should limit queries by date as much as possible to speed up queries and save processing costs. This is done with a WHERE clause to restrict the date range in the partitioned table....
Daniel Waisberg Jun 01, 2023
★★ Should you ditch client-side rendering to boost your SEO rankings?
Client-side rendering has value for interactive applications, but it's not the best strategy for informational websites where content indexability is the priority....
Martin Splitt May 30, 2023
★★★ Does a Misconfigured Last-Modified HTTP Header Really Hurt Your SEO Rankings?
In response to an apparently incorrect article, John Mueller left a message on Mastodon to set the record straight. In his post, Google's most famous employee stated: "I came across an article about t...
John Mueller May 30, 2023
★★ Does Google really treat 429, 503, and 500 status codes the same way?
HTTP status codes 429 (too many requests) and 503 (service unavailable) are treated similarly by Google, and probably also with code 500. Search Console groups them in the same way as well....
Gary Illyes May 30, 2023
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