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 Googlebot actually crawl your site's internal search engine to discover content?
Google generally does not enter search terms in a site's internal search bar to discover new pages. Products accessible only through internal search may not be indexed....
Alan Kent Aug 29, 2022
★★★ Are HTTP 503 and 429 status codes really killing your crawl budget?
HTTP status codes 503 and 429, as well as slow response times, signal to Googlebot that the server cannot handle the load. Googlebot will then slow down its crawl and the allocated budget will decreas...
Martin Splitt Aug 25, 2022
★★★ Can you really manage your crawl budget from Google Search Console?
Webmasters can indirectly control their crawl budget through the crawl statistics in Search Console. They can limit the maximum number of requests per second (QPS) that Googlebot makes to their site t...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★ Are POST requests really eating up your crawl budget?
POST requests cannot be cached by Google, unlike GET requests. If your pages make POST requests to APIs, they will consume more crawl budget with each crawl because they cannot benefit from caching....
Martin Splitt Aug 25, 2022
★★★ Are 404s and robots.txt Really Wasting Your Crawl Budget?
HTTP status codes 404 and 410, as well as URLs blocked by robots.txt, do not consume crawl budget because Google only receives the status code without content. Conversely, soft 404s (pages that return...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★ Is crawl budget a concept invented by Google or by SEO professionals?
For a long time, Google claimed it didn't have a concept of crawl budget. Following discussions within the SEO community, Google created a definition by working with several internal teams to map exis...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★★ Does a new section inherit its crawl budget from your main site's quality?
When you launch a new section (like /blog), Google infers initial crawl signals from the main site. If the main site has strong quality signals (backlinks, popularity), the new section will benefit fr...
Martin Splitt Aug 25, 2022
★★★ What does your "discovered but not crawled" URL status really reveal about your site?
If a large proportion of URLs appears as "discovered but not crawled" in Search Console, this indicates either a content quality issue (Google doesn't think users are searching for this content), or a...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★ Should you block your decorative JavaScript files to optimize your crawl budget?
If JavaScript files are purely decorative and add neither content nor value to the page rendering, they can be blocked via robots.txt or X-Robots-Tag. Rendering will fail for these resources but this ...
Gary Illyes Aug 25, 2022
★★ Why are unique identifiers crucial for disambiguation in Google's algorithm?
Using unique identifiers helps Google disambiguate the names of things in your data so they appear for the right queries. For example, providing the complete address of an event rather than just the c...
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Can structured data really boost your qualified SEO traffic?
When you tell Google what's on your webpage in a structured way, it allows Google to interpret your content more precisely and create visual treatments like product review stars or search filters. Thi...
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ What's the point of perfect structured data if Google can't actually crawl your pages?
The most important thing as a website owner is to first make sure Google can crawl your content. If Google cannot crawl your content, then it cannot find the structured data on your page....
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Why does Google rely on Schema.org as its primary language for understanding your content?
Google primarily uses Schema.org to describe the content of your page. Schema.org is a public collaboration between several different organizations to create a shared vocabulary describing data....
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Should you really multiply structured data on your pages to please Google?
Google never penalizes you for having more precise structured data on your pages. However, it is more effective to focus on the types that Google actively uses, documented in Google's Search Gallery....
Ryan Levering Aug 23, 2022
★★★ Is HTTPS Really Mandatory to Rank Well on Google in 2024?
John Mueller reminded on Twitter that having a website in HTTPS is absolutely not a requirement to be (well) ranked in Google's search results. Many HTTP sites are well indexed and rank in the top res...
John Mueller Aug 22, 2022
★★★ Why Does Google Refuse to Index Some SEO Content Even When It's Optimized?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that "a lot of SEOs and websites produce very low-quality content that isn't worth indexing (...) Just because it exists doesn't mean it's useful to users."...
John Mueller Aug 22, 2022
★★ Should you really rely on PageSpeed Insights to optimize your JavaScript performance?
Google recommends website owners use PageSpeed Insights by entering a page URL to analyze and resolve JavaScript-related performance issues....
Google Aug 19, 2022
★★ Can PageSpeed Insights Really Pinpoint Which JavaScript is Slowing Down Your Site?
The PageSpeed Insights tool allows you to identify JavaScript whose execution is slow, helping website owners optimize their performance and search engine rankings....
Google Aug 19, 2022
★★ Is your JavaScript being downloaded for nothing?
PageSpeed Insights can identify JavaScript code that is downloaded by the browser but never executed, representing wasted resources that unnecessarily slow down your site....
Google Aug 19, 2022
★★★ Do Dwell Time and Pogosticking Really Influence SEO Rankings in Google?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter for the 4,765th time 🙂 that clicking on your link (or another one) in the SERPs will have no influence on the future ranking of that page in the SERP, neither posit...
John Mueller Aug 16, 2022
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