What does Google say about SEO? /
This category compiles all official Google statements regarding JavaScript and technical aspects of search engine optimization. Modern JavaScript frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js) and web application architectures (SPA, SSR, CSR) present critical challenges for crawling and indexing. Google's guidance on JavaScript rendering, dynamic DOM manipulation, AJAX implementation, and API calls is essential for ensuring client-side content visibility. SEO professionals will find authoritative positions on implementation best practices, differences between server-side and client-side rendering, and recommendations for optimizing load times while guaranteeing content accessibility to search crawlers. Understanding data formats (JSON, XML) and their SEO implications completes this vital resource. These official declarations help prevent common technical implementation mistakes that can severely impact the search performance of modern websites and JavaScript-powered applications. Access to Google's verified positions on these technical matters enables practitioners to make informed architectural decisions and implement JavaScript solutions that maintain strong organic search visibility while delivering enhanced user experiences.
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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 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
★★ 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 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
★★★ Should You Switch Domain Names After a Google Penalty?
John Mueller indicated on Reddit that Google doesn't have a "magic button" or "reset button" that its teams would activate to make all traces of penalties disappear, even after they've been lifted by ...
John Mueller Apr 02, 2018
★★ How Long Does It Really Take to See Results After Cleaning Up Low-Quality Content?
John Mueller explained during a hangout that improving overall quality or removing low-quality content from a site could have an impact (positions/traffic) sometimes only after 6 months, the time it t...
John Mueller Mar 26, 2018
★★★ Does Page Speed Really Impact Google's Mobile First Indexing?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that the Mobile First index and the page loading speed criterion were two separate things. Indexing and page ranking should not be confused, as some believe, especial...
John Mueller Mar 05, 2018
★★★ How Does Googlebot Really Crawl Your Website?
John Mueller published a video last week (the first "SEO Snippet" - videos succeeding those of Matt Cutts - since their launch), explaining how Google crawls a website and the way Googlebot works....
John Mueller Mar 05, 2018
★★★ Are Schema.org Structured Data Really Essential for Your SEO in 2024?
Gary Illyes indicated at the Pubcon conference that structured data tags (Schema.org) were here to stay because they allowed Google to better understand the content of a page....
Gary Illyes Feb 26, 2018
★★ Why Are Hreflang Tags Considered the Most Complex Aspect of SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that "hreflang tags are one of the most complex aspects of SEO, if not the most complex. It seems as simple as a meta tag, but their implementation quickly becomes di...
John Mueller Feb 26, 2018
★★★ Should You Change Your XML Sitemap Name Daily to Improve SEO Rankings?
John Mueller explained in a hangout that it's not a good idea to modify the name of your XML Sitemap files daily (for example with a date, like sitemap-2018-02-12.xml, etc.) with numerous redundant an...
John Mueller Feb 12, 2018
★★ Does Page Loading Speed Really Impact Your Page Indexing?
Regarding last month's Speed Update, John Mueller and Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that while this new algorithm would affect page rankings on mobile, it does not impact indexing in any way. A slo...
John Mueller Feb 05, 2018
★★ Should You Include GPS Coordinates in Structured Data for Local SEO?
John Mueller explained in a hangout that the search engine does not take into account Schema.org structured data tags providing GPS coordinates in its algorithm....
John Mueller Jan 29, 2018
★★★ Why Do Site Mergers and Splits Take Google So Much Longer to Index?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that when a website splits into multiple information sources (splitting into several domain names) or conversely, when several sites merge into one, the processing by...
John Mueller Jan 22, 2018
★★★ Should You Really Include All Your Pages in Your XML Sitemap to Maximize SEO?
John Mueller has once again reminded us (as this has been stated several times in the past) that URLs present in the XML Sitemap file are often used by the search engine to define canonical page addre...
John Mueller Jan 15, 2018
★★ Should You Really Ignore Spammy Links in 2024?
Still in a hangout, John Mueller explains that today, Google tends to ignore spammy links rather than penalize sites that use them. And that it is now impossible to know whether, precisely, such and s...
John Mueller Dec 27, 2017
★★★ Should Your Structured Data Really Reflect What's Visible on Your Pages?
John Mueller also indicated on Twitter that structured data tags (particularly Schema.org) inserted into a web page must absolutely describe the content visible to a user when they view the page in qu...
John Mueller Dec 04, 2017
★★★ Why Do Google's Panda and Penguin Filters Keep Evolving and How Can You Adapt?
Googler Eric Kuan indicated at the Pubcon conference that the engineering teams at Google continue to work on the Panda and Penguin algorithmic filters and that they evolve over time......
Google Nov 21, 2017
★★ Why Are Structured Data Becoming Essential for SEO Success?
Gary Illyes indicated at the Pubcon conference that 2018 would be notably focused at Google on structured data (Schema.org markup) and that we should expect quite a few innovations in this area in the...
Gary Illyes Nov 13, 2017
★★★ Do JavaScript Links Really Pass as Much PageRank as HTML Links?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that the way a link is designed and presented on a web page doesn't matter: HTML or JavaScript, in particular. If Google can read it, it will be treated like all ot...
John Mueller Nov 13, 2017
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