What does Google say about SEO? /
This category compiles all official Google statements regarding the impact of social media on search engine optimization. It covers Google's positions on major platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and their influence on search rankings. SEO professionals will find essential clarifications about the role of social signals, shares, and social engagement within Google's algorithms. The documentation also includes official recommendations for implementing Open Graph tags and other social metadata to optimize content display when shared across networks. Google has regularly clarified its stance on using social media data, particularly regarding social profile indexation, treatment of shared links, and the indirect impact of social traffic on organic visibility. Understanding these official statements enables search marketers to develop coherent digital strategies, dispel persistent myths about social signals as direct ranking factors, and properly leverage the social ecosystem to improve website discoverability and authority. This knowledge proves crucial for implementing comprehensive SEO approaches that effectively integrate social media presence while maintaining realistic expectations about their direct influence on search performance and organic traffic generation.
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★★★ Does Googlebot Actually Collect Core Web Vitals Data During Crawling?
This week's update on Core Web Vitals... 🙂 John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that while the Googlebot returns a majority of useful information to the algorithm during its crawl, this won't be the ca...
John Mueller Apr 26, 2021
★★★ Why Does Google Ignore CSS-Displayed Images for Indexing Purposes?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that Google only indexes an image if it is displayed using an <img> tag. Images displayed via CSS (particularly background images) are not taken into account, nor a...
John Mueller Apr 19, 2021
★★★ Do 301 and 302 Redirects Really Matter Differently for SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that in most cases, Google treats 301 and 302 redirects in almost the same way, because it knows that 302 redirects can remain in place for months, or even longer. It...
John Mueller Apr 12, 2021
★★★ Do Core Web Vitals really only serve to separate tie results?
Core Web Vitals primarily serve as a tiebreaker signal when multiple results are considered equivalent in relevance. Google can then favor the page that meets the Core Web Vitals thresholds. This is n...
John Mueller Apr 09, 2021
★★★ Should You Really Return a 503 Code Instead of a 502 When Your Site Goes Down?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that when a site goes down (as recently happened with the fire at OVH in Strasbourg), the main idea was for the server to immediately return a 503 code ("Service Unav...
John Mueller Mar 29, 2021
★★★ How Does Google Really Handle Hyphens in Keywords and Search Queries?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google can interpret an expression containing a hyphen in several different ways, depending on the context. For example, "wifi" and "wi-fi" will be understood th...
John Mueller Mar 29, 2021
★★★ Should You Really Use Noindex Rather Than Robots.txt to Deindex a Page?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that when you want to deindex a page that has been previously indexed by the search engine, you need to use the "noindex" meta robots tag and not the robots.txt file....
John Mueller Mar 15, 2021
★★★ Will Core Web Vitals Really Revolutionize SERP Rankings?
Danny Sullivan explained on Twitter that Core Web Vitals, which will be launched next May, should not fundamentally change the game in the SERPs. He indicated that their impact will likely be very min...
Danny Sullivan Mar 01, 2021
★★★ Do mailto: and tel: links actually affect your site's internal PageRank?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google does not read or follow links of type "mailto:" or "tel:" (email addresses and phone numbers)....
John Mueller Mar 01, 2021
★★★ Does URL Structure Really Impact Google Rankings?
John Mueller provided two examples on Twitter of websites where URL page structure can be important: on one hand, international sites with a directory (example: /fr/, /de/, etc.) on a generic extensio...
John Mueller Mar 01, 2021
★★★ Is Google's Yellow Highlighting Actually Connected to the Passages Algorithm?
Danny Sullivan explained (once again) on Twitter that Google's feature of directing users directly to a specific part of a page, with the requested text highlighted in yellow (a function sometimes cal...
Danny Sullivan Feb 22, 2021
★★★ Do traffic and social signals really influence organic ranking?
Google Ads and social sharing are not considered for search. Traffic in general isn't either. External SEOs have tested traffic to see if it can lead to a page's indexing, and it does not....
John Mueller Feb 19, 2021
★★★ Do Short Domain Names and URLs Actually Boost Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that using a short domain name or short URLs (number of words or characters) does not provide any "bonus" in terms of SEO....
John Mueller Feb 15, 2021
★★★ Do social signals really influence Google rankings?
Google does not consider social share buttons, like counts, or social media activity as a ranking factor in search results....
John Mueller Feb 12, 2021
★★★ Do Google's Core Web Vitals Really Apply the Same Way to All Types of Websites?
John Mueller also explained on Twitter that as part of the "Page Experience" project, the Core Web Vitals KPIs, which will be implemented in May, will be the same regardless of the type of site. Thus,...
John Mueller Feb 08, 2021
★★★ Can Google Penalize Your Site for Another Site's SEO Violations in Your Network?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that if a website violating Google's guidelines is subject to a manual action, and the search engine teams detect other similar sites belonging to the same network, t...
John Mueller Feb 08, 2021
★★ Can machine learning really replace text for SEO-ing your images?
Google can use machine learning to extract information from images (objects, actions). However, this does not replace other SEO factors. It's an auxiliary signal that can help differentiate similar im...
John Mueller Feb 05, 2021
★★★ Are Press Relations Really Compliant with Google's Link Building Guidelines?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that conducting quality Press Relations to obtain links is not a problem—quite the contrary: "I love some of the things I see in public relations, it's a shame they...
John Mueller Feb 01, 2021
★★★ Does Google really underplay the true importance of Page Experience in rankings?
Content remains the most important element. Page Experience acts as a tiebreaker when two pages have content of equal value. Don't overestimate the impact of Page Experience....
Google Jan 28, 2021
★★★ Should You Really Avoid Google Tag Manager for Implementing Structured Data?
John Mueller advised on Twitter to integrate structured data tags directly into your pages and not to use Tag Manager for this purpose. Simply because direct integration is "generally easier to monito...
John Mueller Jan 25, 2021
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