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.
★★ Is the Search Off the Record podcast a reliable source for optimizing your SEO?
The 'Search Off the Record' podcast aims to give insights into the inner workings of Google Search and communications around search. The goal is not to serve as an additional source of documentation, ...
John Mueller Dec 07, 2020
★★★ Can Google Still Rank Your Page for Old Keywords That Were Removed from the Content?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google can continue to rank a page for an "old query", even if the terms that constitute it have disappeared from the page at some point: "If we know that text w...
John Mueller Dec 07, 2020
★★★ Does social traffic really have zero impact on Google rankings?
Google does not track or use traffic from platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Pinterest for search ranking. If a user reaches a page through social media and finds the information useful, it has no e...
John Mueller Dec 04, 2020
★★ Can Plagiarism of Your Content Actually Hurt Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller also reminded on Twitter that the fact that other sites copy your content will not cause your content to rank lower in the search engine's results....
John Mueller Nov 30, 2020
★★★ Can You Force Googlebot to Crawl Your Site Using HTTP/2?
John Mueller reminded on Twitter that it was not possible to force Googlebot to crawl a site using HTTP/2, following his announcement on this subject last September. Google chooses the protocol used b...
John Mueller Nov 30, 2020
★★★ What happens when a page contains two conflicting canonical tags?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that if a page contains two "canonical" tags, each pointing to a different URL, this information will be considered "undefined" by Google and neither of the two tags ...
John Mueller Nov 09, 2020
★★★ Why Can Google Deindex 18,000 Pages in Just a Few Days Without It Being Abnormal?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter, in response to a webmaster who was surprised that, on a site he was managing, 18,000 URLs had been deindexed in a few days by Google, that this kind of thing could h...
John Mueller Nov 09, 2020
★★★ Can Uppercase Letters in HTML Code Really Hurt Your Site's SEO?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that whether tags in HTML code are written in lowercase or uppercase does not cause any problems for search engine analysis....
John Mueller Nov 02, 2020
Should You Really Limit the Number of Outbound Links on a Web Page?
For years, Google has indicated that there is no limit to the number of outbound links (internal or external) on a web page that are read by the search engine's robots. However, Gary Illyes indicated ...
John Mueller Oct 27, 2020
★★★ Does Publishing First Really Guarantee Google Will Recognize You as the Original Author?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the fact that Google indexes content first does not make that content original and "canonical". In other words, just because a spammer plagiarizes your content b...
John Mueller Oct 27, 2020
★★★ Why Does Google Sometimes Display the Wrong Date for Your Pages in Search Results?
Gary Illyes explained on Twitter that if the date displayed by Google in its search results was incorrect, the fault lay in the majority of cases with the website itself, which provided erroneous info...
Gary Illyes Oct 19, 2020
★★★ Why Can Google Penalty Reconsideration Reviews Take Anywhere from 1 Week to Several Months?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the timeframe for processing a reconsideration request for a site that has received a manual action could vary from one week to several months, without any real ...
John Mueller Oct 19, 2020
★★★ Should You Copy the Architecture and Menu of Major Sites Like Amazon to Succeed in SEO?
A user explained on Twitter to John Mueller that he was considering implementing the same 3-level menu on his site as Amazon's and asked if it was a good idea. The Googler's response: "Unless you are ...
John Mueller Oct 12, 2020
★★★ Why Do Google's SEO Spokespeople Systematically Decline Private Help Requests?
Martin Splitt explained during a podcast that SEO spokespeople like himself, Gary Illyes or John Mueller, never respond to private requests for help on a particular site in terms of SEO, as this is pr...
John Mueller Sep 28, 2020
★★★ Should you stop tweeting at Google and start using the 'Submit Feedback' button in Search Console?
Google strongly encourages the use of the 'Submit Feedback' button in Search Console instead of Twitter. Feedback through this channel provides quantitative data that is genuinely taken into account t...
Martin Splitt Sep 23, 2020
★★★ Should You Focus Exclusively on Core Web Vitals to Optimize Web Performance for SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that "webperf" (Web performance, page load times, etc.) was often a complex topic, but that for SEO, Google stuck to Core Web Vitals and that the 3 criteria of these ...
John Mueller Sep 21, 2020
★★★ Should You Still Be Using the Speakable Tag for SEO in 2024?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that the Speakable tag was still valid and not obsolete, contrary to what an email received by a publisher from a Googler working on Google News might have suggested....
John Mueller Sep 14, 2020
★★ Is it true that Google now allows natural keyword repetition in product listings?
When products in a category naturally share the same brand prefix (e.g., 'Intel' for all Intel processors), this repetition is not regarded as keyword stuffing. Google understands that this is the nor...
John Mueller Sep 14, 2020
★★★ Should You Really Implement Hreflang for International SEO?
Fabrice Canal (Bing) explained on Twitter that Microsoft's search engine pays relatively little attention to the content of the Hreflang tag, which is less important in any case than language detectio...
Google Sep 14, 2020
★★★ Does Google Really Flag Domains as "Toxic" in Its Algorithm?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google doesn't have a "flag" indicating that a domain name is toxic: "We don't have a concept of a toxic domain. It's good to use tools to work on your site, but...
John Mueller Sep 09, 2020
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