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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★★★ Do Voice Actions and Skills Actually Impact Your Website's SEO Rankings?
Danny Sullivan indicated on Twitter that integrating "voice actions" (the equivalent of Amazon's "skills") on your site has no impact on that site's ranking in the SERPs. Creating such "voice apps" do...
Danny Sullivan Feb 03, 2020
★★★ Are Reciprocal Links Really Penalized by Google?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that reciprocal links (A links to B which links back to A) are not necessarily bad, but if they are part of a system designed to manipulate the algorithm (link scheme...
John Mueller Jan 27, 2020
★★ Does Reporting a Spam Site to Google Actually Get It Penalized?
Danny Sullivan also explained on Twitter that when spam reports are well-crafted, they often enable Google's anti-spam teams to conduct in-depth research and investigations, sometimes leading to broad...
Danny Sullivan Jan 20, 2020
★★★ Does Google Really Treat HTTP Links Differently Than HTTPS Links?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that HTTP links were treated by Google in exactly the same way as HTTPS links....
John Mueller Jan 20, 2020
★★ Are Structured Data Tags Really a Google Ranking Factor?
Danny Sullivan explained on Twitter that using structured data markup in HTML code is not a relevance criterion for Google, as has been explained many times before....
Danny Sullivan Jan 20, 2020
★★★ Are Cookie Banners Really Safe for Your SEO?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that banners (completely useless in themselves, let's remember, but mandatory) indicating that the site you are visiting uses cookies do not pose problems for SEO, ...
John Mueller Jan 20, 2020
★★★ Do 5xx Errors Really Slow Down Google's Crawling of Your Site?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that if Googlebot encounters a persistent number of 5xx errors (server errors) on a website, the crawl will be slowed down. However, he does not specify at what level...
John Mueller Jan 06, 2020
★★★ Are Cookie Interstitials Blocking Your Website's SEO Performance?
The same John Mueller indicated, also on Twitter, that the fact that a website displays interstitials showing legal texts (example: cookie acceptance) is not a problem as long as Google can read the c...
John Mueller Dec 09, 2019
★★★ Should You Still Disavow Bad Backlinks in 2024?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that Google now ignores links from "spammy" sites: "We already ignore links from this type of site, where natural links are unlikely. No need to disavow."...
John Mueller Dec 09, 2019
★★★ Does No Manual Action Really Mean Google Considers Your Site High-Quality?
The same John Mueller indicated, again on Twitter, that the fact that a website is not subject to a manual action does not mean that it is considered by Google to be of good quality, because not all s...
John Mueller Dec 09, 2019
★★★ Can a Backlink Still Pass SEO Value if the Source Page Isn't Indexed?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that a backlink is only taken into account if the link is present in a page indexed by the search engine. If a link exists but the page containing it disappears or ...
John Mueller Nov 25, 2019
★★★ Does Google Really Penalize Websites Using Outdated HTML Code?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that Google does not penalize sites that use "old version" HTML, the use of tables, the absence of CSS, the fact that the HTML code does not pass the W3C Validator,...
John Mueller Nov 25, 2019
★★★ Should You Really Set a Target Country in Search Console for International SEO?
John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that indicating a target country for a site in Search Console does not prevent it from appearing in the Google version for other countries. For example, if you indi...
John Mueller Nov 18, 2019
★★★ Should You Block Parameterized URLs in Robots.txt or Rely on Canonical Tags Instead?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that you should not use the robots.txt file to deindex parameterized URLs in favor of those same URLs without parameters, because the search engine cannot canonicaliz...
John Mueller Nov 12, 2019
★★★ Does BERT Really Require No Technical SEO Optimization Whatsoever?
Danny Sullivan reiterated on Twitter, as he typically does after almost every "core update," that there were no real modifications (particularly technical ones) to anticipate on your site following BE...
Danny Sullivan Nov 04, 2019
★★★ Should You Use Google's Change of Address Tool When Merging Multiple Websites?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the change of address tool in Search Console should only be used when changing the address of a website. However, when merging two or more websites, this tool is...
John Mueller Nov 04, 2019
★★ Does Having Expert Authors Sign Your Content Really Improve Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller and Danny Sullivan explained on Twitter that, within the framework of the EAT criterion (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), it was useless to buy an expert's name solely to v...
John Mueller Oct 14, 2019
★★★ Is it absolutely necessary to display your postal address on your site for SEO?
John Mueller caused a slight wave of panic by asking on Twitter why some SEOs didn't display their postal address on their website. Some believed that the search engine would penalize this practice. T...
John Mueller Oct 07, 2019
★★ Should we still use nofollow on internal links for crawl budget management?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that the new approach to Nofollow attributes will also work for internal links on a website, although he indicated that these changes were primarily designed for exte...
John Mueller Oct 07, 2019
★★★ Should You Include a Date in Your Web Page URLs for Better SEO?
Google's webmaster Twitter account explained that including a date in web page URLs does not pose any problems....
Google Sep 30, 2019
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