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 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
★★ 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 Really Stop Buying Links in 2024 to Avoid Google Penalties?
John Mueller reminded on Twitter that selling and buying links was against Google's recommendations (and therefore subject to penalties), whether the buying and selling sites are small or large....
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 Really Translate Image ALT Attributes to Optimize Your Multilingual SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it was important, in terms of SEO, to also translate the ALT attributes (no, we don't say "ALT tags" 🙂) of a site's images, since this text is read by the search...
John Mueller Jan 29, 2018
★★★ Should You Really Submit All Your URLs to Google Every Month to Prevent It from Forgetting Them?
John Mueller gently mocked a Twitter user who explained that all URLs of a website should be submitted to Google every month "so that the search engine doesn't forget them". The Googler explained that...
John Mueller Jan 29, 2018
★★★ Can Spectre and Meltdown Security Patches Actually Hurt Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that the Spectre and Meltdown patches, which slow down certain cloud service provider servers, should not have a significant impact on a site's page load time and the...
John Mueller Jan 22, 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 Delete Low-Quality Pages to Force Google to Index Everything?
John Mueller confirmed on Twitter that Google never indexes ALL pages of a website. And, as usual, following the search engine's well-oiled communication strategy, he added that the focus should prima...
John Mueller Jan 15, 2018
★★★ Does URL Folder Structure Really Impact Google Rankings?
Google indicated on Twitter that including folder names in a URL (example: www.yoursite.com/folder1/folder2/folder3/page.php) has no influence on rankings....
Google Jan 08, 2018
★★★ Does Your Mobile Site Need the Same Structure as Desktop for SEO?
John Mueller clarified on Twitter that a site's architecture in its mobile version doesn't necessarily have to be the same as the desktop site, but this architecture must be crawlable by robots....
John Mueller Jan 08, 2018
Should You Use Google Tag Manager for SEO Testing?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that he does not recommend using the Google Tag Manager tool to perform SEO tests on a number of tags, as a recently published article suggested. But he didn't explai...
John Mueller Jan 08, 2018
★★★ Does Google Consider Hiding Structured Data from Users as Cloaking?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that showing structured data tags to Googlebot only and not to the average user was considered by Google as cloaking and that this type of technique was therefore rep...
John Mueller Dec 27, 2017
★★★ How Should You Implement Hreflang Tags in a Mobile First Context?
John Mueller, on Twitter, explained that hreflang tags should follow a "mobile-to-mobile & desktop-to-desktop" pattern within the Mobile First project framework and in the case of a dedicated mobile s...
John Mueller Dec 04, 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
★★ Should You Really Optimize TTFB to Improve Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google does not take TTFB (Time To First Byte or server response time) into account in its algorithm or in any other way to measure the relevance of a result....
John Mueller Dec 04, 2017
★★★ Do You Really Need Perfect Keyword-Optimized URLs to Rank Well on Google?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that a URL doesn't need to perfectly "match" the page content in its wording. For example, a page offering tomato soup recipes can have the URL tomates-leg-soup1.html...
John Mueller Nov 27, 2017
★★★ Can You Really Rank on Google Without Any Link Building?
A user asked John Mueller the following question on Twitter: can a website rank on Google without implementing a "link building" strategy? John's answer was, of course: "yes" 🙂...
John Mueller Nov 27, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Disavow Nofollow Links Pointing to Your Site?
A user asked John Mueller on Twitter the following question: should you disavow a URL that links to your site with nofollow? John Mueller responded that nofollow links transmit no signals, so disavowi...
John Mueller Nov 21, 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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