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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Can We Still Trust Google's Statements About the Panda Filter?
Gary Illyes explained on Twitter that Google had changed its approach to the Panda filter and that what was true 5 years ago wasn't necessarily true today. It's worth noting that a year ago, John Muel...
John Mueller Sep 04, 2017
★★★ Should You Really Remove All Hash (#) Links to Boost Your SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google completely ignores links like <a href="#"> (often used, for example, to open pop-up windows) since they lead "nowhere" according to John......
John Mueller Sep 04, 2017
★★ Can You Really Contact Google for Personalized SEO Support on Your Website?
A few days after Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that he doesn't provide SEO support for specific sites privately, John Mueller said the opposite by approving a user asking if they could send him a p...
John Mueller Aug 28, 2017
★★★ Does Googlebot Always Start Crawling from a Website's Homepage?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Googlebot generally crawls a site's homepage first, simply because it's the first page it finds. But that it's not mandatory....
John Mueller Aug 28, 2017
★★★ What Does Google Do When Your Site Sends Conflicting Canonical Signals?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that when contradictory and/or conflicting signals are sent to Google regarding "canonical" tags (for example: an HTTPS URL containing a "canonical" tag pointing to t...
John Mueller Aug 28, 2017
★★★ How Does Google Actually Handle Invalid or Non-Standard HTML Attributes in Your Page Code?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that when Google "parses" (analyzes) the HTML code of a page, erroneous attributes (badly coded, non-existent, non-standard...) of a tag are generally ignored....
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★★ Does URL Architecture Really Impact Your Google Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the URL structure (the fact that the hierarchy is shown in a page's address, as opposed to a site where all URLs would be at the root level, for example), has on...
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★ What are the only two fields in an XML sitemap that Google actually cares about?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that in XML files, the two most important fields are the URL (<loc>) and the last modification date (<lastmod>)....
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★★ Does Google Really Consider Server Load Balancing as Cloaking?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that redirecting a user to a faster server based on the load observed at a given time was not considered cloaking....
John Mueller Aug 21, 2017
★★ Should You Really Deindex Your Internal Search Results Pages?
John Mueller explained on Twitter why Google requires internal search results pages from a website to be deindexed: they create infinite crawl spaces, are often low-quality pages, and frequently prese...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
Does disavowing poor-quality backlinks really carry a negative impact?
Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that a disavowed site, therefore designated as providing low-quality links, was not negatively impacted subsequently by Google's algorithm. The links it provides are s...
Gary Illyes Aug 14, 2017
★★ Does Googlebot Send a Referrer When Crawling Your Pages?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Googlebot, when crawling a page, does not return a referrer URL, as a user would when browsing on a browser. A Googlebot visit is therefore similar to direct tra...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★★ Should You Use WWW or Non-WWW for Better SEO Performance?
A user asked on Twitter whether it was preferable in SEO to use a WWW address (www.yoursite.com) or not (yoursite.com) for a website. Another user replied that it had no impact on SEO. John Mueller ag...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★★ Does the Last-Modified Meta Tag Actually Help Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google ignores the "Last Modified" meta tag (<meta http-equiv="last-modified" content="YYYY-MM-DD">) indicating a page's last modification date. Therefore, it ha...
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★★ Does CSS File Size Really Impact Your SEO Rankings?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the size of a stylesheet (CSS) file does not impact the search engine's algorithm. It can be several tens of MB....
John Mueller Aug 14, 2017
★★★ Does the Order of URLs in an XML Sitemap File Actually Matter to Google?
John Mueller explained on Twitter that you can structure your XML Sitemap file absolutely however you want in terms of field order, and this won't cause any problems for Google. The file is read autom...
John Mueller Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Is Google's SEO Guide from 2010 Still Relevant Today?
Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that the SEO starter guide published and offered (in PDF format) by Google was still current and relevant, even though it hasn't been updated since 2010 (as clearly sh...
Gary Illyes Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Does Capitalization in Hreflang Tags Really Affect International SEO?
John Mueller indicated on Twitter that it was possible to specify language and country codes in Hreflang tags in lowercase or uppercase, regardless of case: fr-FR, fr-fr or FR-fr, everything will work...
John Mueller Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Do Commas in Title Tags Actually Hurt Your SEO Rankings?
A user asked John Mueller on Twitter whether using commas as separators in Title tags posed a problem. Unsurprisingly, John replied that he could do as he pleased in this regard....
John Mueller Aug 07, 2017
★★★ Do Sticky Footers Actually Harm Your Site's SEO Performance?
Gary Illyes responded on Twitter to a webmaster asking about "sticky footers" - the page footer that remains displayed on screen even when users scroll up or down through the content. In short, the fo...
Gary Illyes Jul 31, 2017
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