Gary Illyes

★★ Does deleting old content really boost your new pages' indexation speed?

It is not necessary to delete old content (even irrelevant content) to improve the indexation of new content. Google does not have an indexation quota per site. Old and new content can coexist without...

Jun 22, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really be using Google Search Console's 'Request indexing' button?

For a normally well-built website, it is generally not necessary to use the 'Request indexing' feature in Search Console. This feature is mainly useful for testing whether a page can be indexed, detec...

Jun 22, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the site: operator truly reliable for measuring your website's indexation?

The 'site:' command in Google Search does not display all indexed pages on a site, only a selection. It is not technically feasible to list all pages using this operator. To obtain the total number of...

Jun 22, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ What can you really do with the site: operator beyond just checking indexation?

The 'site:' operator is useful for searching unwanted keywords on your site (spam, injected content), finding localized versions of pages, or checking which images are indexed. Google Alerts can also ...

Jun 22, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Implement HTTP 103 Early Hints to Improve Your SEO?

On LinkedIn, Gary Illyes clarified how Google handles 103 Early Hints responses in HTTP headers: "HTTP 103 should be handled gracefully by Googlebot. If the server response is formatted as described i...

Jun 20, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Really Consolidate Pages Ranking for the Same Queries?

During the June 2023 SEO Office Hours, Gary Illyes recommended consolidating text results from the same domain that appear one above the other. Referred to as "host clusters" by Google, these results ...

Jun 13, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Your Video Really Need to Be at the Top of the Page to Rank as Primary Content?

Another point addressed during Google's SEO Office Hours concerns the position of videos within content. The recent change to video thumbnail display seems to have generated some confusion among certa...

Jun 13, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Multiple Navigation Menus Actually Hurt Your Site's SEO?

Finally, Gary Illyes indicated that having multiple navigation menus (for example a main menu and a secondary menu) had no impact on a site's performance: "It's highly unlikely that having multiple na...

Jun 13, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really penalize multiple domains targeting the same market, or is this just another SEO myth?

Using two domains with different TLDs to target the same country with identical keywords may be considered search result manipulation according to Google's anti-spam policies. This can also create con...

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it really worth your time submitting an XML sitemap to Google?

Submitting a sitemap tells Google where your content is located, but it absolutely does not guarantee that URLs will be crawled or indexed. Crawling and indexing depend on content quality and relative...

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really reprocess your sitemap on every crawl?

Google doesn't reprocess a sitemap that hasn't changed since the last crawl, as a resource optimization strategy. As soon as a change appears (URL or lastmod), the sitemap is analyzed again. Deleting ...

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really ignore structured data that contains parsing errors?

If structured data contains parsing errors, Google cannot extract information from it and ignores it completely....

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How can you permanently block Googlebot from crawling your website?

To block Googlebot permanently, add a disallow / rule for the Googlebot user-agent in robots.txt. To block complete network access, create a firewall rule denying Googlebot IP ranges, available in the...

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do multiple navigation menus really hurt your SEO?

Having multiple navigation menus (main menu and secondary menu) has virtually no effect on a website's SEO performance....

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are host groups really a sign of cannibalization you need to fix?

When two results from the same domain appear with the second slightly indented, these are host groups. This indicates that you have multiple pages that can rank well for a query. You might consider co...

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Can you really disavow toxic backlinks by targeting their IP address in Google's tool?

There is no way to disavow links using IP addresses rather than domain names in Google's disavow tool....

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How do you get a video thumbnail in Google search results: what does Google really mean by 'main content'?

For a video to get a thumbnail in search results, it must be the main content of the page, meaning it's immediately visible to the user without them having to actively search for it. Take inspiration ...

Jun 07, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really treat 429, 503, and 500 status codes the same way?

HTTP status codes 429 (too many requests) and 503 (service unavailable) are treated similarly by Google, and probably also with code 500. Search Console groups them in the same way as well....

May 30, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Invalid Schema.org Markup Penalize Your Organic Rankings?

In the SEO Office Hours video, Gary Illyes stated that invalid Schema markup does not harm your site or your rankings. In the worst case scenario, if Google cannot parse your markup, it simply won't u...

May 23, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really abandon directories and social bookmarking for your SEO strategy once and for all?

Submissions to directories and social bookmarking sites are a waste of time and provide no SEO benefit whatsoever. Google recommends that you stop investing effort in these outdated practices....

May 04, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available