Gary Illyes

★★★ Have Domain Names Really Lost Their Ranking Power in Google's Eyes?

Since the Exact Match Domains era, Google has withdrawn trust from domain names, causing them to rank less well for words that appear in the domain. This measure was designed to counter the exploitati...

Mar 24, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you use rel=canonical instead of noindex to handle similar content?

To manage closely related content such as a blog article and a documentation page on the same subject, it is preferable to use the canonical tag rather than noindex. This allows search engines to unde...

Mar 24, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are 301/302 redirects really damaging your user experience and SEO?

Using a 301, 302, or 308 redirect removes the user's ability to read the original page. This approach is only appropriate if the content is identical, not if you have two different but related pieces ...

Mar 24, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are impressions and clicks really enough to measure your SEO success?

Measuring SEO success solely through impressions and clicks can be misleading. What's more important is to examine whether the traffic converts and whether users are accomplishing the desired action. ...

Mar 24, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does meta description really matter for your Google rankings?

When optimizing a page, meta description doesn't have as much importance as content and title. Its impact on rankings is limited compared to other page elements....

Mar 24, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why is Google finally making Googlebot IP addresses publicly available?

Google recently published its IP addresses to make it easier for publishers to identify Googlebot without requiring multiple reverse DNS lookups....

Mar 10, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really ask every SEO question without fear of looking foolish?

It is important that SEO beginners feel free to ask even the most basic questions. Google encourages an inclusive approach where all questions are legitimate, because everyone has to start somewhere....

Feb 17, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does quality content really outweigh technical SEO excellence?

Aleyda Solis' first website won first prize and earned her first job not because of code quality or site design aesthetics, but because of the quality of content about sea turtles. This illustrates th...

Feb 17, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is keyword stuffing really penalized by Google?

Keyword stuffing is clearly identified as spam and is not useful for users. Google can manually adjust the ranking of a site that practices this technique....

Feb 03, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really consider all hidden text as spam, or is it more nuanced than that?

White text on white background or any text intentionally hidden to manipulate search results is considered spam. The intention to manipulate is the determining criterion, not accidental technical erro...

Feb 03, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is randomly generated content really considered spam by Google's standards?

Pages containing gibberish, meaning random words without meaning, for the purpose of ranking on search queries to make money through affiliate links, constitute obvious spam practice....

Feb 03, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Have backlinks really become obsolete for SEO success?

It is possible to rank without links. Links remain a ranking factor among others, but are no longer considered a truly important element in the modern ranking algorithm....

Feb 03, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is your website still using plugins to display content? Here's why Google says you need to stop immediately

Browser plugins such as Flash should not be used to display content. With the evolution of the web and JavaScript APIs, plugins have become obsolete and are no longer supported....

Feb 03, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are Google's SEO guidelines really reliable over time?

Google's guidelines are not set in stone and constantly evolve to adapt to the evolution of the web and user needs. What is recommended today can change tomorrow....

Feb 03, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does crawl frequency really affect your SEO rankings?

The fact that a page is crawled more often does not improve its ranking in search results. This is a common misconception: increasing the crawl frequency of a page that doesn't change provides no SEO ...

Jan 20, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Will Google crawl your site less often in the name of sustainability?

Google is working to optimize the frequency of its refresh crawls (revisits of already-discovered URLs) to reduce its environmental impact. The goal is to better estimate when to return and crawl a pa...

Jan 20, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Does Google Actually Ignore the lastmod Tag in Your Sitemaps?

Google typically doesn't use the lastmod tag in sitemaps because it's unreliable: webmasters often don't understand what constitutes a real modification or manipulate this date thinking they can force...

Jan 20, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is IndexNow Really Worth Implementing for Google Indexation, or Is It Just Another Overhyped Protocol?

Google is conducting experiments with the IndexNow API to optimize crawling, but probably not in the form expected by the market. Google's system will prevent repetitive abusive submissions of the sam...

Jan 20, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really ping your sitemap every time you publish new content?

Pinging Google's sitemap endpoint with every publication (for example every second for a news site) is pointless. A ping every 10 seconds or even once per minute is more than sufficient....

Jan 20, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Google really experiencing more downtime than before?

The impression of an increase in Google outages stems from the fact that Google now communicates more about incidents, including those affecting only a small portion of the web or a specific geographi...

Jan 20, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available