Gary Illyes

★★★ How do Google's experiments shape your SEO strategy?

Google performs a very large number of experiments each year on its search engine. Virtually every feature launch, whether it concerns ranking or user interface, requires prior experimentation. These ...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How do Google's secret tests impact your SEO strategy?

Users are never notified when they are part of a search experiment. Google wants to observe their natural behavior without them altering their habits knowing they are part of a test. Any user can be p...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should we rethink our SEO testing approach with Google's latest methods?

Google employs two testing methods: live experiments on real user segments for adjustable interface and ranking changes, and evaluations by human raters for modifications that require a complete rebui...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does the duration of Google's SEO tests vary so much?

Search experiments can last from a week to several months depending on the amount of data needed to make an informed decision. Google doesn't rely on assumptions but waits to gather enough data before...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google evaluate user behavior during its experiments?

During experiments, Google analyzes several behavioral metrics: whether users avoid certain results, how much time they spend on the results page, if they click and then go back, and the overall durat...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do some SEO experiments fail despite solid ideas?

Many ideas that seem excellent in theory are ultimately abandoned after experimentation because they reduce user engagement. For instance, some labels meant to identify secure sites were tested but ha...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How crucial is loading speed for SEO success?

Google discovered the importance of speed by deliberately introducing a delay of a few hundred milliseconds in search results for a segment of users during an experiment. This significantly decreased ...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How was RankBrain tested before its official launch?

The RankBrain algorithm, like almost all search features launched by Google, was tested through experiments or evaluations by human raters before its public deployment. Positive test results led Googl...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google really adjust its ranking algorithms for internal testing?

Google has the technical capability to disable certain ranking components from the search results page on its internal network. This feature allows raters to compare two versions of the results: one w...

Aug 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Delete Your 301 Redirects After One Year?

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that if you have set up a redirect from URL A to URL B for at least one year, after this timeframe, Google's processing of the redirect will become permanent, even if ...

Aug 02, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why has the Featured Snippet shifted from 'Position 0' to 'Position 1'?

Contrary to the popular belief that the featured snippet would be in 'position 0', Gary asserts it should actually be viewed as ranking in position 1. The use of the term 'position 0' was primarily to...

Jul 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google adapt to user preferences for universal results?

Google learns to display images, videos, or other types of results based on user behavior. If enough users click on the Images tab for a given query, it teaches Google that this query deserves images....

Jul 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is ranking now just a matter of bidding?

The results page operates like an auction house where different types of results (featured snippets, web results, images, videos) bid for specific positions based on their scores. Certain elements, su...

Jul 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google's 'Universal Mixer' influence your SEO strategy?

Google uses a system called 'Universal Mixer' that receives results from all the different indexes (web, images, videos, news) and combines them together. Each index assigns a score to its results tha...

Jul 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google share its systems between ads and SEO crawling?

Googlebot is not only used for web crawling but also to retrieve landing pages for ads with a different user agent. The retrieval systems are modular and shared among different teams and features....

Jul 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Rethink How You Track Clicks with Search Console?

Search Console logs impressions at a certain position without necessarily specifying the type of result (featured snippet, regular result). When a user clicks, it records the click for that page, that...

Jul 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google truly rank images based on their destination pages?

For image results, Google ranks destination pages differently as the emphasis is placed on the image itself, not necessarily on the destination page. The ranking systems are modular, allowing for the ...

Jul 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google narrow down results to just 10,000 before reordering them?

Ranking works by first retrieving relevant results from the index, then limiting the set to about 1,000-10,000 results by applying basic signals (PageRank, topical relevance). After that, advanced alg...

Jul 06, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How do floating numbers change the SEO results ranking?

Each result receives a numerical score (floating point, not integer) based on the signals collected. Results are ranked in descending order of this score. Algorithms like RankBrain multiply these scor...

Jul 06, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does HTTPS really impact your SEO?

The HTTPS ranking boost is still applied but designed to have minimal impact. It primarily serves as an equality breaker when two pages have very similar scores, thus favoring the HTTPS version....

Jul 06, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available