Gary Illyes

★★ Why does Google still prioritize the open web over native mobile apps?

Sharing a web link represents a lower barrier to entry for users compared to downloading an application, because it requires no strong commitment and no compatibility with a specific operating system....

Feb 12, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does owning a website give you far more control over monetization than relying on social media platforms?

A website gives you complete control over monetization strategies (affiliate links, display ads, etc.), unlike social platforms that impose restrictions and often take a commission....

Feb 12, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are social media profiles really websites from an SEO perspective?

Profiles and shops on social networks are indeed websites accessible via browser. The distinction between website and social network has faded, making the categorization less relevant....

Feb 12, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you replace GET parameters with PUT requests to protect your crawl budget?

It is very rare that Googlebot uses HTTP PUT requests. Using PUT requests instead of GET parameters for actions like adding to cart would help prevent these URLs from being crawled....

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do you really have to wait 24 hours for robots.txt changes to take effect with Google?

robots.txt files are cached by Google for a duration that can extend up to approximately 24 hours. Modifications made to robots.txt are therefore not immediate but remain the most sensible method for ...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Googlebot need to crawl massive amounts of a new site before deciding if it's worth its attention?

Googlebot, despite nearly 30 years of experience, can only determine if a new URL space is relevant after crawling a large portion of it. During this phase, intensive crawling can render the site unus...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is double URL encoding silently killing your crawl budget?

Double percent encoding of URLs (encoding an already encoded URL) represents about 2% of issues. Google decodes URLs once, but if they have been encoded twice, the URLs remain incorrect and the site c...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are your WordPress calendar parameters secretly destroying your crawl budget?

Calendar and event date parameters account for 5% of issues. Certain WordPress plugins create infinite calendar URL spaces on every path of your site, which prevents Google from detecting soft 404s an...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really get rid of session IDs in your URLs?

Session IDs in URLs are an obsolete practice from the 2000s. Crawlers don't need to access session IDs because they don't maintain session persistence. These parameters can be blocked via robots.txt....

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are short URL parameters really draining your crawl budget?

Irrelevant parameters (UTM, session IDs) make up 10% of reported issues. Google handles standard parameters well like session_id, j_session_id or utm_medium, but short non-standard parameters (like s=...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Google really acting as a technical consultant for WordPress plugin developers?

Google's Search Relations team identifies WordPress plugins generating crawl problems and submits issues on their open source repositories. WooCommerce quickly resolved a reported problem concerning a...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are action parameters in your URLs sabotaging your crawl budget?

Action parameters (such as add_to_cart=true or add_to_wishlist=true) in URLs represent approximately 25% of crawl problem reports. These parameters can double or triple your crawlable URL space. Googl...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really block faceted navigation in robots.txt?

To control the crawling of faceted navigation, the most reasonable method is to use robots.txt to block these paths. Google's robots.txt file provides examples of parameter combinations to allow or bl...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is faceted navigation really eating up half of your crawl budget?

Faceted navigation (filters and sorting on e-commerce sites) accounts for nearly 50% of crawl problem reports received in 2025. It creates URL combinations that can overwhelm servers because Googlebot...

Feb 03, 2026 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really have all your automatic translations checked for SEO purposes?

For automatic content translations, it is necessary for a person to verify the quality to ensure that the translation is at least comprehensible. A simple method is back-translation to verify that the...

Dec 18, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does traditional marketing really matter for ranking higher on Google?

With high competition, you need to convince users to visit your site through marketing techniques: social networks, creative advertising, etc. When people visit your site naturally, Google is more lik...

Dec 18, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google's search index really have a hard capacity limit?

Google's index has a technical limit and is not infinite. However, it is dynamic: pages enter and exit the index. If you publish higher-quality content than a competitor, that competitor may be remove...

Dec 18, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is your CDN or firewall silently blocking Googlebot without you even knowing it?

CDNs and firewalls can add rules that automatically block Google's traffic, sometimes without your intervention. It's important to regularly check your CDN or firewall to ensure no rules are blocking ...

Dec 18, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does content quality directly impact your Google indexation rate more than you think?

To improve indexation rates, you must publish content that users will find useful and of high quality, created with expertise. If content is not useful or interesting to users, indexation rates decrea...

Dec 18, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is SEO really dead or just undergoing a transformation right before our eyes?

The first mention of 'SEO is dead' dates back to 1998. SEO has never stopped existing; it has simply evolved with search engines and users. Current changes are primarily driven by Generation Z, which ...

Dec 18, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available