Gary Illyes

★★ Does Google struggle to index certain oral languages?

Google faces challenges with some languages that are not really intended to be written, even if they are today for preservation purposes. Indexing and ranking these special languages is very difficult...

Jan 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google really decide which pages to index?

Google uses the signals collected during earlier phases of indexing to decide whether or not a document should be indexed. This selection is a very sophisticated process that considers multiple factor...

Jan 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google determine the storage type for your pages in its index?

When building the index, Google uses signals like PageRank to estimate how frequently documents will be served (every second, once a week, or once a year) and uses different types of storage according...

Jan 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why is Google moving its podcast hosting to HTTPS?

In response to community feedback, Google has migrated its podcast hosting to HTTPS. This initiative reflects the importance that Google places on HTTPS security, a subject that the team has historica...

Dec 22, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Should you add text transcriptions to your audio content for SEO benefits?

Following community feedback, the Google Search Relations team has added text transcriptions for all their podcast episodes, making the content more accessible....

Dec 22, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why did Google migrate its own podcast to HTTPS after public criticism?

After community comments on Twitter regarding the podcast being hosted in HTTP, Google migrated the hosting to HTTPS, in line with the security recommendations the company promotes....

Dec 22, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really utilize ALL of your structured data, including the invalid ones?

Google extracts all forms of structured data present on a page, not just those validated by the Rich Results Test. This data is used, among other things, to infer information about the entities presen...

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does PageRank really function the way we think it does?

Google still uses the original PageRank algorithm since 1996-97, but it has been significantly enhanced: more robust and less costly to execute. PageRank is now an integer ranging from 0 to about 65,0...

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really give up buying quality links for your SEO?

You should not buy links, whether from link farms or even high-quality sources. A few high-quality links increase PageRank more effectively than many low-quality links....

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Safe Search really apply during indexing?

Safe Search is a signal calculated during the indexing phase to determine if a page contains adult content. This helps prevent surprising users with inappropriate results for innocent searches....

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google determine the location and language of your pages during indexing?

Google determines during indexing which country or metropolitan area the pages are local to, as well as their language. These signals are used as ranking factors to give a slight boost to locally rele...

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are all indexing signals really ranking signals?

Among the many signals extracted during indexing, some become ranking signals (SafeSearch, country, language) while others do not (like most of the hashes used for canonicalization)....

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that you need 3000 words to rank well on Google?

There is no minimum word count required to rank well on Google. The claim that 3000 words are necessary to be ranked is completely false. Content length is not a ranking factor in itself....

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google really detect duplicate content using checksums?

Google detects duplicate content by reducing the textual content to a digital fingerprint (checksum). This method allows for effective page comparison without having to analyze the entire text each ti...

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really ignore your navigation and footers when detecting duplicates?

Google uses algorithms to detect and remove repetitive content from pages (navigation, footer) when calculating the digital fingerprint. Only the central content of the page (centerpiece) is used to i...

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google categorize your pages into duplicate clusters before selecting the canonical one?

When Google calculates and compares the digital fingerprints of pages, those that are similar or partially similar are grouped together in a duplicate cluster before selecting a canonical URL....

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google choose the canonical URL among more than 20 signals?

Google uses over 20 different signals to determine which page should be selected as the canonical URL in a cluster of duplicates. These signals include content, PageRank, HTTPS, sitemaps, and redirect...

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is PageRank still influencing the selection of canonical URLs?

PageRank is still used by Google as one of the signals to determine which page should become canonical among a group of duplicate pages, even after all these years....

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can the canonical tag really be ignored by Google?

The link rel canonical tag is a strong signal to indicate to Google which URL should be canonical, as it represents an explicit specification from the author. However, it is part of a set of weighted ...

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do redirects really outweigh the HTTPS signal when it comes to choosing the canonical URL?

A redirect (301 or any other type) carries significantly more weight in the canonicalization process than whether a page is on HTTPS or HTTP, as the user will ultimately see the destination of the red...

Dec 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available