Gary Illyes

★★ Does Wikipedia Really Get Special Treatment in Google Rankings?

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that Wikipedia does not benefit from any "preferential treatment" and that it is ranked by Google's algorithms like any other website......

Dec 26, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the Google Sandbox Really Exist or Is It Just an SEO Myth?

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that the notion of "Sandbox" (a penalty affecting a recent site, particularly for gaining links too quickly at its inception) does not exist. It would therefore appear...

Dec 19, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Are EMDs Still a Risk for Your SEO in 2024?

Gary Illyes indicated last week that he was on the hunt for "spammy" Exact Match Domain (EMD) names. He also explained that EMDs themselves are not problematic, but rather their combination with other...

Dec 05, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Can You Prepare for Google's Mobile First Index Rollout?

Regarding the "Mobile First" index, about which very little is currently known, Gary Illyes confirmed that more information for webmasters will be made available in due course (certainly when the proj...

Nov 28, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Can You Really Mix Multiple Structured Data Formats on the Same Page?

A user asked on Twitter whether it was possible to use multiple structured data formats such as Microdata, RDFa, or JSON-LD on the same web page. Gary Illyes replied that it posed no problems, but ano...

Nov 21, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Should You Still Worry About Hidden Content in Accordions and Tabs for SEO?

Until now, Google had indicated that hidden but "potentially visible" content, for example in tabs or accordions, was taken into account and analyzed, but with a lower weight in the algorithm. Gary Il...

Nov 14, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Mobile First Indexing and Mobile-Friendliness Really Two Different Things?

Gary Illyes clarified that the Mobile First indexing project is separate from the mobile-friendliness criteria Google uses to determine whether a site is compatible or not. The two subjects have nothi...

Nov 14, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Backlinks Still Essential to Rank on Google in 2024?

Gary Illyes indicated that if Google didn't take backlinks into account (particularly for calculating a page's PageRank) in its algorithm, the search results returned would be of much lower quality. T...

Nov 14, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Really Worry About RankBrain and Machine Learning for Your SEO?

Gary Illyes indicated at the Pubcon conference that we shouldn't overdo it with RankBrain and machine learning algorithms. These systems haven't "taken over" the search engine's overall algorithm and ...

Oct 24, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Switching to HTTPS Really Boost SEO Even with a Basic Certificate?

Again, Gary Illyes told Search Engine Land that the "boost" (if it exists...) given in search engine rankings to HTTPS pages is granted regardless of the quality or validity of the certificate used by...

Oct 24, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Penguin Really Just Ignore Bad Links While Panda Actually Penalizes Weak Content?

Gary Illyes indicated on Twitter that, while Penguin's purpose is to ignore low-quality links (without giving a negative score to the page receiving them), Panda works differently: it can demote a pag...

Oct 17, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Penguin Really Analyze Site Quality Rather Than Link Anchors?

Gary Illyes also indicated that Penguin primarily considers "the quality of sites linking to a page." This could contradict the prevailing opinion in the SEO world, which has long held that the Pengui...

Oct 17, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Does Google Label Your Backlinks Internally to Detect Spam?

Gary Illyes indicated that the SQT (Search Quality Team), which is responsible for implementing (or not) manual actions, has access to an internal system in which links pointing to a site are labeled:...

Oct 17, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How Did Google Prepare to Counter Manipulation Attempts of Penguin 4.0?

And finally, Gary Illyes indicated that Google's engineering teams had prepared themselves to counter spam attempts trying to manipulate the recently launched Penguin 4.0 filter. History will tell whe...

Oct 17, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available