Gary Illyes

★★★ Does Google's crawling really consume the most server resources?

Contrary to popular belief, it's not crawling that consumes the most resources at Google, but indexation and processing of the data retrieved that are truly resource-intensive....

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Google Really Crawling Less of the Web, and Should You Worry About It?

Last year, Google actively worked to reduce its footprint on the internet by optimizing its crawling requests to save resources....

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Googlebot really support HTTP/3 for crawling your website?

Googlebot currently supports HTTP/2 for more efficient crawling using streamed connections. HTTP/3 is not yet supported but could be in the future....

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google's Live Test Tool Actually Crawl Your Site in Real Time?

The Live Test tool in Search Console uses a high-priority real crawler, while property verification of the site is user-triggered and works almost instantly without any crawl delay....

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really ignore robots.txt when users take action?

When an action is initiated directly by a user (such as manually submitting a URL for inspection), it may be appropriate to ignore robots.txt because it's not truly a robot but a specific user action....

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why has Google multiplied its crawlers since the arrival of Mediapartners-Google?

In 2006, Google AdSense introduced its own distinct user agent separate from Googlebot. From this period onwards, Google began to have increasingly more separate crawlers with their own identifiers....

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really slow down its crawl to protect your servers?

Google has a system that monitors server health and automatically slows down the crawl if the server becomes overloaded. The goal is to adjust the crawl rate so as not to harm sites....

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do all Google crawlers rely on the same unified crawl infrastructure?

Google uses a unified crawl infrastructure for all its products. All Google crawlers share the same codebase and apply identical policies regarding robots.txt, server load management, and bandwidth us...

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Has Google really been respecting robots.txt since day one?

Since Google's very beginning, robots.txt has been supported. Regardless of the crawling technology used, Google has always allowed site owners to opt-out of crawling via the robots exclusion protocol...

May 29, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google really care so much about HTTP status codes for your search rankings?

HTTP status codes tell an important story about what happens during a request. They are crucial for website owners and SEO professionals because they allow you to understand how Google interacts with ...

May 15, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Your Crawl Budget Being Compromised by HTTP 429 Status Codes?

HTTP status code 429 (Too Many Requests) is treated by Google as a client-side error (4xx), indicating that the client is requesting a resource too frequently. It is not a server error even though it ...

May 15, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you still worry about choosing between 301 and 302 redirects?

For Google Search, all 3xx redirect codes (301, 302, 307, 308) are treated similarly during crawling. Google slightly takes into account the temporary/permanent distinction for canonicalization, but o...

May 15, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are your TCP/UDP network errors really blocking Google's crawl?

Connection issues reported in Search Console (network blocking messages or connection problems) can originate from low-level TCP, UDP, QUIC, or DNS layers. These network errors directly impact Google'...

May 15, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are HTTP 1xx status codes harming your site's crawlability by Googlebot?

Google does not support HTTP 1xx status codes (such as 100 Continue or 101 Switching Protocols). The crawler simply passes through them without noticing and waits for the next non-1xx status code to e...

May 15, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Search Central Live finally coming to Africa—and what does this mean for local SEO professionals worldwide?

In 2025, Google is expanding Search Central Live to new territories: Budapest, Warsaw, the Baltic States, Zurich, and for the first time in Africa (South Africa). Events are also being maintained in A...

May 01, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you trust local SEO experts over Google's official statements?

Google recognizes the crucial importance of local communities in each country. Lightning talks make it possible to identify and highlight local experts on specific topics, who become more accessible r...

May 01, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Will Google's Deep Dive SEO sessions finally replace superficial conference presentations?

Deep Dive events will enable in-depth contextualization of SEO topics, unlike the short 25-minute formats. Google will be able to concretely show how to apply concepts via Search Console, server logs,...

May 01, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are robots.txt and XML sitemaps now officially linked together?

In the IETF's robots.txt standard, XML sitemaps are mentioned as an informative reference, establishing a formal link between these two crawling mechanisms....

Apr 17, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why did Google open-source its robots.txt parser, and what does it mean for your SEO strategy?

Following the standardization of robots.txt, Google made its robots.txt parser public as open source, enabling developers to use it as a foundation for creating better robots.txt files....

Apr 17, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is robots.txt still essential for modern websites, or just a relic of the past?

Robots.txt is considered extremely important for Google and virtually all search engines. Standardization helps reduce the burden on site owners by uniformizing the way these files are written for all...

Apr 17, 2025 ⚡ Analysis available