Gary Illyes

★★ Do local domains (ccTLD) really offer an SEO advantage for local search rankings?

Local domain names like .kr tend to perform better because Google Search favors local content for the user. A .com can work just as well, but the local ccTLD offers a slight advantage. However, the ma...

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google keep displaying your old site name in search results long after a rebrand?

When Google continues to rank links or names from an old site after a rebrand, it's normal. People may call a product by its old name long after the change. Google Search is a reflection of what peopl...

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★ How can you leverage the Google Search Status Dashboard API to supercharge your SEO tools?

It's now possible to access Google Search Status Dashboard data through an RSS feed and JSON history, both linked from each dashboard page. These data sources can be used to build custom monitoring to...

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google refuse to grant unlimited indexation request quotas in Search Console?

It is not possible to have an unlimited number of indexation requests in Google Search Console, even for managers handling multiple sites....

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ What's the only way to hide text from Google without using HTML tags?

There is no HTML tag or annotation to tell Google to ignore certain text portions. One workaround involves injecting unwanted tags via JavaScript and blocking Google from crawling that JavaScript. If ...

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Google actually transfer your SEO rankings during a domain migration?

Google's team cannot directly help transfer SEO rankings from an old domain to a new one, but site owners can do it themselves. Migration guidelines are available that explain how to proceed....

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the noindex tag really only affect individual pages, or can it impact your entire site?

The noindex rule applies to individual pages or other resources on a site. To add a noindex rule to HTML pages, you must add a meta robots tag with the noindex value in the HTML head element of the pa...

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really use RSS feeds to discover and index new content on your site?

Google can use RSS feeds referenced on a site to discover new URLs or other URLs on other sites, similar to sitemaps. RSS feeds are mentioned in the official documentation on sitemaps....

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the order of H1, H2, H3 tags really affect your Google rankings?

Having headings in semantic order is excellent for screen readers, but from Google Search's perspective, the disorderly use of heading tags doesn't matter. The SEO Starter Guide is regularly updated t...

Jul 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Does Google Crawl Your Pages But Never Index Them?

During his presentation at SERP Conf 2024, Gary Illyes explained the reasons why a page could be crawled but not indexed. This can be due to content duplication, general quality issues, or technical e...

Jul 09, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Should a Sudden Spike in Googlebot Crawling Worry You Rather Than Please You?

In a LinkedIn post, Gary Illyes explained that sudden spikes in Googlebot activity could indicate a problem. The most common first reason is the presence of infinite spaces (calendar pages, infinitely...

Jun 25, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really keep your XML sitemap lastmod dates up to date?

Gary Illyes explained that the "lastmod" signal present in sitemaps is treated in a binary fashion. In other words, Google either fully trusts it or ignores it....

Jun 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Block Action URLs in Your Robots.txt File?

Gary Illyes reminded us of the importance of using the robots.txt file to block action URLs such as "add to cart" or "add to wishlist." This prevents crawlers from wasting server resources by accessin...

Jun 18, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are site: searches polluting your Search Console data?

Search Console data includes results from searches performed with the site: operator....

Jun 13, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really worry about buying an expired domain?

Buying a previously owned domain should not cause any issues. Simply publish high-quality content and wait for indexing. Use Search Console to monitor and correct any potential errors....

Jun 13, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can poor machine translation really tank your SEO rankings?

Low-quality automatic translation can negatively affect your rankings. You must ensure that a native speaker reviews and corrects translations to guarantee the content is useful to users. Blocking cra...

Jun 13, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really fix every single broken backlink pointing to your site?

You should fix broken backlinks that would be useful for users. It's impossible to fix them all, especially for large sites....

Jun 13, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can you safely canonicalize pages that are 93% identical without damaging your SEO?

Canonicalizing part-time course pages towards full-time course pages with 93% identical content is an acceptable strategy. From Google's perspective, this does not matter in any particular way....

Jun 13, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really worry about toxic backlinks pointing to your site?

Google is very effective at ignoring irrelevant links pointing to a site. It is recommended to ignore these toxic links. If necessary, you can use the disavow tool or report spam....

Jun 13, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really match your page title and H1 tag?

It's not important that your title text matches the H1 tag. Do what makes sense from the user's perspective....

Jun 13, 2024 ⚡ Analysis available