Don’t try to reinvent the SEO wheel, says Google’s Martin Splitt
Splitt addresses the most common indexing and JavaScript mistakes, why he doesn’t take ranking questions and shares why Google’s communications aren’t always as proactive as we’d like.
Topic: Googlebot
Mixed Directives: A reminder that robots.txt files are handled by subdomain and protocol, including www/non-www and http/https [Case Study]
Since robots.txt files impact crawling, it’s important for site owners to understand how they are treated by search engines. Columnist Glenn Gabe covers two cases involving multiple robots.txt files (by subdomain and protocol).
Chapter 8: Toxins & search engine spam penalties
Anyone entering the realm of search engine optimization is likely to encounter some questionable (aka “black hat”) tactics, or Toxins, as we call them in our Periodic Table of SEO Factors. These are shortcuts, or tricks, that may have been sufficient to guarantee a high ranking back in the day when the engines’ methods were […]
Chapter 3: Site Architecture & Search Engine Success Factors
The next major on-page group in the Periodic Table of SEO Factors is site architecture. It plays a critical role in SEO effectiveness. These factors affect the findability and usability of your site. Good architecture makes content easier for search engines and users to access and navigate. Take the following architectural factors into account as […]
Google webmaster conference videos now available
Did you miss this Google event? Well, now you can watch most of the Google talks.
Google’s mobile-first indexing guide update emphasizes the same content across site versions
New guidance has been added in numerous areas, including crawling, structured data, visual content and best practices.
The dangers of misplaced third-party scripts
Most SEO tags like the title, canonical, etc. belong in the HTML HEAD but if placed in the BODY, Google and other search engines will ignore them. Here's how you fix it.
SEO year in review 2019: Zero-click searches, BERT, local spam and more
What’s past is prologue. Here’s our recap of the stories that will shape search for years to come.
Pro Tip: A look back at some helpful tips from our SEO community in 2019
Here are 5 tips from our SEO community we think are worth a second look.
Bing to update BingBot’s user agent
BingBot is getting a new name, just like GoogleBot - are you ready?
5 tips and trends from Google Webmaster Conference
The Google Webmaster Conference was filled with fun information. Here are the more important topics covered.
Bingbot goes evergreen
Bing will adopt Chromium-based Edge browser to run JavaScript and render pages.
Google to update GoogleBot’s user agent
Make sure you are prepared for the new GoogleBot user agent, which launches this December.
Server migrations are “uneventful for Google systems”
Expect Googlebot to readjust your crawl frequency, though.
Google can crawl AJAX just fine
No special action necessary for webmasters.
SMX Overtime: Your questions answered about Google penalties and their impact on websites
SMX London attendees asked SEO expert Fili Wiese a wide-ranging number of questions about penalties, indexing, crawling and more.
You can’t opt into or out of mobile-first indexing
Google's John Mueller reminds us that one day, there will only be mobile-first indexing.
Yes, Googlebot can detect JavaScript redirects
JavaScript redirects are followed similarly to server-side redirects, Google explained.
Google testing tools now support evergreen Googlebot
After three months, the Google testing tools are now using the latest version of Googlebot.
Google adds JavaScript SEO basics to its Search developer’s guide
The new section aims to provide beginners with an overview of how Googlebot processes JavaScript.
Google to stop supporting noindex directive in robots.txt
Changes are coming to how Google understands some of the unsupported directives in your robots.txt file.
Google posts draft to formalize Robots Exclusion Protocol Specification
Google open sources its robots.txt parser as part of this announcement.
Google Search Console adds mobile-first indexing features
Google adds the date your site switched over to mobile-first indexing to Search Console reports.
SMX Advanced through the lens of a young SEO professional
Shahista Kassam shares her takeaway from the Seattle event: SEOs need to advocate their value while expanding their writing competencies and developer skills.
Leaning into SEO as Google shifts from search engine to portal
How to prepare your company for Google's new customer journey for search.
Google adds Googlebot desktop vs. mobile selector for Rich Results test
Here is a new way to test to see if your site has issues with Google's mobile-first indexing.
PWA: How to avoid partial rendering issues with service workers
When there are issues rendering pages server side to prevent correct rendering, the content can have discrepancies shown to end users (or search bots).
Starting July 1, all new sites will be indexed using Google’s mobile-first indexing
Google to default to mobile-first indexing for new sites. Be sure to build web sites that work well on mobile.
Google says no core update or infrastructure changes have occurred despite chatter
The company says the rumors are not legit - there was no major update to Google search recently.
I/O announcements have some applauding and others shaking their fists
Marketers continue to accuse Google of stealing their clicks.
Google’s web crawler Googlebot now runs on the latest version of Chromium: Why that’s a good thing
Googlebot has been upgraded and should now be able to crawl more modern web sites with less of an issue.
Google confirms AJAX (i.e. XHR) calls consume crawl budget
One more thing to look at if you need to optimize your crawl budget for the most efficient Googlebot crawl of your pages.
Google spotted testing version of GoogleBot that can render more content
Google may be able to fully crawl more advanced and modern web apps sooner than you thought.
Using JavaScript to publish content? Here are 6 ways to view rendered HTML via desktop and mobile
Always test your pages using Google’s own tools and third-party resources to view the rendered HTML to make sure all your content is showing up.
5 practical data blending examples for smarter SEO insights
Here's a step-by-step guide to blending data tables from different tools to uncover valuable new insights using Python (or SQL).
How Google will shift resources to media search and other tidbits from Gary Illyes’ AMA on Reddit
The Google webmaster trends analyst also touched on topics like the possibility of an Indexing API, whether internal over-linking penalties exist and how the clustering of duplicate pages works.
Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool adds HTTP response, page resources, JS logs and rendered screenshot
You must check out the upgraded Google URL inspection tool; it really gives you more detailed insights into your pages.
Nofollow couldn’t save the Google webmaster blog from comment spam
Google's plan of "preventing comment spam" with the nofollow link attribute didn't work for its own webmaster blog.
Mueller: Focus your SEO on Google’s status quo
Sometimes it is a good idea to keep it simple with your web pages.
Year in Review: Top 10 SEO expert columns of 2018
Here's a look at the most read columns from our SEO experts that stood above the rest this year.