Google’s John Mueller clarified the longstanding confusion about whether it’s appropriate to use a noindex rule and a canonical tag on the same page. A 2021 statement suggested that using both might ‘maybe’ work, but his latest statement provides a more detailed and definitive answer. Noindex Rule And Rel=Canonical An HTML element is like a … Read more
Google’s Communications team recently took to X to clarify its Search Autocomplete feature following user complaints and misconceptions. Autocomplete’s Purpose & Functionality Addressing claims of search term censorship Google stated: “Autocomplete is just a tool to help you complete a search quickly.” Google notes that users can always search for their intended queries regardless of … Read more
Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question about the SEO value of hierarchically ordering heading elements (H1, H2, etc.). His answer offered an insight into the actual value of heading elements for digital marketing. Heading Elements In simple terms, HTML Elements are the building blocks of a web page and they all have their place much … Read more
Google quietly updated their organization structured data documentation in order to clarify two points about merchant returns in response to feedback about an ambiguity in the previous version. Organization Structured Data and Merchant Returns Google recently expanded their Organization structured data so that it could now accommodate a merchant return policy. The change added support … Read more
Google’s structured data documentation for vacation rentals was recently updated to require more specific data in a change that is more of a clarification than it is a change in requirements. This change was made without any formal announcement or notation in the developer pages changelog. Vacation Rentals Structured Data These specific structured data types … Read more
A recent discussion on the r/SEO Reddit forum provided insights from Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, regarding website penalties and the use of HTTP status codes. Mueller addressed questions raised by a website owner who had previously used AI to generate content for their videogame guide website. After removing approximately 200 AI-generated pages due to … Read more
Google recently updated the documentation of its Google-Extended web crawler user agent, reflecting changes in product naming and clarifying the impact on search, which may be a concern for those who choose to block the crawler. The updated documentation offers clearer guidance on controlling content access for use in AI model training. Google-Extended User Agent … Read more
Google updated their job posting structured data guidance in order to change the requirements of how to best keep Google notified of new webpages and changes to existing webpages. Google Job Posting Structured Data Guidance Google’s job posting structured data guidance is designed to help publishers become eligible for enhanced visibility in Google Search results … Read more
Google updated their search snippet documentation to clarify what influences Google’s algorithm for choosing what to display as the snippet in the search results. This change may represent a big change in how meta descriptions are written and how content is optimized. Google Search Results Snippets A webpage displayed in the search engine results pages … Read more
Google SearchLiaison cleared up a confusing passage in their Helpful Content System guidance that seemingly had the potential to cause inadvertent issues for innocent publishers. Helpful Content System Google’s Helpful Content System is based on a machine learning model that uses classifiers to generate a signal that is then used by Google’s ranking system to … Read more
A creative Google Search Central blog article may lift the mystery surrounding the impact of common web errors for website visitors. Google Analyst Gary Illyes illustrated – literally and figuratively – the reasons behind different types of web errors reported in Google Search Console (GSC). Where do HTTP errors come from, really? Let us our … Read more
Last week, Google Ads Liason answered common questions and misconceptions about value-based bidding. Ginny Marvin took to LinkedIn and Twitter platforms for a week-long series of posts explaining the ins and outs of value-based bidding. Last week Marvin wrapped up the series by answering common advertiser questions she got along the way. Read on to … Read more
A recent discussion on the r/BigSEO forum on Reddit revealed some confusion surrounding Google’s treatment of WebP images when it comes to indexing. John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, weighed in on the matter and explained why WebP images appear in the “Crawled – currently not indexed” report in Google Search Console. Mueller Addresses Reddit … Read more
Google updated the Search Central guidelines for controlling how it displays title tags in search. The update didn’t change the guidance itself, but it did make it substantially more straightforward and removed multiple ambiguities in the wording that made it difficult to understand. Google Changes Title Tags Title tags are meta elements whose purpose is … Read more
Google updated the Course structured data requirements for appearing in the Course rich results. Failure to follow the guidelines may result in not qualifying for the rich result. While the added requirement is not new, it was previously missing from the Course structured data requirements page. Course Structured Data The Schema structured data for courses … Read more
