News Category: SEO

Google has updated its Search Central documentation with new best practices for large websites that maintain separate mobile and desktop versions. The update addresses link parity issues that may affect crawl efficiency. Crawl budget refers to the number of pages Google will crawl and index on a website within a given timeframe, which is important for SEO. For large websites, efficient use of crawl budget can mean the difference between discovering new pages quickly or languishing in obscurity for weeks. Google now recommends large websites provide the same links on their mobile version as on their desktop version. If possible, they should be included in a sitemap file. This practice helps prevent delays in the discovery of new pages. The update primarily affects sites with one million+ pages, medium-sized sites (10,000+ pages) with daily content changes, and websites with significant portions of URLs marked as “Discovered – currently not indexed” in Search Console.

Google has updated its Search documentation with standardised URL parameter guidelines, recommending “=” and “&” for optimal website crawling. The update brings parameter formatting recommendations from a faceted navigation blog post into the main URL structure documentation, making them more accessible. Developers should use equal signs (=) to separate key-value pairs and ampersands (&) to connect multiple parameters. Google recommends against using alternative separators such as commas and single or double commas. URL parameters are crucial in website functionality, controlling everything from product filtering to tracking codes and session IDs. Proper parameter formatting ensures better-crawling efficiency and can help prevent common indexing issues that affect search performance. The updated documentation can be found in Google’s Search Central documentation under the Crawling and Indexing section. If using non-standard parameter formats, developers should plan a migration to the standard format, ensure proper redirects, and monitor crawl stats during the switch.

Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, has warned against overly relying on third-party SEO metrics. He emphasised these tools’ limitations and metrics, stating that they don’t directly correlate with search engine rankings. Mueller suggested a holistic approach, prioritising unique value over specific metrics like Domain Authority or spam scores. He advised finding ways to add real value that people want on the web, along with all the usual SEO best practices as a foundation. However, creating unique content isn’t easy and requires a lot of work and time. Mueller’s insights encourage focusing on strategies prioritising users, aligning content with Google’s goals, and creating lasting benefits. While third-party SEO metrics can be useful, it’s important to remember Mueller’s warning: they shouldn’t be the primary focus of optimisation efforts. This caution can help you avoid potential pitfalls in your SEO strategy.

Google has expanded its Store Ratings feature to four English-speaking markets, including the UK. This feature allows merchants to display customer feedback directly in search results. This feature provides valuable insights into various aspects of the shopping experience, such as product quality, shipping performance, customer service, and returns and exchange policies. Merchants can participate by enrolling in the free Google Customer Review program or gathering reviews from independent review websites. This expansion may level the playing field for businesses in the newly included countries, allowing them to compete more effectively in the global online marketplace. For shoppers, it promises a more transparent and trustworthy user experience. Google’s commitment to improving online shopping is evident in its expansion of this tool to new markets.

Google’s John Mueller has provided a technical SEO tip for launching a new website, advising against a common mistake. The top three priorities to implement are creating landing pages/content for lowest funnel keyword opportunities, claiming the brand on top social media platforms, building easy citations and directories, and starting reactive digital PR as the primary initial link-building campaign. Mueller’s advice also emphasises keeping DNS disabled and not using a generic server/CMS holding page. This helps Google recognise and index a site faster. Other considerations for launching a new website include creating a defensive moat around the domain, registering available gTLDs (general top-level domains), and registering word order variations. Planning to be bigger allows for more topics and more conversions. Creating a unique mascot or symbol for the site can also be helpful. In summary, launching a new website requires a combination of technical SEO tips, a defensive moat around the domain, and a unique mascot or symbol. By following Mueller’s advice, you can ensure your website is picked up by Google faster and is more likely to be successful.

Google’s John Mueller has discussed the importance of alt text for SEO and the limitations of using AI to generate it. Alt text is an HTML attribute of an image element that provides alternate information about an image, helping site visitors understand the web page topic. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends using two-part alternate text for complex images, with the alt text providing a concise description and the surrounding text offering a longer, more comprehensive description. Mueller explains that context is key in SEO, as the text content around the image helps give context to the image and its meaning. He also points out that AI’s description of the image does not always label it within the context of the content. Using alt text to communicate an informative description within the text context is the right way to do it, as described by the W3C, for SEO in general and accessibility reasons.

Google has revamped its crawler documentation, resulting in higher information density and tighter topical coverage. The changelog includes an updated user agent string for the GoogleProducer crawler, content-encoding information, and a new section about technical properties. The revamp’s goal was to make the overview page smaller and more specific while still providing more general information. The new pages include Common Crawlers, Special-Case Crawlers, and User-Triggered Fetchers. The overview page is less comprehensive but easier to understand, serving as an entry point for users to drill down to more specific subtopics related to the three kinds of crawlers. This change offers insights into how to freshen up a page that might be underperforming, allowing subtopics to address specific users’ needs and potentially make them more useful if they rank in search results.

Google’s Senior Search Analyst John Mueller has offered reassuring advice to those concerned about website traffic fluctuations. Mueller cited the “Strong Law of Small Numbers” as a mathematical concept, stating that “there aren’t enough small numbers to meet the demands made of them”. Minor changes can appear disproportionately significant when dealing with small numbers. For websites with limited daily traffic, a difference of just one or two clicks can create dramatic-looking spikes or drops on a graph. Mueller’s key takeaways for webmasters include considering the scale of changes, looking for long-term trends, understanding that context is everything, as many factors can influence daily traffic, and understanding normal fluctuations, as perfectly stable traffic patterns are rare for smaller sites especially. By understanding the nature of small numbers and maintaining a broader perspective, webmasters can avoid unnecessary stress and make more informed decisions.

Google has announced that images in the AVIF file format will be eligible for display in Google Search and Google Images, including all platforms that surface Google Search data. This will significantly lower image sizes and improve Core Web Vitals scores, particularly Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). AVIF can improve SEO by reducing file size and speeding up web page rendering, which is crucial for search crawlers to crawl more pages. AVIF is a next-generation open-source image file format that combines the best of JPEG, PNG, and GIF image formats but in a more compressed format for smaller files. It supports transparency, photographic images, and animation. Currently, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Safari browsers support AVIF, but not all content management systems do. Due to their high compression, AVIF images are expected to become a standard image format, improving site performance.

Google’s John Mueller has debunked the widespread recommendation of linking out to other websites for SEO and ranking benefits. Mueller’s comment was limited to the practice of adding three outbound links to an article based on the idea that it’s “beneficial” for SEO. Outbound links are helpful for several reasons, including bringing value to readers, validating conclusions, validating citations, and being a good practice for the Internet ecosystem. Canonical SEO practices, which date back decades, have been based on speculative and canonical beliefs. Mueller’s advice is to write for the audience, focusing on what the audience wants and not the quantity of links or words on the page. The correct answer for most SEO questions is to focus on the context of the web page and what a reader would want. A good context for adding outbound links is when something is quoted or cited.