The world of SEO is constantly evolving, and staying informed about the latest search engine recommendations is crucial for a successful strategy. That’s why Josh Hiemstra, digital strategist for Simpler Strategies, regularly attends Google SEO office hours, gleaning valuable insights directly from the source.
These Q&A sessions feature John Mueller, a Google search advocate, answering pressing questions about SEO challenges. Topics range from ranking factors and website structure to content optimization and algorithm updates. In this article, we review key SEO information gleaned from Google SEO office hours related to crawlability and indexing.
Are there signals to indicate to Google that I’ve improved website quality for better SEO rankings?
While there’s no direct way to trigger a reevaluation, Google continually assesses website quality. Major structural changes can prompt a re-evaluation, but it’s important to focus on ongoing improvements rather than seeking immediate signals.
We’ve noticed an increase in spam traffic to our website. The spam appears to be slow-moving. Will this impact our core web vitals?
Google has experience with various types of spam traffic and believes they can effectively filter it out. They’ll monitor your website for spam and exclude it from core web vitals data.
I asked Google to index a new article with minimal content, planning to update it later. Has this impacted Google’s indexing speed for my subsequent articles?
No, indexing a low-content article initially wouldn’t directly cause slower indexing for future articles. However, it’s not recommended to index pages with minimal content and update them later. Google may take time to reindex pages.
If you need to submit all your pages for indexing, it could indicate that Google is hesitant to index new content from your site. Typically, if your site has high-quality content, Google will index it regularly.
Why are my pages not being indexed until 2 weeks later?
This could be due to a combination of technical and quality factors. Crawlers may prioritize higher-quality websites. If you’ve confirmed your website’s technical soundness, focus on improving content quality.
From Google Search Console, I see that most of my traffic is coming from blog posts, but these don’t typically convert on my eCommerce site. How do I value a blog post on an eCommerce site?
The best way to get this data is through Google Analytics and attribution modeling. By analyzing the steps customers take to reach a conversion, you can better understand the value of your blog posts. Google Search Console doesn’t provide much conversion information.
We have pages indexed in Google Search Console but can’t find the cached pages on Google Search. Is there a problem?
While indexed pages and cached pages are handled separately, it’s possible for an indexed page to not have a cached version. This is not necessarily a sign of an issue. It’s a normal part of how the systems function.
Is my website not being indexed because it appears the Google Desktop Crawler is being used?
No, this would not affect indexing. Google’s crawlers, both desktop and mobile, are designed to work together to index your website effectively. The specific crawler used may vary based on factors like your website’s content and structure.
I have pages on my site that are marked as “noindex.” We’re receiving backlinks to these pages. Should we 301 redirect them to indexed pages?
The best approach for this situation is to set up a rel canonical tag pointing to an indexed page, rather than a 301 redirect. This will consolidate the authority and link equity from the noindex page to the indexed one, improving your overall SEO.
To improve site speed, we’re uploading smaller image file sizes. Should we also change the alt text?
While Google might not recrawl images frequently, changing the alt text can trigger a faster crawl, as it’s part of the HTML. If you need an image to appear in search results quickly, use a different URL for the new image.
Regarding speed, Google primarily focuses on core web vitals, which measure actual user experience. This is independent of what Google has indexed for the page.
How will setting up noindex or nofollow links on pages you don’t want to rank for hurt SEO rankings for pages you do want to rank for? Also, does this save crawl budget and link juice?
John explains that if a page has a noindex tag, Google’s system will learn to avoid crawling that page. Adding nofollow links to pages with noindex can be a helpful strategy. While several nofollow links on a page don’t send a negative signal to Google, using noindex tags effectively helps Google understand which pages to prioritize.
To further assist Google, consider placing noindex pages in a separate subfolder. This helps Google recognize these pages as excluded from the search index.
My website has over 100,000 pages, but I’m only getting 2,000 pages crawled per day. Why is this?
There are two primary reasons for this:
- Slow Server: Your website might be hosted on a server that is too slow to handle the load.
- Low Website Quality: The overall quality of your website may be hindering crawlability. This could include factors like poor content, duplicate content, or technical issues.
To improve your SEO quality score, consider addressing these potential issues.
Interested in other Google SEO Office Hours takeaways?
Explore our full article series:
- Insights related to technical SEO
- Insights related to crawlability & indexing
- Insights related to high-quality content
- Insights related to backlinks
- Insights related to user experience
Interested in exploring how Simpler Strategies can improve your website’s visibility? Reach out to our team.
