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Google Webmaster Hangout Notes: December 15th 2017

Notes from the Google Webmaster Hangout on the 15th of December 2017.

 

Check Log Files to See Switch to Mobile-first Indexing

Webmasters will spot the switch to mobile-first indexing in log files. Currently, ~80% of crawling is done with Googlebot Desktop and ~20% with Googlebot Smartphone. You will likely see this shift over, with more crawling being done with Googlebot Smartphone.

 

Googlebot Smartphone Uses Nexus 5X For Crawling

At the moment Googlebot Smartphone uses the Nexus 5X for crawling. However, Google changes the device over time to reflect commonly used devices.

 

Google Found No Additional Value Gained From Crawling Outside US

Google have tested crawling from different countries but decided this didn’t provide any additional value, except from a very small number of locations. If Google were to crawl sites from many different countries this would put more stress on a site’s server.

 

Google Uses Scheduler to Determine Recrawl Date

Google uses a scheduler before crawling to work out when they need to recrawl URLs. Google will increase crawl rate if it gets signals that it needs to do so e.g. updated modification date in sitemaps and internal linking (especially from the homepage).

 

Crawl Frequency Attribute in XML Sitemaps Doesn’t Impact Crawl Rate

Google takes no notice of the crawl frequency attribute in XML sitemaps or any priority set. Only the last modification timestamp will impact crawl rate.

 

Event Markup Needs Physical Location

Event markup should only be used if the event has a physical location. Google may penalise your site in the form of a manual action if this markup is incorrect.

 

Optimise Meta Descriptions by Looking at Search Queries in GSC

For meta description optimisation, John recommends looking at queries in GSC and searching for those queries. Once you see what queries look like in search results, you can optimise their length accordingly.

 

Keyword Stuffing in Footer May Impact Page’s Ability to Rank For Those Keywords

If Google’s algorithms detect keyword stuffing in the footer, like article-type content, they will be careful about how that page is ranked and this might impact how relevant that page is seen to be for those keywords.

 

Use Similar Titles to Help Google Understand Paginated Sets

Using similar titles across paginated pages helps Google identify sets of paginated pages.

Avatar image for Sam Marsden
Sam Marsden

SEO & Content Manager

Sam Marsden is Lumar's former SEO & Content Manager and currently Head of SEO at Busuu. Sam speaks regularly at marketing conferences, like SMX and BrightonSEO, and is a contributor to industry publications such as Search Engine Journal and State of Digital.

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