Notes from the Google Webmaster Hangout on the 22nd of December 2017.
Use ‘Send Feedback’ Link to Alert Google to Issues in the SERPs
You can use the ‘Send Feedback’ link at the bottom of the search results to alert Google to issues such as multiple results from one site with similar content being returned.
Guest Post Links Should Be Nofollowed
John recommends having rel=nofollow on the links in guest posts.
Google Indexes Duplicate Pages But Only Shows the Most Relevant One
For a duplicate shared page across two websites or brands that don’t want to canonicalise, Google would index both but only show one depending on overall relevancy and personalisation factors such as location.
AMP is Not a Ranking Signal
Rankings will not be altered by having AMP pages or not.
Informational Content on Mobile Doesn’t Need a CTA
Google’s mobile website design guidelines state that you need a CTA above the fold, but this isn’t the case for informational content.
Manual Actions Are Given for Sites Made Up Entirely of Duplicate Content
Website rankings are only harmed by duplicate content when a site is made up purely of duplicate content. The Google algorithms and web spam team will only remove sites from the index in this circumstance.
It Doesn’t Matter if Internal Link Anchor Text is Branded or Not
Having a brand name in the anchor text of your internal links makes no difference in terms of ranking, as long as the anchor text is descriptive for users.
Relevant Dates in Visible Content Can Show in Snippets
If a relevant date is used in the visible content of a page then that can be shown in the search result snippet.
