Notes from the Google Webmaster Hangout on the 23rd of January 2018.
Disputed Ads in Ad Experience Report Can be Flagged in Help Forum
If you think an ad has been wrongly flagged in the ad experience report, you can post about this in the dedicated help forum.
Changing Content Every Time Page is Refreshed Makes it Difficult for Google to Understand
Changing landing page content every time it is refreshed is not recommended as it makes it difficult for Google to understand the page, in terms of the importance of the page and how it relates to other pages on the site.
Presence of Internal Links More Important Than Placement
The placement of internal links is less important than Googlebot being able to crawl a site’s internal links and navigation. Sometimes Googlebot isn’t able to crawl sites properly because the internal navigation isn’t available.
Treat Out of Stock Products Differently Depending on Permanence of Unavailability
If a product is permanently unavailable, redirect to a replacement product or reuse the old URL for the new product. If the product is temporarily unavailable consider keeping that page and adding structured markup to indicate it isn’t currently available. If a product is permanently unavailable but you want to keep some documentation then consider moving it to an archived section.
Canonicalising to Redirects Can Increase Time Taken to Index Preferred Version
Canonicalising to redirects can increase the time taken for Google to decide which version to index, especially if these pages aren’t identical. Google also looks at other signals such as internal linking and sitemap files to make this decision.
Infinite Scroll Sites Should Have Distinct URLs and Pagination
Sites using infinite scroll should make sure URLs are changed so that they remain valid URLs and can be accessed and crawled directly. John also recommends having pagination links so even if a search engine doesn’t support infinite scroll they can still crawl through those pages.
Google Docs Content Can be Indexed by Google
Google Docs content can be indexed but it must be made public and it can be tricky for Google because of the volume of formatting options available. Make sure that if this is critical content that is also available outside of a Google Doc.
Extended SERP Data in GSC Will be Available to Property Sets
Extended SERP data range will eventually be available to property sets in the new version of Search Console.
Search Console Data is a Sample of Total Information Google Holds
The data provided in Search Console is not complete but provides a sample of the total information that Google has for a site. For example, one-off searches are filtered out so that they can’t be tracked back to a user.
Links in PDFs are Followed But Don’t Pass Any Signals
Google follows links in PDFs but doesn’t pass any signals through these links.
Mobile Page Speed Ranking Factor Will Only Affect Mobile Search Results Pages
Google’s page speed algorithm will only affect mobile search results pages, not desktop search results.
Mobile Page Speed Ranking Factor Will Use Similar Metrics to Google’s Page Speed Tools
Google’s page speed update for mobile search ranking will take into account metrics that map fairly well to Google’s existing tools, but won’t use them directly.
Hold up! Google aren’t the only ones with updates
Google aren’t the only ones with new additions. Here at DeepCrawl we’ve launched a superb new integration with Majestic that gives you access to their link data for free!
