English Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangout

TL;DR

The English Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangout answers practical questions about voice search, backlinks, crawling, indexing, migrations, and mobile content. John Mueller explains that voice search often provides one result rather than 10, 404 errors are normal, press-release links are commonly ignored, and migrations need proper redirects. Read on for specific guidance covering multilingual canonicals, Googlebot location, mobile dropdowns, and e-commerce site structure.

Transcript

JOHN MUELLER: All right. Welcome, everyone, to today's Google Webmasters Central office-hours hangout. My name is John Mueller. I'm a webmaster trends analyst here at Google in Switzerland. And part of what we do are these Office Hours Hangouts with a bunch of fantastic webmasters, publishers, SEOs, who drop in every now and then, lots of people wh... Read More

Key Insights

• Voice search requires more precision as users generally receive fewer results compared to traditional search.
• Googlebot's crawling behavior can be misunderstood due to server-side logging or URL rewriting issues.
• 404 errors are common and do not negatively impact a website's ranking; they indicate URLs that shouldn't exist.
• A site's migration without proper redirects can lead to significant drops in organic traffic.
• Using rel="canonical" tags is crucial in multilingual sites to indicate preferred indexed versions.
• Googlebot generally crawls from a single location, so speed optimizations should focus on user experience.
• Content hidden behind dropdowns or tabs on mobile sites will be indexed normally with the mobile-first index.
• For e-commerce sites, balancing category and product pages is essential for user satisfaction and SEO.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why does voice search require greater precision than traditional search?

Voice search provides just one result in most cases, while a traditional results page may present 10 choices. Because users cannot select among several displayed results as easily, the initial voice result needs to be more precise.

Q: Should 400 backlinks from identical press releases be disavowed?

John Mueller says there is no need to immediately disavow them when they arose naturally after the company won an award. Google commonly ignores press-release content and links because the webmaster helped distribute them, but Mueller does not characterize this case as problematic spam.

Q: Why might Googlebot appear to crawl URLs blocked by robots.txt?

The apparent crawling can result from server-side behavior, URL rewriting, or inaccurate logging rather than Googlebot ignoring robots.txt. The setup and server logs should therefore be checked carefully before concluding that the restriction failed.

Q: How should a website migration be handled to avoid a traffic drop?

Proper redirects should connect the old URLs to their new locations during the migration. An improperly redirected migration can cause a significant decline in organic traffic.

Q: How should rel="canonical" be used on multilingual websites?

Rel="canonical" should indicate the preferred version that Google should index when multilingual pages have minor content differences. This helps Google understand which version should appear in search results.

Q: Does Googlebot's crawling location determine where a site must be fastest?

Googlebot generally crawls from a single location, but speed improvements should focus on the experience of users in different locations. The goal is not merely to optimize performance for the place from which Googlebot crawls.

Q: Can Google index mobile content hidden in tabs or dropdowns?

Content placed behind tabs or dropdowns on a mobile site is indexed normally under mobile-first indexing. Using these interface elements does not by itself prevent that content from being considered.

Q: How should e-commerce sites balance category and product pages?

E-commerce sites should balance category and product pages around user satisfaction and SEO. Testing different arrangements can reveal which setup gives users enough useful information without presenting too much or too little.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The hangout addressed various webmaster concerns, including voice search precision, Googlebot crawling behavior, and the handling of 404 errors. John Mueller emphasized that 404 errors are normal and don't affect site rankings.

• A significant topic was website migration, where improper redirects can lead to traffic drops. Participants also discussed the importance of rel="canonical" tags in multilingual setups to ensure correct indexing.

• Googlebot's crawling from a single location was clarified, highlighting the need for speed optimizations for user experience. The session also covered mobile indexing and content visibility in dropdowns.