Google states its Spam Policies for Google Web Search quite elaborately and clearly:

“Our spam policies help protect users and improve the quality of search results. To be eligible to appear in Google web search results (web pages, images, videos, news content or other material that Google finds from across the web), content shouldn’t violate Google Search’s overall policies or the spam policies listed on this page. These policies apply to all web search results, including those from Google’s own properties.”

What is Policy Circumvention?

According to the Google Documentation:

“If you engage in actions intended to bypass our spam or content policies for Google Search, undermine restrictions placed on content, a site, or an account, or otherwise continue to distribute content that has been removed or made ineligible from surfacing, we may take appropriate action which could include restricting or removing eligibility for some of our search features (for example, Top Stories, Discover). Circumvention includes but is not limited to creating or using multiple sites or other methods intended to distribute content or engage in a behaviour that was previously prohibited.”

In straightforward terms, as previously mentioned, if you manage to circumvent Google’s Spam Policy through a loophole or similar means, your website could face penalties. These penalties may involve a drop in your current rankings or, in severe cases, the complete removal of your website from search results.

Google’s Spam Policies in General

Google’s Spam Policies encompass a broad spectrum of practices and issues, which include Cloaking, Doorways, Hacked Content, Hidden Texts and Links, Keyword Stuffing, Link Spam, Machine-Generated Traffic, Malware and Malicious Behaviors, Misleading Functionality, Scraped Content, Sneaky Redirects, Spammy Auto-Generated Content, Thin Affiliate Pages, User-Generated Spam, and the recent addition of Policy Circumvention. Furthermore, adjustments have been made to areas such as Copyright Removal Requests and Online Harassment Removals, which now fall under Legal Removals and Personal Information Removals.

The end result remains the same: “We detect policy-violating content and behaviours both through automated systems and, as needed, human review that can result in a manual action. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all.”

That being said, you should have a great SEO strategy as a person in the eCommerce industry. Because of the great number of pages containing products and services, you have to work even harder to make your optimization even better than other sites.

In the realm of eCommerce digital marketing strategies, SEO remains the cornerstone. Naturally, some SEO tactics that were previously effective have lost their relevance as search engine algorithms have evolved to align more closely with user intent and to weed out spammy and ineffective methods.
However, there’s no need to fret. Whether you’re an SEO veteran or a newcomer, we’ve got the strategies you require to achieve higher rankings for your eCommerce site in 2023. We’ll guide you on effectively promoting your eCommerce store to secure a more substantial presence on Google’s search results.

Site Structure

Before we start discussing how you should go about creating each product page, we should talk about what the structure of your site should look like.

Your site structure could make the difference between a customer buying your products and exiting your website. If you have a website structure that is difficult to follow, you could lose customers quickly.

There are a few common rules of thumb to follow when you’re creating your website. If you already have an established eCommerce website, you’ll most likely need to make some changes.

The Three-Click Rule

The number one rule to keep in mind is that none of your products should be more than three clicks away from any page on your site. The more clicks it takes to get to a product, the lower your conversion rate will be.

The easiest way to organize your content is by creating categories for each product and then subcategories under those. From that subcategory page, your customers should be able to pick products. This method is equal to three clicks from your homepage.

However, if you have a limited number of products, it’s possible to have just one level of categories. Regardless of your product quantity, it’s crucial to ensure that your products are organized.
Disorganized products can create hurdles in locating items, leading to customer frustration. Making it difficult for them to find what they’re looking for may result in them leaving your website.
Many eCommerce site owners need help to balance aesthetics and functionality, aiming for a visually appealing site. Nevertheless, numerous methods exist to maintain a visually pleasing website while prioritizing search engine optimization.

Simple Is Better

When crafting categories for your products, simplicity is key. Customers typically search for general terms when seeking their desired items, rather than particular ones.
It’s important to avoid overly specific categories. If you wish to provide customers with options like colors, sizes, styles, and other detailed attributes, it’s best to implement this through product filtering rather than creating intricate categories.

For example, a clothing store may divide its products by gender and then by kind. When their customers view the list under these categories, they should filter through their preferred size and color.

Having a cleaner look for your website is better for viewers overall. They won’t be overwhelmed by too many elements and can find what they need to quickly.

Keyword Usage

If you have a grasp of SEO, you understand that keywords play a pivotal role in elevating your website’s ranking on search engines such as Google. Typically, websites incorporate keywords that are frequently searched by their intended audience.
Deciphering what people are actively searching for allows you to identify the ideal keywords to focus on for each page of your site.
Employing keywords for eCommerce websites presents a more significant challenge than other websites. When developing keywords for your eCommerce site, adopting a consumer mindset is essential. What search terms would a prospective customer use on Google or another search engine to locate your products?

For example, your potential customer may search for “Gold Necklaces” when they’re on a search engine. If you’re selling gold necklaces, you want to optimize those pages to that search.

Finding the Right Keywords

Numerous website owners research keywords before finalizing the keywords for their web pages. As previously mentioned, the goal is to gain insight into the thought process of your target audience and understand how they are likely to search for your products.
Whether you utilize a keyword finder tool or conduct the research manually, you’ll discover that keywords tend to be quite broad, particularly for eCommerce products.

Keep in mind that every page on your website should have a keyword whether it’s the main page or a product page. However, you should differentiate your keywords as appropriate.

Short vs. Long Keywords

There is a such thing as a keyword that is too short. Avoiding these on your eCommerce site is going to be difficult.

If you sell coffee, you may think that your customers will type “coffee” into the Google search. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Keywords are broad, but they aren’t that broad.

Consider the last time you shopped online and the search terms you used. You included some descriptive adjectives in your search query.
When customers search, they often include attributes like color, size, material, type, and other specific characteristics in addition to the general product name. To accommodate these nuances without getting overly specific, most eCommerce websites aim to incorporate keywords that consist of three to five words, ensuring they encompass these details.

Using the Right Keywords

Once you’ve identified the keywords you intend to utilize, strategically integrating them into your webpage content is essential. However, avoid overloading the page with keywords, as this can be counterproductive. Instead, aim for a balanced and noticeable presence.
Ideally, your chosen keyword should appear sparingly on the webpage—less than a handful of times. For shorter content, such as a product description, one or two well-placed mentions may suffice, in addition to including the product name and possibly the category.

If your eCommerce store has a blog (which it should), you’ll need to be more intentional and liberal with your keyword usage.

Addressing Product Descriptions

Crafting product descriptions can be quite an uphill task, especially for eCommerce websites, where each product demands an individual explanation. These descriptions must fulfill the demanding criteria of being precise, informative, and ideally engaging.
Mastering the art of optimizing product descriptions can be challenging.
Nevertheless, we have some valuable tips to enhance the visibility of your product descriptions on search engines. The fundamental principle remains unchanged: adopt a consumer-centric perspective in your approach.

Deciding on the Length

The length of a product description does matter. Typically, product descriptions are too short.

Your products should have descriptions that consist of 300 to 800 words of descriptive, attention-grabbing content. For your more popular products, you should look at making the product descriptions at least 1000 words.

This may seem like too many words, but it is important for optimizing those lesser-visited pages on your site and promoting those more popular pages.

Remember Those Keywords

Keywords in product descriptions remain crucial. Ensure that your primary keyword, which you want to emphasize the most, appears approximately three to five times within your product description.
You can also strategically incorporate other relevant keywords throughout the description. However, balancing and avoiding overloading the description with keywords is essential. Remember, the primary focus should still be on describing the product itself.
Neglecting to include keywords in your product description can significantly hinder your product pages’ search engine rankings. While this may not appear as critical as your main page’s ranking, it is vital for shoppers seeking specific items.

Use Popular Wording

When consumers search for products, they often include terms like “sale” or “free shipping.” It’s advisable to incorporate such language into your product descriptions.
If a product is on sale, prominently mention it within the description. Using these specific terms can also enhance the search engine ranking of direct links to your products. Additionally, consumers appreciate encountering these words when hunting for attractive prices, making it a win-win strategy.

There are some other things you may want to take into consideration, such as quality. If you’re selling clothing, you may want to use phrases like “high quality” or “sustainably-sourced.” If you’re selling jewelry, you may want to say phrases like “hand-crafted” or “real gold.”

The popularity of phrases you should target depends on the type or types of products you’re offering. Conducting Google research can provide insights into what potential customers are searching for when purchasing similar products.
Begin typing in the names of some of your products and observe the popular search queries related to that product category. Incorporate these relevant phrases into your product descriptions to optimize their appeal to potential buyers.

Understanding Links

Just like a blog that is following search engine optimization, your product descriptions should include links. This can be a little tricky.

When you’re describing your product, you don’t want to confuse your customers with a million links. Plus, figuring out what to link can seem impossible. However, eCommerce sites can follow a few basic rules to get their linking started.

Incorporate Category Links:

While describing a product, consider linking to its corresponding category. This enables consumers to explore similar products and make alternative choices if the current product doesn’t meet their preferences.

Highlight Alternate Styles:

If you offer distinct yet related products, mention these alternatives within the product description and provide links to them.

Limit to Three to Five Links:

When including links within your product descriptions, aim to incorporate only three to five links. Shorter descriptions may benefit from three links, while longer descriptions, particularly for popular products, can accommodate up to five links.

Customer Reviews

If you’re seeking an effective enhancement for your search engine optimization strategy that can simultaneously bolster your company’s reputation, customer reviews are an invaluable resource. Incorporating customer reviews into your product pages can potentially elevate your website’s search engine ranking.

Customer reviews contribute additional textual content to your site, offering search engines a richer source of information about your products and the relevant keywords to associate with each product page. This, in turn, can positively impact your search engine visibility.

While improving your site’s ranking, it also helps build credibility with your potential customers. If a searcher can see a great review on one of your products while they’re on Google, they are more likely to click on that product’s page and purchase it.

Social Media

Efficiently showcase your main pages and product pages across your various social media platforms. Increased sharing and clicks on these pages will enhance their popularity, subsequently benefiting your website.

Search engines are designed to discern the popularity and engagement levels of websites among visitors. These factors indeed influence your ranking in their search results. Therefore, active promotion and engagement on social media can positively impact your website’s visibility on search engine results pages.

If your product pages are going viral on Twitter, they are more likely to rank higher on search engines. The same goes for other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

The best thing that you can do is share your products on your own social media platforms and encourage your followers to share them.

You may want to optimize your website so that it will rank higher and get you more views, but – ironically – you need more views to rank higher. You have to use social media to your advantage and share your pages as much as you can.

Ranking an eCommerce Site in 2022

Plan and Set Up All the Pages

To leverage the full potential of Black Friday, it’s crucial to strategize and establish your product pages well in advance. Delaying this process would be a recipe for chaos, and you’d be caught unprepared. Therefore, planning out your landing pages and category pages is imperative.
Ensure your page titles and meta descriptions align perfectly with the upcoming Black Friday sale. Start crafting compelling product descriptions, paying close attention to the SEO aspects of your content. Additionally, enhance the overall appeal by using higher-quality images that complement your offerings.
Take your time with these tasks; making these pages live at least a month before the sale is highly advisable. If you can get them up 45 days in advance, that’s even better. Early preparation is the key to a successful Black Friday campaign.

Optimize Your Product Pages

More than just creating product pages won’t cut it; you must optimize them to gain a competitive edge in SEO. One of the most effective methods is to incorporate structured data. This practice enables Google to showcase your pages in rich results, complete with product ratings and prices, offering a significant advantage to users who are actively searching for products with ease.
There are two essential avenues for optimizing your product pages. Firstly, ensuring they are optimized for mobile searches is paramount, given that most searches originate from mobile devices. Secondly, enhancing page load times is crucial, as faster-loading pages tend to generate higher sales numbers. Seizing these opportunities is essential for your success.

Promote, Promote, Promote

While organic traffic is a reliable foundation, there are times when you must adorn the ball in a manner that entices your target audience to set it in motion on their own. This is precisely where social media promotion takes center stage. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest wield immense influence over how individuals perceive and engage with your brand. Promoting your pages on these platforms can significantly enhance your sales and contribute positively to your holiday season sales strategy.

Get Creative with Content Old and New

Your content strategy only has to exclusively focus on older or entirely new content if that’s your preference. Revamping older content with necessary updates and optimizations can be just as effective like creating new pages, if not more so. This is especially true because new pages require time crawling and indexing by search engines.
Furthermore, refreshing older content provides an excellent opportunity to breathe new life into underperforming pages in terms of traffic. Enhanced traffic can significantly increase your chances of conversions. So, consider updating those URL slugs from “black-friday-gifts-2022” to “black-friday-gifts-2023” to gain a headstart in your content strategy.

Bring in the Big Guns aka High-quality Links

Black Friday is still a good two months away, providing ample time to construct robust backlinks for your critical pages. High-quality backlinks work their magic most effectively when given sufficient time and space to flourish. The links you initiate now will yield dividends when the Black Friday season approaches.
Rest assured, we’re well-equipped to assist you in this endeavor. Our expertise in link-building is akin to Tiger Woods’ mastery of golf. All you need to do is drop a comment below or contact us through any platform (located at the top left of the page), and we’ll promptly arrange a consultation call. While at it, remember to explore our Monthly SEO Packages, meticulously crafted to elevate your online business to the next level.

Final Thoughts –

All the hard work you’re putting in will be for naught if you don’t assess your outcomes against the benchmarks you established initially. Therefore, it’s essential to establish a comprehensive measurement plan from the outset. Define a precise objective and reinforce it with robust strategies. Ensure that all Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are in place and meticulously measured using the e-commerce tracking capabilities supported by your website.
As Black Friday approaches, we extend our best wishes for a prosperous sales season. Happy Black Friday!

So, is there actually a percentage cut-off that marks content as duplicate?

A Twitter user Bill Hartzer specifically asked John Mueller the question.

“Hey @johnmu is there a percentage that represents duplicate content? For example, should we be trying to make sure pages are at least 72.6 percent unique than other pages on our site? Does Google even measure it?”

John’s reply was quick and to the point.

“There is no number (also how do you measure it anyway?).”

Matt Cutts, Google’s software engineer back in 2013 also shared some very interesting insights into the topic. Yes, all of that is close to 10 years old but still holds much relevance. In an official video posted on Google Search Central’s YouTube channel, he said and we quote:

“It’s important to realize that if you look at content on the web, something like 25% or 30% of all the web’s content is duplicate content. …People will quote a paragraph of a blog and then link to the blog, that sort of thing.”

He went on to add that much of the duplicate content doesn’t bear any malicious intent to spam or content theft. Google then doesn’t penalise such pages. Further adding that penalising websites with some duplicate content could potentially ruin the quality of search results. Therefore, it tries to filter out pages with duplicate content from the search results.

“What Google does when it finds duplicate content is try to group it all together and treat it as if it’s just one piece of content. It’s just treated as something that we need to cluster appropriately. And we need to make sure that it ranks correctly.” concluded Matt.

Interestingly, Google isn’t looking at percentages but checksums.

In November 2020’s Search Off t he Record Podcast that lets you in on the inner workings of Google, the same issue was discussed at length by three Google stalwarts John Mueller, Gary Illyes, and Martin Splitt. And it was revealed that when it comes to detecting and dealing with duplicate content, it is all about checksums and not percentages. Additionally, there is also a distinction between when only part of the content is duplicate and the entire piece of content is duplicate.

Here’s what the discussion between Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt highlighted. When Martin asked if detection of duplicate content and canonicalization were the same concept, Gary said:

“Well, it’s not, right? Because first you have to detect the dupes, basically cluster them together, saying that all of these pages are dupes of each other, and then you have to basically find a leader page for all of them. And that is canonicalization. So, you have the duplication, which is the whole term, but within that you have cluster building, like dupe cluster building, and canonicalization.”

So, if you are legit quoting someone or something from another piece of content from another website, you can count yourself safe. It is a recognised practice designed to put stronger emphasis on a given piece of content. But, if you have intentionally or unintentionally posted a whole piece of duplicate content, you are in for trouble. You can listen to the discussion at 06:44 or go through its typescript.

So, do Robots Meta Tags impact search rankings?

The following question was submitted by a user on Twitter.

“If a site does not have a robots meta tag, does this affect the ranking negatively?”

John addressed the question via YouTube and gave a very detailed and interesting answer to the same. He said:

“We talk about some of these SEO elements so often that it’s easy to assume that they’re required. In this case, no. A meta robots tag is not required for ranking.

The robots meta tag can specify how a specific page should be shown in search, or if it shouldn’t be shown at all. This metatag is only necessary if you want to change the default appearance of a page in the search results.

For example, if you want to limit how long the snippet can be, then you can use the max snippet robot metatag. If you don’t have any preferences regarding how a page is to be shown in search then not having a robots metatag on a page at all is also perfectly fine.

If you’re curious about the options, I’d check out our documentation on both the robots meta tags as well as on other tags that Google supports.”

The Google documentation which Mueller speaks of offers a deep dive into the Robots Meta Tags universe. An excerpt taken from the document states, “The robots meta tag lets you utilize a granular, page-specific approach to controlling how an individual page should be indexed and served to users in Google Search results.”

Why Robots Meta Tags are relevant to a site’s search performance?

If you are dissatisfied in any way as to how Google displays your website in the search results then Robots Meta Tags can change that by changing how your website appears in the results. They allow website owners to change the way how a specific page needs to be shown (or not shown) in the results. It is important to note that if page has Robots Meta Tags then that doesn’t mean that that page holds any kind of ranking advantage over other pages. It simply means that Google will better understand how to show that page in the search results. Last but not the least; it is also important to understand that not all pages help you rank, and that some pages (admin, login, thank you, and FAQ pages) and their content actually have no place on the search results.

You need to evaluate every page on its merit and exclude those that do not add any real value for your users or search engines by using the Robots Meta Tags. Watch John Mueller’s full response to question in the below-mentioned video.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Do stop words in URL impact rankings?

Here is what the viewer asked.

“In Short, when using words from a page title in the URL, should I include stopper words, too? For example, should I call a page why-is-the-sky-blue.html or why-sky-blue.html?”

To which John replied.

“Words in URLs only play a tiny role for Google Search. I would recommend not overthinking it. Use the URLs that can last over time, avoid changing them too often and try to make them useful for users. Whether you include stop words in them or not, decide to use numeric IDs, that’s totally up to you.”

John’s response stays true to what he said in one of 2016’s Google’s Office-hours Hangout.

“I believe that’s a very small ranking factor, so it’s not something I’d really try to force. And it’s not something where I’d say it’s even worth your effort to kind of restructure a site just so you can include keywords in the URL.”

The key takeaway from John’s responses should be that the website owners must make it a point to make URLs relevant for the user by including the right keywords. That is something that has always been true and should remain so. Because the fact of the matter is, Google doesn’t show URLs in their search results anyway, so whether or not one is using stop words in a page’s URL is automatically rendered pointless, or at least, not important.

Google’s advice on URL structure holds the key.

Carefully reading through Google’s official documentation on URL structure should guide on how to create URLs for your own website. What Google recommends:

• Keeping a simple URL structure using simple, descriptive words
• Localize words in the URL, if applicable
• Using UTF-8 encoding as necessary
• Country-specific domain
• Country-specific subdirectory with gTLD
• Hyphens

What Google doesn’t recommend:

• Using non-ASCII characters in the URL
• Unreadable, long ID numbers in the URL
• Underscores
• Keywords in the URL joined together

You can go through the document above to get a clearer idea on how to implement the above recommendations to create a simple URK structure. You can listen to Mueller’s response at the 07:50 minute mark and may be also stick around for the rest of the discussion for some other valuable insights.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Core Web Vitals Report vs. PageSpeed Insights Scores

Here is what the viewer asked.

“When I check my PageSpeed Insight score on my website, I see a simple number. Why doesn’t this match what I see in Search Console in the Core Web Vitals report? Which one of these numbers is correct?”

Here’s what John said.

“I think maybe first of all, to get the obvious answer out the door, where is no correct number when it comes to speed, when it comes to understanding how your website is performing for your users.

In PageSpeed Insights, by default, I believe we show a single number that kind of is a score from 0 to 100, something like that, which is based on a number of assumptions, where we assume that different things are a little bit faster or slower for users. And based on that we calculate a score.

In Search Console we have the Core Web Vitals information which is based on three numbers for speed, responsiveness and interactivity. And these numbers are slightly different, of course, because it’s three numbers not just one number.”

The scores are derived differently and that is why they are different.

With CWV, it is kind of the like the scores are a reflection of how actual site visitors see while visiting a site. And Google determines this score on the basis of all the core web vitals data that the users have opted to share with Google via Chrome. On the other hand, PageSpeed Insights provides information that is either diagnostic in nature (as to how to improve page speed) or offers insights as to because of what metrics the site is performing well.

John continued.

“But also there’s a big difference in the way that these numbers are determined. Namely there’s a difference between so-called field data and the lab data. Field data is what users have actually seen when they go to your website. And this is what we use in Search Console.

That’s what we use for search as well. Whereas lab data is kind of a theoretical view of your website, like where our systems have certain assumptions where they think, well the average user is probably like this, using this kind of device and with this kind of a connection perhaps.

And based on those assumptions, we will estimate what those numbers might be for an average user. And obviously you can imagine those estimations will never be a hundred percent correct.”

Mueller on why CWV Data might not always be consistent.

“And similarly, the data that users have seen, that will change over time as well, where some users might have a really fast connection or a fast device and everything goes really fast on their website, or when they visit your website. And others might not have that. And because of that, this variation can always result in different numbers.

Our recommendation is generally to use the field data, the data you would see in Search Console, as a way of understanding what is kind of the current situation for a website. And then to use the lab data, namely the individual tests that you can run directly yourself, to optimize your website and try to improve things.

And when you are pretty happy with the lab data that you’re getting with your new version of your website, then over time you can collect the field data, which happens automatically and double-check that users actually see it as being faster or more responsive as well.

So in short, again, there is no absolutely correct number when it comes to any of these metrics. There is no kind of like absolutely correct answer where you’d say, this is what it should actually be. But rather, there are different assumptions and different ways of collecting data and each of these are subtly different.” concluded John.

Based on all the insights provided by John and the details mentioned on Google Support, it is evident that both the tools serve a different purpose and should be used accordingly. Watch John Mueller’s full response to question at the 31-second mark and may be also stick around for the rest of the discussion for some other valuable insights.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Today we released the September 2022 product reviews update for English-language product reviews. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/sQ5COfdNcb

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) September 20, 2022

What is Product Reviews Update?

Official documentation on Google Search Central Blog states: “Google Search is always working to show the most useful and helpful information possible, through testing, experimenting, and review processes. From this, we know people appreciate product reviews that share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products. That’s why we’re sharing an improvement to our ranking systems, which we call the product reviews update, that’s designed to better reward such content.”

While it is different from Core Updates, the focus should still be on producing high quality content in the form of reviews on your website for your products. The reviews you publish should allow visitors to make an informed decision by providing them insightful analysis and original research. It should be written by experts or enthusiasts who understand the topic well.

Are Product Reviews Update and Helpful Content Update interconnected?

While Google didn’t give away any new information or guidance on September 2022 Product Reviews Update, it wouldn’t be outright outrageous to assume that the Helpful Content Update might have a role to play in how the latest Product Reviews Update impacts your website. It’s because Google clearly stated, “Sites identified by this update may find the signal applied to them over a period of months. Our classifier for this update runs continuously, allowing it to monitor newly-launched sites and existing ones. As it determines that the unhelpful content has not returned in the long-term, the classification will no longer apply.”

This could mean that the ranking signal introduced with Helpful Content Update is likely to get stronger with Product Reviews Update and websites that are found guilty of harbouring unhelpful content (read reviews) written primarily for search engines. And this could very well lead to your website showing greater fluctuations during the update and possibly lose it current SERP standings and traffic. It is also a possibility that websites that didn’t feel the tremors during the last four product reviews updates might not be so lucky this time around. However, all this is just conjecture at this moment and the actual impact might still be different than what the experts suggest. We wait; we watch.

What is Google’s advice for creators regarding September 2022 Product Reviews Update?

While this is not new, the advice remains the same. Create high-quality reviews keeping in mind, including but not limited to:

• User’s perspective
• Demonstrating expertise
• Audio-Visual evidence or references through links
• USP of the product
• Quantitative and qualitative comparisons with competitors’ products
• Highlighting benefits but also drawbacks

For a full-length article on tips on writing high-quality product reviews, refer to Google’s official blog on the same. Meanwhile, watch this space for more. We will update you when the September 2022 Product Reviews Update finishes rollout, and will continue to update as and when there is an interesting discussion ripening around it. Stay tuned.

Is there a penalty in store of wither of the sites who look similar?

Here’s what the viewer asked.

“We’re planning to share the same backend and frontend for our two brands. We’re ranking quiet well with both of them in Google. How big is the risk of penalization if we use the same HTML structure, same components, layout and same look and feel between the different brand?

What would be different are the logos, fonts and colors. Or would you suggest migrating to the same front end but keeping the different experience between the two brands?”

To which John replied, “First off, there’s no penalty or web spam manual action for having two almost identical websites.”

But there is an issue of canonicalization that Google will deal with.

However, there is a catch, and that is that Google could pick either of the pages as canonical if they happened to share the same content as well. John continued his answer.

“That said, if the URLs and the page content is the same across these two websites, then what can happen for identical pages is that our systems may pick one of the pages as a canonical page. This means we would focus our crawling, indexing and ranking on that canonical page.

For pages that aren’t identical, we generally index both of them. For example, if you have the same document on both websites, we’d pick one and only show that one in search. In practice, that’s often fine. If you need both pages to be shown in search, just make sure they’re significantly different, not just with a modified logo or color scheme.”

That sums it up quite nicely. No, there is no penalty for two websites that share the same visual appeal. But there is a chance of one of the two sites not even being considered for rankings purposes if they happen to have duplicate content. It is quite unfortunate for genuine, hard-working people who publish high-quality original content only to lose rankings to those websites that copy their content. We sure hope Google is able to find a way around this critical issue soon. Watch John Mueller’s full response to question at the 11-minute mark and may be also stick around for the rest of the discussion for some other valuable insights.

Source: Search Engine Journal

So, does publishing daily content improve search rankings?

“Does posting one content daily increase ranking?” was the question that was asked.

To which someone from Google to quick to reply with:

“No. Posting daily or at any specific frequency for that matter doesn’t help with ranking better in Google search results. However, the more pages you have in the Google index, the more your content may show up in search results.”

Getting more and more pages published is certainly not the solution, which is both weird and sensible. This discussion just happens to go back to a different Office-hours Hangout discussion from more than a year ago with John Mueller on why Google doesn’t crawl enough pages of some websites while it does so for others.

Why doesn’t Google crawl enough pages from some websites?

Here’s what John said back then.

“The other big reason why we don’t crawl a lot from websites is because we’re not convinced about the quality overall. So that’s something where, especially with newer sites, I see us sometimes struggle with that. And I also see sometimes people saying well, it’s technically possible to create a website with a million pages because we have a database and we just put it online.

And just by doing that, essentially from one day to the next we’ll find a lot of these pages but we’ll be like, we’re not sure about the quality of these pages yet. And we’ll be a bit more cautious about crawling and indexing them until we’re sure that the quality is actually good.”

It makes sense not to have too many pages being published if the websites lacks overall quality that Google deems to be of a certain quality standards. It is important to note that if you are into publishing news and events then publishing daily should be norm regardless of whether or not Google is going to index those pages.

How to get more pages indexed by Google?

The advice comes from John Mueller, as usual, from yet another Office-hours discussion dating back to May 14, 2021. His first suggestion was to ensure that the crawling wasn’t being hindered because of some technical reason, for example 500 errors. His second suggestion was to promote on social pages the pages that aren’t being indexed.  He said, and we quote.

“And if it’s well crawlable then the next thing I would consider trying to figure out is what you can do to promote your website a little bit better. So that when our systems look at your website, they say, oh this is actually a legitimate small business.

We should try to index everything. Because especially if you’re talking about a smaller website with a couple hundred pages, that feels like something where if we have a little bit of a hint then we’ll go off and get all of that. If you’re talking about an e-commerce site that has 500,000 pages then obviously (like) if we get all of those pages or not, that’s a totally different story.”

Internal Linking Structure and Quality, not Quantity is the key.

The last thing he stated to be of extreme importance when it comes to crawling and indexing is the website’s internal linking structure. It is something that helps Google determine which pages of the website are most important. That and obviously the importance of giving quality a preference over quantity.

“The other thing is internal linking is very important for us to understand what you would consider to be important on a website. So things, for example, that are linked from the home page are usually a sign that you care about these pages, so maybe we should care about them more.”

“On the one hand, kind of making sure that it’s easy for us to recognize the important content on a website is really good. Which sometimes means making less content and making better content. So having fewer pages that you want to have indexed.” Concluded John.

You can hear Google’s full response to question at the 06:47 minute mark and may be also stick around for the rest of the discussion for some other valuable insights.

Source: Search Engine Journal