In a recent episode of Google's SEO Made Easy series, Martin Splitt discussed troubleshooting website crawling issues. He noted that browser access doesn't guarantee Googlebot can crawl a page due to factors like robots.txt restrictions and firewalls. To verify Googlebot access, he recommends the URL Inspection Tool and the Rich Results Test. Monitoring server responses through Crawl Stats and analyzing web server logs can help identify crawling issues.
A robots.txt file allows website owners to control how their site appears in Google Search by managing page indexing. It should be in the root directory and contains rules for bots. Robots meta tags provide another method to control indexing and bot behavior. Common mistakes include blocking pages in robots.txt while using meta tags. Best practices involve using meta tags for indexing control and testing configurations with Google tools.
Google's Martin Splitt clarified that duplicate content does not harm site quality or warrant penalties but poses practical challenges like tracking page performance, content competition, crawling inefficiencies, and complicated reporting. Solutions include using canonical tags, addressing URL inconsistencies, and consolidating content. Search Console notifications indicate indexing decisions rather than urgent problems.
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Google's video on international website SEO highlights three main strategies: choosing the right international setup (local top-level domains, subdomains, or subdirectories), implementing hreflang tags correctly (valid language and country codes, reciprocal linking), and linking to language variations (visible links, user choice). A bonus tip advises focusing on quality over quantity, prioritizing relevant locales, and ensuring high-quality content.
