I noticed this thread on Mastodon the place each John Mueller and Danny Sullivan of Google was serving to web legend Tim Bray with some search engine optimisation points he was having with Google Search. Sure, he acquired two Googlers serving to him, which is uncommon, however has occurred earlier than.
Tim Bray is legendary, nicely, web well-known, he has a Wikipedia entry that reads, “Timothy William Bray (born June 21, 1955) is a Canadian software program developer, environmentalist, political activist and one of many co-authors of the unique XML specification. He labored for Amazon Net Providers from December 2014 till Might 2020 when he give up because of issues over the terminating of whistleblowers. Beforehand he has been employed by Google, Solar Microsystems and Digital Gear Company (DEC). Bray has additionally based or co-founded a number of start-ups corresponding to Antarctica Techniques.”
So when somebody web well-known complains about Google – Google notices, nicely, I feel Danny Sullivan no less than notices.
Tim wrote:
I’ve reported earlier than that Google is shedding its reminiscence – see https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2018/01/15/Google-is-losing-its-memory
It is getting worse. I used to be on the lookout for a weblog piece earlier this yr during which I discussed a motorbike accident I would had, and remembered that I would been carrying a Bontrager helmet (really helpful BTW) so I looked for “bontrager” through
bontrager web site:tbray.org
and Google can’t discover it. DuckDuckGo and Bing can with the very same string.
Search used to matter to Google.
So Danny and John stepped in to assist with some search engine optimisation points with the location and in addition saying they are going to ship the suggestions to the appropriate groups at Google Search.
Danny first got here in and observed it and wrote, “When you have an instance you wish to share sooner or later, completely satisfied to look. That’s totally different from us not having listed a web page — @timbray I see @johnmu gave you a reply on what may be tripping us up on this case”
John then dug in a bit and located some points, he mentioned:
Hello Tim, I work with the search of us at Google. I took a fast look right here, and can cross a word on internally.
To chop to the chase, what occurred right here is we listed https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/goto-potd/ out of your web site whereas it was redirecting to your E-Bike article, so we listed that content material beneath the “potd” URL. Then, the contents for “potd” modified (I assume that is on design), and we listed that, and misplaced the E-bike content material.
There are a couple of methods to repair this:
– Google might simply determine it out and take care of it on their very own. I handed this on, in order that we are able to enhance the programs, nevertheless it’s a bizarre edge-case, imo.
– block the “potd” URL with robots.txt in order that it could’t get picked up by search engines like google.
– use link-rel-canonical annotations on the person pages in order that Google is extra prone to decide these URLs.
If you would like examples of the final two, completely satisfied to dig some up.
He then had a little bit of a forwards and backwards on some search engine optimisation questions with Tim, all helpful for us to assessment as nicely. Listed here are a few of these responses:
We typically decide up the robots.txt file about as soon as a day (it relies upon a bit on the location, however since it is a static file, we attempt to cache it to cut back the load on the server). My guess is by “tomorrow” (relying on timezone :-)), it’s going to cease crawling that.
With indexing of that URL vs the article, I think it will take longer for the programs to comprehend it must re-evaluate the scenario (I am guessing per week or so, nevertheless it’s unattainable to say).
It may possibly get difficult when our programs suppose they’ve already seen the content material, simply on one other URL (there’s a lot duplication on the internet).
Usually although, it is uncommon that we would index the whole lot from a web site. This can lead to even pages carefully linked from the homepage not getting listed. I do not wish to set the expectation {that a} technically clear web site will at all times have the whole lot in search, as a result of it is virtually by no means the case.
Danny additionally answered some normal questions on how Google Search works in that thread:
No, we do not deprioritize older content material (nor was this submit from April 2022 “previous”). We attempt to present as a lot helpful content material as we are able to. On this specific case, it is possible indexing tripped up for a technical motive.
We index pages. Previous and new. We additionally rank pages. Previous and new. Generally, it could assist to rank pages which can be brisker, corresponding to if there is a trending difficulty happening. I feel that typically is smart. This explains extra about how #Google #search makes use of freshness in rating.
I do imagine when somebody who’s web well-known, is adopted extra and revered extra on-line, complains about Google Search, it does get Google’s consideration greater than a standard particular person. However on the identical time, it is smart, as a result of others additionally comply with them extra and Google, no less than from a PR perspective, needs to leap on these issues earlier than somebody like me writes it up. Plus, I feel Danny simply follows Tim, so he in all probability noticed it that means anyway.
However sure, being web well-known would not damage with regards to getting assist from Google with search engine optimisation questions. It does not imply Google will press a button to magically make Tim’s web site rank higher, by the way in which…
Discussion board dialogue at Mastodon.
