Notes from the Google Webmaster Hangout on the 23rd of July 2019.
Having Separate Sections of a Site on Subdirectories Can Make Expansion Easier
If you are planning on expanding your site and adding additional sections to the site like a blog or ecommerce section, it can be easier from a maintenance perspective to have these on subdirectories.
Noindex Thin Pages That Provide Value to Users on Site But Not in Search
Some pages on your site may have thin content so it won’t be as valuable to have them indexed and shown in search, but if they are useful to users navigating your website then you can noindex them rather than removing them.
Adding New Language Versions Alongside Migration Can Delay Processing
For Google to be able to process site migrations quickly, they need to be one-to-one moves. Adding new language versions alongside a migration means Google will need to process each of these versions separately which will take longer.
GSC Data Across Duplicate Language Versions Will Only be Shown for Selected Canonical
Even if you have hreflang set up correctly, Google can fold together similar language version pages and choose one to index, meaning that data in Google Search Console will only be shown for the one selected canonical page.
Large Informational Blocks of Text Below Regular Content Can Confuse Google About Page Purpose
If you have an ecommerce category page with some transactional content at the top but have large blocks of informational content at the bottom just to target certain keywords, this can confuse Google about the page’s purpose and whether it should be shown for users looking to buy products or just research them.
Keep URLs Under 1,000 Characters in Length
John recommends making sure that URLs are under 1,000 characters in length so that they can be crawled and indexed.
Pages Can be Shown in Google Discover Regardless of Language of Site
The language of a website doesn’t matter for its pages to be able to be shown in Google Discover. The main criteria is that they are crawlable and indexable.
Google Can Treat Hash URLs as Separate URLs if They Lead to Unique Content
Google usually ignores anything after the hash, but the exceptions to this are hashbang URLs and hash URLs that lead to unique content that isn’t available on the non-hash version of the URL. John recommends that you should avoid relying on this, however.
Use URL Inspection Tool to See if Googlebot Can See Embedded Comments
The URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console can show whether or not Googlebot is able to see comments embedded on your pages, such as Facebook comments.
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