Notes from the Google Webmaster Hangout on 28th June 2016, when John Mueller discusses a wide range of SEO topics including how the depth of pages affects the crawl rate, resolving trailing slash issues, and ways to support various JavaScript methods.
Depth of Content Affects Crawl Rates
If content is buried deep in the site, it might take longer for Google to discover it, or changes. so improving internal linking from higher levels will help pages be crawled faster.
Add Internal Links to Pages with Backlinks to Pass Authority
John says it makes sense to add links from content pages with backlinks, into relevant product or category pages to pass the authority on to those pages.
Use JavaScript Redirects for URLs with Fragments
In order to redirect fragment URLs, which can’t work with normal 301 redirects, you need to use JavaScript redirects, or canonical tags on the pages.
JavaScript Navigation May Not Be Crawled
Multiple selection filters can be tricky. JavaScript based navigation which redirects users to a new URL might not be detected by Google. John suggests setting up a small test to confirm the behaviour.
Structured Markup Doesn’t Affect Rankings
Structured markup data doesn’t affect the rankings, only the rich snippets which are displayed.
Use Canonical Tags to Resolve Trailing Slashes
Canonical tags are the best way to deal with trailng slash duplicate pages.
Lazy Loaded Images Won’t Be Indexed
Images loaded via lazy load probably won’t get indexed, particularly if they are not showing up in the Fetch and Render tool.
