Journal archive, screen 3
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Link building
Internal Linking Strategy: Anchor Text, Site Architecture, and Link Equity FlowInternal links do three jobs at once: they let readers move to related information, they let search engines discover pages, and they signal which pages the site considers important and…
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Page speed and Core Web Vitals
Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Causes and FixesInteraction to Next Paint measures how quickly a page responds visually when a user clicks, taps or types. It replaced First Input Delay as a Core Web Vital in March…
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Page speed and Core Web Vitals
Image Optimization: Formats, Compression, and Lazy Loading Done RightImages can be the largest files on a page, and an image can be the page's Largest Contentful Paint element. Optimizing them is a delivery problem with five levers: format,…
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Migrations and international sites
HTTPS Migration: Complete GuideMoving a site from HTTP to HTTPS is a site move in Google's terms: every URL changes protocol, so every URL gets a new address. Because the paths, content and…
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Migrations and international sites
Hreflang Tag: Complete GuideHreflang annotations tell Google which URLs are language or regional versions of the same content, so it can show the right version to a searcher. They do not make a…
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Link building
How to Vet a Link Opportunity Before You Pursue ItBefore spending time or money pursuing a link through outreach or any other link building tactic, it is worth asking whether the link is worth having at all. A link…
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Crawling and indexing
How to Use the Google Search Console URL Inspection ToolThe URL Inspection tool answers questions about one URL at a time: whether Google has indexed it, which URL Google chose as canonical, when and how Google last crawled it,…
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Keyword research
How to Read Search Volume Data (and When It’s Lying to You)A search volume figure is an estimate, built by a specific tool from a specific data source, for a specific place, time window and definition of "the same keyword". Google's…
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Hiring and budgeting for SEO
How to Choose an SEO Agency: Questions to Ask and Red Flags to WatchChoosing an SEO agency is choosing who will make changes to your website, speak for your brand in outreach, and tell you whether the work is working. Google publishes its…
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Hiring and budgeting for SEO
How Much Does SEO Cost in 2026? Pricing Models ExplainedSEO costs whatever the scope of work costs, in the market where it is bought, from the provider doing it. That is not an evasion: there is no reliable, published…
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Content strategy
How Long Should Your Content Be? A Depth-First Framework, Not a Word Count TargetThere is no ideal word count for ranking. Google's SEO Starter Guide says, "The length of the content alone doesn't matter for ranking purposes (there's no magical word count target,…
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Link building
Guest Posting in 2026: When It Works and When It’s a RiskGuest posting means writing an article published on another site. As a way to share expertise with a new audience, it is ordinary publishing. As a way to place links…
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Page speed and Core Web Vitals
Google Tag Manager Performance: How Tags Slow Pages Down and How to Fix ItGoogle Tag Manager itself is a container: a script that loads and runs the tags configured in it. Beyond the container script itself, the performance cost comes from what the…
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Google Search features and policies
Google Spam Policies Explained: Scaled Content, Site Reputation Abuse, and Expired DomainsGoogle's spam policies describe practices that can cause a site to rank lower or disappear from Google Search, either through automated systems or through a manual action by a human…
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Analytics, reporting and testing
Google Search Console Performance Report: Reading Queries, Clicks, CTR, and PositionThe Search Console Performance report shows how a site performs in Google Search with four metrics (clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position) broken down by query, page, country, device,…
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Crawling and indexing
Google Search Console Indexing Issues: A Guide to the Page Indexing ReportThe Page indexing report shows how many of a site's known URLs Google has indexed and groups the rest by the reason they are not indexed. The most important thing…
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Local SEO
Google Reviews Strategy: Getting, Responding to, and Leveraging ReviewsReviews on a Google Business Profile influence both customers and local visibility. Google's local ranking help lists reviews within prominence and says "More reviews and positive ratings can help your…
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Google Search features and policies
Google News SEO: Requirements and Getting Into Top StoriesThere is no application that puts a site into Google News or Top Stories. Google's Publisher Center help says publishers "are automatically considered for 'Top stories' or the News tab…
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Google Search features and policies
Google Manual Actions: Types, Causes, and How to Submit a Reconsideration RequestA manual action is a penalty applied by a person, not by an algorithm. Google's Manual Actions report help defines it this way: Google issues one "when a human reviewer…
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Google Search features and policies
Google Knowledge Panels: Eligibility, Verification, and How to Claim OneA knowledge panel is the information box Google shows for people, places, organizations and things that are in its Knowledge Graph. It cannot be created on demand. Google's help center…
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Google Search features and policies
Google Discover Optimization: How Content Gets Picked UpGoogle Discover is the feed of content Google shows people based on their interests, without a search query. Google's documentation says content "is automatically eligible to appear in Discover if…
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Google Search features and policies
Google Core Updates: How to Diagnose Traffic Loss and Plan a ResponseA core update is a broad change to Google's ranking systems, not a penalty. When traffic drops during one, the first job is to establish whether the update is actually…
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Local SEO
Google Business Profile Optimization: Setup, Categories, and Profile CompletenessA Google Business Profile is the listing that represents a local business on Google Search and Maps. Google's local ranking help says that "Businesses with complete and accurate info are…
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Analytics, reporting and testing
Google Analytics 4 Setup and Configuration GuideA GA4 setup is correct when four things are true: data arrives from every page once and only once, the events that matter to the business are marked as key…
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AI search
Google AI Overviews: Source Eligibility, Visibility, and MeasurementA page can appear as a supporting link in Google's AI Overviews only if it is indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. Google says…