Many search engine optimization (SEO) professionals have been speculating that technical SEO is dead. But Google Search Advocate John Mueller says it’s alive and kicking. In his X thread reply, he said that this aspect of SEO “continues to be the foundation of everything built on the open web.”

This is in response to user @yigitkonur, who claims, “Technical SEO is becoming less important every day.”

So, why do people even think technical SEO is losing relevance?

Well, Google’s crawlers and algorithms are becoming more intelligent and wiser, understanding websites even better than 10 years ago. The same user pointed this out, and other professionals echo the same sentiment. This led to speculations about technical SEO – that it’s no longer a big part of SEO and is overvalued by industry professionals.

However, Google’s stance has been clear from the start: your site’s technical elements are still crucial. In fact, they even have different resources to help you figure out which technical elements to optimize. This includes:

• Core Web Vitals
• HTTPS
• Secure Connection
• Avoiding Intrusive Interstitials and Dialog
• Mobile Usability

However, Google advises not focusing on one aspect alone. Instead, you should look at page experience and SEO in a bigger context.

So, don’t discount technical SEO yet. Many websites still need them, and Google acknowledges its role in ensuring an excellent page experience for users.

You can read the full X discussion here. And if you want to dive deeper into this story, this Search Engine Journal article will help.

More SEO News You Can Use

Google Fights Scam With New Ad Policy: The days of misleading ads are officially numbered. With the release of “Limited Ads Serving,” Google seeks to protect the integrity of its ad ecosystem by limiting impressions of ads with a “higher potential of causing abuse or a poor experience to users.” The search engine company collects data from (1) user feedback, (2) frequency of abuse and (3) industry trends to determine if your ads must be limited. Newer advertisers are also more likely to be limited: “While an advertiser is building trust with Google and our users to become qualified, their ad impressions may be limited.” Google will monitor your ad activities to see if you’re eligible to lift serving limits. Read Google’s help document here.

Identify Unhelpful Content Through Self-Assessment, Says Google: Twitter X discussions on what makes unhelpful content and how to treat it are heating up. In a post on September 2, 2023, user @Marie_Haynes said she wants Google to clarify what “recovering by ‘removing unhelpful content’” means. The Google Search Liaison replied: “People should self-assess their content to understand if they believe it will be helpful to visitors.” Basically, you have to rely on your gut feeling about a content’s helpfulness. This requires empathy and understanding your content from the end-user’s perspective. This isn’t the first time that Google recommended self-assessment on helpful content. Again, the best practice is to ensure your content adds value to the reader. Google’s E-E-A-T Quality Rater Guidelines are a great starting point to determine your content’s quality, helpfulness and overall quality. Take a look at Search Engine Roundtable’s article for the whole story.

Google Updates Its Cryptocurrency and NFT Ad Policies: September 15 is a good day for many NFT and crypto-based games. In an update, Google says promotion of blockchain-based games will be allowed if they (1) don’t involve wagering stakes to win real-world value, (2) are not social ****** games and (3) don’t promote real money ******** destinations. Instead, Google only allows games that “allow players to purchase in-game items” to improve character stats, advance levels, buy ******* and apparel and improve their in-game experience. This is in line with their general ad policy against ******* ******** since the use of blockchain and NFT are still not regulated by “******** laws and industry standards.” Read the full update from Google Ads.

Reddit Launches Keyword Suggestions: The artificial intelligence (AI) fever has landed on Reddit. But this time, you won’t use it for content creation. Instead, the platform wants you to have better-targeted ads with its Keyword Suggestions tool. According to Search Engine Journal, Reddit uses machine learning and natural language processing algorithms to analyze each keyword’s original context and “provide the most relevant suggestions.” If you already use the Reddit Ads Manager, this should make for a more straightforward campaign setup with better keywords. Read the full report from Search Engine Land.

Bing Wants To Remove Full URLs From Its SERPs: See those ugly full URLs in search results? Apparently, Bing doesn’t like them either. An X user spotted the second-largest search engine testing the non-display of full URLs in its search engine results pages (SERPs). We’ve seen many Bing updates in recent months, such as Bing Chat, Dark Mode and GPT-4 integration. While not groundbreaking, this cosmetic update could help to make searches more pleasant. Read the full story from Search Engine Roundtable.

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