Google Office Hours for SEO

Within the Google Search Central, there are many helpful resources that are essential for programmers and SEOs around the globe. However, there is a section within updates called Google Office Hours.

Basically, this is where Google talks about updates and answers some important questions that SEOs and developers ask around the world. It has completed several editions and we have received very interesting responses.

At Brand Industry, we are a digital marketing agency that will take you to the next level. And since we are at the forefront of everything, of course, we want to talk to you about what will take your page to the first page of Google.

What is Google Office Hours?

In essence, it is a kind of assistance offered by Google employees and engineers to users, specifically those who work to develop or position pages on their search engine.

In this section, Google helps you with search classification and appearance, rich results, security, aspects of Search Console and Analytics, among much more. They include many support resources and a help community in case your question is out there.

However, when you don't find an answer to your question, you can post that question and the search central will give you answers. Not only from experts around the world but also from experienced professionals within Google.

What Google says about SEO in this edition

They limit themselves to answering some questions. However, if you had these doubts on your radar, surely everything is clear now. We leave you with some common questions that experts used to ask.

Do meta keywords matter?

They are more important for data matters, for example, for Google Search Appliance, where if there is the capacity to match the meta tags. However, in itself, Google has never considered these meta keywords for search results.

Why doesn't my brand name appear as it is in the results?

As such, in Google, two things always happen. The first is that when something is searched for which Google has no knowledge or is relatively new, the algorithms learn it and many times, make other suggestions. This is resolved when a brand is created.

What date should I use as lastmod in sitemaps?

As a main recommendation, Google mentions that the purpose of using the lastmod command should truly reflect the date when the content changed significantly enough to warrant being crawled and indexed again.

Extra tip: make sure to use consistent dates, include structured data, including the time zone and language in the markup.

Can I have a general sitemap and a news sitemap?

It is more practical to have a general sitemap and another for news, however, if you want to keep just one, you should add the news extensions to the URLs that need them.

Does Google use keyword density?

The truth is that Google doesn't even have a notion of this. Over time, they have improved to the point of recognizing what a page is about, even without keywords. Keep it simple, if you paint houses, just say so.

Without a doubt, Google does the best it can to answer hundreds of questions. The session was much longer, but here we try to introduce you to some of vital importance.

If you want to read the full session of Google Office Hours, click. See you in the next entry.