Connect with us

SEARCHENGINES

Google On Translated Content & Garbage Parameters In URLs

Published

on

Google On Translated Content & Garbage Parameters In URLs

You may end up confusing Google when you have “garbage” parameters trailing in your URLs, espesially when it comes to translated content parameters. There is this interesting conversation about a large multilingual site that found its translated content excluded from Google Search with a “crawled currently not indexed” status within Google Search Console.

The SEO seemed very knowledgable and he did do his homework before coming to John Mueller of Google for help. John basically said this might be related to the the parameter at the end with the language code. John said “what can happen is that when we recognize that there are a lot of these parameters there that lead to the same content, then our systems can kind of get stuck into a situation well maybe this parameter is not very useful and we should just ignore it.”

John then gave some tips on how to use the URL parameter tool in Search Console to help Google know that those URLs should be indexed. And also, maybe how to use redirects and clean URLs to enforce that when Google crawls those URLs.

Here is the video, it starts at the 53:14 mark:

Advertisement

Here is the transcript:

Question:

I work on a fairly large multilingual site and in April last year, just all in one go all of our translation content or translated content moved from valid to excluded crawled currently not indexed and there it has stayed since April. You know because it happened all at once we thought maybe there was some systemic change on our side we get a massive change to our hosting platform, content management system, etc. We combed through the code extensively, we can’t find anything, we can’t find any change to content, we don’t see any notes in the google search release notes that look like they’re they’ll be affecting us as far as we can tell. We’ve also been pretty thorough going through and just doing best practice searches with Search Console . We’ve cleaned up our hreflang, canonicals, URL parameters, manual actions and and every other tool that’s listed on developers.google.com/search. I’m just about out of ideas. I don’t know what’s happened or what to do next to try to fix the issue but I’d really like to get our translated content back in the index.


Answer:

I took a look at that briefly before and passed some of that on to the team here as well. One of the things that I think is sometimes tricky is you have the parameter at the end with the language code, I think hl equals whatever. From our point of view what can happen is that when we recognize that there are a lot of these parameters there that lead to the same content, then our systems can kind of get stuck into a situation well maybe this parameter is not very useful and we should just ignore it. And to me it sounds a lot like something around that line happened.

And partially you can help this with the URL parameter tool in Search Console to make sure that that parameter is actually set – I do want to have everything indexed.

Advertisement

Partially what you could also do is maybe to crawl a portion of your website with, I don’t know, local crawler to see what what kind of parameter URLs actually get picked up and then double check that those pages actually have useful content for those languages. In particular things like like a common one that i’ve seen on sites is maybe you have all languages linked up and the Japanese version says oh we don’t have a Japanese version here’s our English one instead. Then our systems could say well the Japanese version is the same as the English version maybe there are some other languages the same as the English version we should just ignore them.

And sometimes this is from links within the website, sometimes it’s also external links, people who are linking to your site. If the parameter is at the end of your URL, then it’s very common that there’s some kind of garbage attached to the parameter as well. And if we crawl all of those URLs with that garbage and we say oh well this is not a valid language here’s the English version, then it again kind of kind of reinforces that loop where systems say well maybe this parameter is not so useful.

So the cleaner approach there would be if you have kind of garbage parameters, to redirect to the cleaner ones. Or to maybe even show a 404 page and say well we don’t we don’t know what you’re talking about with this URL. And to really cleanly make sure that whichever URLs we find we actually get some useful content that is not the same as other content which we’ve already seen.

Forum discussion at YouTube Community.


Source link
Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 28, 2024

Published

on

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.


Google released its Google Ads Saftey report showing how many ads they removed and advertisers they suspended. Google changed the definition of “Top ads” in their help documents, guess why… Google launched a number of maps and shopping features yesterday. Google Ads Share ad preview is now live. Google now lets you search for blockchain wallet addresses.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:


  • Google Ads Suspended 90% More Advertisers This Year & Removed 5.5 Billion Ads


    Google has released the 2023 Google Ads safety report sharing that Google has removed 5.5 billion ads, suspended 12.7 million advertiser accounts and restricted ads from showing up on 2.1 billion publisher pages. That is about 6% more ads removed, 90% more suspended advertiser accounts and 40% more ads removed from publisher pages.

  • Google Updates Its Definition Of Top Ads; They May Not Be At The Top


    Back in October we reported that Google has confirmed its search ads, Google Ads, can show up mixed in the middle of the organic search results. Now Google is updating its help documentation to change the definition of top ads to say the ads may appear below the organic results, ultimately not making the ads appear at the top.

  • New Google Shopping & Maps Search Features


    Google announced a number of new(ish) shopping and maps/local features yesterday, a lot of them using AI features that Google likes to tout. There are glanceable AI-generated reviews, swipe left/right shopping, AI-generated product ideas, local trip ideas, recommendation lists for locations, and more.

  • Google Ads Adds Share Ad Preview For Performance Max


    Google is now rolling out the ability to share ad campaigns within Google Ads for Performance Max campaigns without the need for the person you are sharing it with to have a Google Ads account. This is a new Share Ad Preview button available in Google Ads account for this.

  • Google Can Search For Your Blockchain Wallet Addresses (Bitcoin & More)


    You can now search Google for any of your wallet addresses across bitcoin and five new Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) networks. So you can look up your balances within those networks directly on Google Search.

  • Google Calligraphy Class In NYC


    It appears that Google held some calligraphy class or art class of some sorts at the New York City office. I found this photo on Instagram.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Advertisement

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:


Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Advertisement



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 27, 2024

Published

on

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.


Google Local Service Ads is asking for more photos. SEOs, please don’t remove the contact us and about us pages. Hotels can remove pricing details from its Google listings. Google Local reviews is testing reactions. Google Analytics real time reporting had issues today. Google help documentation is testing using AI features.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:


  • SEOs, Please Don’t Remove Contact Us & About Us Pages


    Google’s John Mueller asked if it would be alright not to list a contact us and about us page on their website. The reason is, they would only add it if Google wanted it, but not for users. John Mueller responded, “I can think of good reasons for some sites to have these kinds of pages, but, after double-checking, there’s nothing in our search developer documentation that suggests this is needed.”

  • Google Local Service Ads Sends Email Asking You To Upload Photos


    Google is sending some Local Service Ads advertisers emails asking them to upload photos to their profiles. The email says, “Photos are coming to your Local Services Ads. Upload images to your profile to help your business stand out.” But don’t LSAs already contain photos?

  • Google Search Developer Docs Gain AI Generated Help Features


    A week ago Monday, March 18th, I noticed Google’s search developer documentation had generative AI features to help you find the answers to your question. This is in the form of an improved search, summary of the page content, a chat feature and more. I was told this was rolled out on some developer docs earlier in the year.



  • Google Local Reviews Reactions Notice


    In November 2023 we started to see Google allow reactions on local photos and some reviews. Well, it seems to be rolling out more widely now.

  • Google Analytics Real Time Data Lagging Today


    There are countless complaints across the forums and social media that Google Analytics real time data is lagging and not reporting accurately. It seems like those complaints are legit after checking a number of sites.


  • Google Cafe Cleaning & Delivery Robot


    You probably have seen these cleaning and delivery robots in some restaurants and lounges but have you seen them in the Google cafes? Here is one doing its thing at one of the cafes at the GooglePlex in Mountain View, California.



Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

Advertisement

SEO

PPC

Other Search

Feedback:


Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 26, 2024

Published

on

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.


Google Search Console is testing an Android App. Google is testing places and places sites in the search bar menu. Google spoke about if a business should have a website and a blog. Google added 3D models to product structured data. Google Search does not support AVIF images, yet. Mikhail Parakhin stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:


  • Google Search Console Tests Android App


    Google seems to be testing an Android App for Google Search Console. This comes several weeks after I reported that Google has no plans for a mobile app for Google Search Console.


  • Google Tests Places & Places Sites Search Bar Filter Tabs


    Yesterday we reported Google is testing products and products sites in the search bar tab in the European regions. Today, Google is testing places and places sites in the search bar tab in the European regions.

  • Google: Should Small Service Businesses Start A Website & A Blog?


    Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, was asked about if a business should always have a website and if so, should they also have a blog. Sullivan replied that he believes all businesses should have at least a basic website, but when it comes to a blog, that depends on what they have to say on that blog.



  • Google Adds 3D Models Markup To Product Structured Data For Linking


    Google has added new 3D models markup support to the product structured data documentation so that you can connect, associate or link your products to the appropriate 3D model.



  • Google Search Does Not Support AVIF Images Just Yet


    Did you know that Google Search does not support the AVIF image format? At least not yet. Google Search doesn’t list it on its supported image formats and Google Image Search simply won’t index them. But John Mueller of Google said on X, “I’m sure this won’t be necessary long term.”



  • Mikhail Parakhin Steps Down As Head Of Bing Search & Microsoft Advertising


    Mikhail Parakhin, the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising, is stepping down from that role as Parakhin “decided to explore new roles.” We’ve quoted Mikhail Parakhin here countless times over the past couple of years, to hear that he is leaving the role makes me super sad. His transparency and willingness to listen to the community was amazing.



  • St. Patrick’s Day Dancers At Google Ireland


    Here is a video I found on Instagram from the Google Ireland office of dancers performing at the Google office in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. It looks like they call themselves the Golden Beats.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Advertisement

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:


Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Advertisement



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending

Follow by Email
RSS