Lazy loading demystified
Search Off the Record
Optimize your website's performance with lazy loading techniques. In this episode, John Mueller and Martin Splitt discuss lazy loading, and its SEO implications. Find out how lazy loading affects indexing, ranking, and Core Web Vitals. Whether you're using native lazy loading or custom JavaScript libraries, this episode provides insights for developers on how to enhance website speed and user experience. Resources: Episode transcript → Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 0:43 - What is lazy loading? 1:57 - HTTP chunking 3:13 - Primary drivers behind lazy...
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SOTR098_transcript.pdf
Search Off the Record
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SEO for photographers: websites, social media, and Google Search
Search Off the Record
In this episode of Search Off The Record, John and Martin explore the intersection of SEO and photography. Is a website essential for photographers, or is social media enough? Martin, a technical SEO expert and photography enthusiast, dives into the challenges of building a photography website, optimizing images, and attracting the right audience. Whether you're a professional photographer or a hobbyist, this podcast offers valuable insights into how Search Engine Optimization can help you showcase your work and connect with your audience. Find out how to make your images more findable,...
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SOTR097_Transcript.pdf
Search Off the Record
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How does CSS affect SEO?
Search Off the Record
Martin and John dive into the world of CSS and explore its connection to SEO. Discover why CSS files matter for SEO, how modern CSS frameworks impact pages, and the SEO implications of CSS class names and pseudo elements. Moreover, learn practical tips for ensuring your CSS enhances - rather than hinders - your website's search performance. Resources: Episode transcript → Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 0:56 - What is CSS? 1:37 - CSS file crawlability 3:52 - CSS flexibility and power 4:55 - Website and CSS growth 5:43 - CSS file size 9:15 - CSS class names and SEO 10:51 -...
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SOTR096_Transcript.pdf
Search Off the Record
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SEO for small businesses
Search Off the Record
Are you a developer or small business owner struggling with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? In this episode of Search Off the Record, Google Search Advocates John Mueller and Martin Splitt break down the essentials of SEO for small businesses. Learn practical tips for understanding your target audience, crafting a content strategy, and measuring your SEO efforts. They debunk SEO myths and explain when it's time to hire an SEO expert or agency. Get clarity on content strategy, technical SEO basics, the importance of relevant content and how to measure success. This video is perfect for...
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SOTR095_Transcript.pdf
Search Off the Record
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Demystifying SEO for developers
Search Off the Record
Developers often have misconceptions about SEO. In this episode of Search Off the Record, John Mueller and Martin Splitt clarify what matters and what doesn't. They cover areas including: Optimizing themes for SEO, The indexing API, and common HTML mistakes. This podcast delivers essential knowledge for developers to enhance their SEO strategies and avoid common pitfalls. Resources: Episode transcript → Chapters: 0:00 - Intro to SEO misconceptions 0:15 - Why developers should care about SEO? 0:59 - Technical vs non-technical SEO 4:38 - The importance of naming things 6:03 - Title...
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SOTR094_Transcript.pdf
Search Off the Record
info_outlineIn this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin and Gary from the Google Search Relations team take a deep dive into how Googlebot and web crawling work—past, present, and future. Through their humorous and thoughtful conversation, they explore how crawling evolved from the early days of the internet, when scripts could index a chunk of the web from a single homepage, to the more complex and considerate systems used today. They discuss the basics of what a crawler is, how tools like cURL or Wget relate, and how policies like robots.txt ensure crawlers play nice with web infrastructure.
The conversation also covers Google's internal shift to unified infrastructure for all crawling needs, highlighting how different teams moved from separate crawlers to a shared system that enforces consistent policies. They explain why some fetches bypass robots.txt (like user-initiated actions) and the rising impact of automated traffic from new products and AI agents. With a nod to initiatives like Common Crawl, the episode ends with a look at the road ahead, acknowledging growing internet congestion but remaining optimistic about the web’s capacity to adapt.
Resources:
Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr092-transcript
Chapters:
Chapters: 0:00 - Intro
0:53 - What is a Web Crawler?
3:11 - Building a Minimal Crawler
6:12 - Ethical Crawling: Robots.txt & Host Health
7:42 - BackRub and Early Crawling Challenges
11:02 - The Anatomy of a Search Engine Paper
13:09 - Crawling Across Google Products
16:51 - New Crawlers & User Agent Strings
22:38 - Crawlers Beyond Google
23:17 - The Evolution of Crawlers
26:32 - Bad Actors and Overpowering Servers
27:31 - Reducing the Footprint on the Internet
28:44 - The Future of Crawlers
31:29- Conclusion
Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt
Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral
Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.
#SOTRpodcast #SEO #SearchOfTheRecord
Speakers: Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes
Products Mentioned: Googlebot, Search