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
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What SEOs should know about devs
Search Off the Record
In this candid episode of Search Off the Record, Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt from the Google Search team peel back the curtain to reveal a more human side of their work and challenges. Instead of diving deep into technical concepts, they reflect on their personal journeys—touching on everything from public speaking nerves to building empathy between developers and SEOs. Through playful banter and thoughtful commentary, they share how communication, context, and curiosity play vital roles in their day-to-day roles, both internally at Google and in the broader web ecosystem. The conversation...
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SOTR093_Transcript.pdf
Search Off the Record
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How Googlebot crawls the web
Search Off the Record
In 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....
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SOTR092_Transcript.pdf
Search Off the Record
info_outlineAre 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 developers who are curious about search and need a non-technical introduction to the SEO space, and small business owners who want to improve their website's visibility in Google Search.
Resources:
Episode transcript →https://goo.gle/sotr095-transcript
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction: The SEO Questions We All Get Asked
0:35 - SEO Starter Guide
0:58 - Defining Your Website Goals & Customer Focus
2:51 - Food Truck Example
4:20 - Understanding Your Customers & Search Intent
6:21- Content Strategy: What Should You Write About?
7:06 - Technical Foundation Check: Is Your Site Okay?
7:54 - Website Name Searching
9:46 - CMS
10:03- How to Approach Content Creation
11:52 - Getting Customer Feedback & Keyword Research
13:33 - How Serious Is My Goal
13:33: - How To Measure SEO Impact
14:30 - Monitoring Website Changes: Search Console & Analytics
16:03 - How Long Changes Take
17:41 - Staging Sites Vs Live Sites
18:44 - When to Hire an SEO Expert or Agency
21:14 - Red Flags SEO Promises
21:14 - Resources Mentioned
23:52 - How Long Does SEO Take
26:23 - AI and SEO
28:30 - Outro
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
Speaker: Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes
Products Mentioned: Search Console,