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 → https://goo.gle/sotr096-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 - Important CSS concepts 11:27 - CSS specificity 14:24 - Pseudo classes and pseudo elements 20:56 - Stop using before and after 22:47 - Viewport height 27:11 - Hiding things and background colours 28:05 - CSS images 35:55 - CSS for SEO 37:16 - 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, John Mueller Products Mentioned: Search Console
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SEO for small businesses
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 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,
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Demystifying SEO for developers
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 → https://goo.gle/sotr094-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 and Meta Description 7:31 - Is bad Html bad for SEO? 12:43 - Core Web Vitals 17:22 - Javascript SEO 27:00 - Google APIs and SEO 27:42 - Google Search algorithm 31:32 - What about Html comments? 31:58 - Themes and SEO 32:13 - How to reach out to Martin 32:57 - Wrap up 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,
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What SEOs should know about devs
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 also explores the evolution of Martin’s career, his passion for the web, and how his developer background helps him bridge gaps in technical understanding. The duo navigates the complexities of delivering accurate guidance in public forums, the risk of being taken out of context, and the importance of clear communication across diverse audiences. It's a thoughtful, lighthearted, and occasionally philosophical discussion that reminds listeners that behind the guidance, there are real people striving to make the web better for everyone. Resources: Episode 93 transcript→https://goo.gle/sotr093-transcript Chapters: 0:00 – Intro & Setup 1:30 – Life at Google 3:30 – Speaking to Developers 6:30 – Early Speaking Days 10:00 – SEOs vs Devs 14:00 – Should SEOs Code? 19:00 – Context is Everything 23:30 – Clearer SEO Advice 26:30 – Why No Slides 29:00 – Wrap Up Chat 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
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How Googlebot crawls the web
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. 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 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
Search Off the Record takes you behind the scenes of Google Search and its inner workings! In each episode, the folks from the Search Relations team will give you background info on the decision-making behind launches, feature prioritization in Search Console, and the projects Google Search teams are working on. They will share fun stories from the many conferences they attend as well as from their day-to-day working life at Google. They will also dive into the currently trending conversations in the SEO community at large. Have a listen!
Colombia