Complete switch to Mobile First by September
Website operators still have until September to make their websites mobile-friendly, or at least more mobile-friendly. Last week Google announced that it would use the mobile version to index all websites in the future. But almost 70% of websites are already set up for mobile indexing. The remaining websites should follow by September at the latest. It is now the responsibility of website operators to make their own websites mobile-friendly, if they have not already done so. Even the argument that many users come via the desktop version of the website will be secondary if Google gives priority to the mobile version of the website.
When updating older subpages or blog articles, you should consider whether it is worthwhile updating them at all. According to John Müller, the primary goal should not be updating content per se, but whether the content can be made more relevant to the user on the respective topic than before. Google is primarily concerned with the most relevant search results that are displayed to users in the top 10 results. When creating so-called holistic landing pages, you should also consider whether it really makes sense to put so much work and money into creating such pages for the respective topic.
No-follow links can, but do not have to, be observed
Another topic that was discussed in the latest Google Webmaster Hangouts is the change in the guidelines regarding the observance of no-follow links. According to John Müller's statement, Google only rcs data china sees this as an adjustment of the guidelines and that major changes should not be noticed. He also emphasized that no-follow links can be used for crawling and indexing, but do not have to be. According to Google's official statement, no-follow links have not been considered at all so far. In general, John Müller was very cautious with his statements regarding the new changes, which are considered very significant for many website operators.
Google follows redirect chains up to five jumps
Until now, it was assumed that Google crawlers follow up to four redirect chains. Now John Müller explains that up to five redirects are possible. However, these are not followed to the end the first time Google discovers this redirect chain. Redirects can be set up from subpages that are no longer used to the remaining pages. But redirects from www. to non-www. also count as such a redirect.
In general, redirect chains should be kept as short as possible to minimize delays for the crawler. And the status codes sent should not be ignored either.