Official Google answers to common SEO questions

All questions with the tag “Google Webmaster Tools”:

	Question	Views
1.	How do meta geo tags influence the search results?	1,453
2.	How accurate is Google's backlink-check (link:…)?	1,346
3.	I have a client who was hacked. The SEO consultant said things were cleaned up, but they weren't correctly. All 30,000 viagra/cialis type and paid links have been removed, but no improvement in SERPs. We send reconsideration. What do we do now?	1,235
4.	Introduction to Video Sitemaps	1,204
5.	Does Google value its own links for PR/Linkjuice?	1,182
6.	Could you confirm whether the geographic location of the web host has any significant ranking factors for organic SEO?	1,177
7.	AdWords allows (and it's pretty accurate) location targeting. Why can't you guys allow multiple country targeting in Webmaster Tools instead of just one?	1,171
8.	How much time is Google taking to index a new webpage, and how can we accelerate the process besides using Google Webmaster Tools?	1,148
9.	Are there any APIs available from Google to pullout reports from Google Webmaster Tools?	1,119
10.	How active is WMT (Webmaster Tools) monitored by Google, specifically when there is a system error (such as the recent error in reporting the number of pages indexed)?	1,107
11.	We still have old content in the index. We block them via robots.txt, use 404 and delete via Webmaster Tools, but Google still keeps it. What can we do to quickly delete content from the index?	1,077
12.	In addition to using Webmaster Tools to submit an XML sitemap to Google, how important is it to also have a sitemap for users?	1,074
13.	Say your index page has been cached by Google and then you change the meta description. How long does it take for a Google bot to recrawl that page?	1,073
14.	Seeing as the "link:" search query is hardly ever accurate, what would your favorite/preferred way to check for inbound links be if you were a webmaster?	1,056
15.	It's not good for security when I have to ask clients to share their Google credentials with me so I can help edit their Google Places listings. Why doesn't Google Places allow access by multiple users, like Google Webmaster Tools does?	1,041
16.	When do you reckon Rich Snippets will be made widely available?	1,039
17.	Will Google ever offer (through Webmaster Tools or an API) a keyword ranking report similar to what Web Position and various other scrapers do?	1,028
18.	How will Google search work with dynamic HTML pages (and I don't mean JSP or other Web 1.0 technologies), like applications that are built with GWT?	1,028
19.	In GWT you can see subscriber stats. Can you all make a widget to display this number?	1,016
20.	Will I be penalized for having every file in my XML sitemap listed with the same priority?	1,010
21.	What is the benefit of using the Change of Address tool in Google Webmaster Tools, compared to just setting up the required 301 redirections to the new site?	989
22.	Can moving my website to 'the cloud' harm my listings?	958
23.	Site hacks have been on the rise, especially in CMS platforms like Joomla and WordPress. If our site was hacked and damage was done by the hackers (doorway pages inserted and spammed) but removed within days do we have to worry about a penalty?	956
24.	Geographic targeting using Webmaster Tools.	933
25.	Why doesn't the clickthrough data in Webmaster Tools match what I see in Google Analytics?	916
26.	How come the search queries report in Webmaster Tools shows some keywords ranking and when we search them they are nowhere to be found?	890
27.	Should Hawaii tourist business (that wants to attract visitors from all over the world), specify Hawaii as a geographic target in Webmaster Tools?	819
28.	When will you commence work on improving the information provided in Google [Webmaster Tools] as per the suggestion you would at the start of the year?	815
29.	Is Google planning to create read-only "Guest accounts" for Webmaster Tools?	794
30.	If you have inbound links from reputable sites but those sites do not show up in a link:webname.com search, does this mean you are not getting any 'credit' in Google's eyes for having inbound links?	180

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