Q&A With Google’s Martin Splitt: Semantic HTML, Search & Google Search Console

How does Google Search Console use product schema markup?

Does semantic HTML make your website easier for search engines to understand?

The competition is fierce, and you need every easy win, but is semantic HTML worth your time?

On February 23, I moderated a webinar with Google’s Martin Splitt, who shared his opinions, thoughts, and insights on various technical SEO topics, including semantic HTML, Google Search Console, indexing, client-side and server-side rendering, and more.

Here is a summary of the webinar. To access the full Q&A, Complete the application.

What are the best practices for error handling with SPA?

“My client has a one-page application; the SPA’s 400 or 500 HTTP status codes are not handled correctly by the server.

What are the best practices for error handling when working with SPA? “

Martin Split says:

There are ways to deal with that. I know exactly what you’re dealing with because what’s going on is that the server isn’t doing much in terms of handling requests.

It only makes a 200 request for any URL you’re dealing with. Then, client-side JavaScript decides that this is a bug, which leads to program robustness and possibly sticking situations.

Same with, more or less, 500 error codes and one page apps. Similar story.

What you can do, however, is if you understand that it’s a 404, you have it Two options Because two things you don’t want to happen can happen.

• One is an error page that gets indexed and shows up in search results where it shouldn’t.
• The other thing is that you are generating 404 errors in the search console and possibly getting confused with your data.”

[Discover how to avoid these two things] Instant access to the webinar →

How does Google prioritize the header structure?

If two H1s on a page have different content, do the H1s fight over which is of the most importance or value to Google for crawling?

Also, how does Google prioritize the title structure within this content? “

Martin Split says:

“It’s about structure. I can’t stress this enough, if you choose to have H1s as a top-level structure for your content, that’s fine.

It just means that the top level of content is organized along H1s.

If you have one H1 and nothing else under it except H2s and then H2 content and then H2 content, that doesn’t change anything.

This means that you have organized your content differently. It wasn’t a better structure. You didn’t structure it any worse. You just built it differently.

But both of these structures make sense. If you choose H1 as your public address, it doesn’t mean it’s more appreciated or means more to anyone – look for users, whatever.

It just means entering a different level and then other sub-levels. It doesn’t matter.

It makes no difference if you have H1 and then H2 and H2 and H2 and H2 and H2 or if you have H1 content and H1 content and H1 content.

This means that there is no H1 heading at this total document level, but this one that we actually get from the heading.

Basically , Doesn’t make much difference.“

[Get the rest of the conversation] Instant access to the webinar →

For SEO in 2023, where should you focus?

What should people focus on now?

[Any] Points that you might feel SEO or developers are ignoring? “

Martin Split says:

“I would say make sure you focus on Content quality And that you focus on it receipt value for users.

These were and always will be the most important things right now. Everything else should follow from that.

Let’s say you spend time fine-tuning the technical details, fine-tuning the architecture or coding of your website. In this case, you are likely to miss more important opportunities to ask yourself what people need from our website.

What do they expect from our website, and how can we deliver it better, faster and more enjoyable? “

[Get the whole Q&A] Instant access to the webinar →

Other technical SEO questions answered in the on-demand webinar

Check out the following list of additional questions Martin Splitt addressed during this Webinar on demand:

• Why is semantic search engine optimization important?
• Is there anything that can be done in semantic HTML to better communicate with Google?
• Does the schema markup information have to match what is in the document?
• What parts of semantic search does Google need help with?
• What does Martin Split think of title tags?
• Is the responsibility of implementing semantic HTML on the SEO professional or the developer?
• How easy is semantic HTML to be accessed within a WordPress or Gutenberg environment?
• How compatible is semantic HTML with WCAG?
• What is the relationship of semantic HTML to the general concept of semantic web RDF, etc.?
• Can erroneous thumbnails be corrected with semantic HTML?

[Get all the answers] Instant access to the webinar →

• Is there another type of schema markup that can still reference the organization as well as identifiers on article pages?
• Could adding schema markup to show the product category hierarchy and modifying the HTML help Google better understand the relationship between the product and its category?
• Is maintaining the header hierarchy more important than the title you use?
• Is it a bad practice to show different content on pages to returning users versus new users?
• What are the best practices for handling errors with SPA?
• What is the best way to handle search query parameters that are indexed by Google?
• Should you worry about product pages not being included in your XML sitemap?
• How does Google prioritize headers?
• How important is it to start implementing semantic HTML now for developers and SEO professionals?
• What should SEO developers and professionals focus on?

[Get all the answers] Instant access to the webinar →

Join us for our next educational webinar!

Find out the top 3 ways to build authority by going beyond Just Link Building

Join Sabrina Hipps, Vice President of Partner Development, and Jeremy Rivera, Director of Content Analysis at CopyPress, as they share expert tips to help maximize your marketing efforts and answer your most pressing content promotion questions.

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Featured Image: Paolo Bobita/Search Engine Magazine