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How does CSS affect SEO?

July 24, 2025 · 38 min

Show notes

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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