Google recently shed more light on how its indexing systems identify and prioritize the main content of a webpage—a crucial factor in determining a page’s visibility in search results. Speaking at the Google Search Central Deep Dive event in Asia, Google’s Gary Illyes explained the inner workings of content indexing, highlighting key issues like content positioning, tokenization, and the often misunderstood impact of soft 404s.
What is “Main Content” According to Google?
Google refers to the primary portion of a webpage that fulfills the user’s intent as the main content—sometimes called “centerpiece content.” This includes core elements like: Text, Images and videos, Interactive tools (e.g., calculators), User-generated reviews and comments
Even tabs that lead to substantial supplemental information can be considered part of the main content. According to Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, the main content is the portion that helps the page fulfill its purpose and is most critical for indexing and ranking.
Why Content Placement Matters
Illyes emphasized that where your content appears on a webpage directly affects its ranking weight. Content in headers, footers, or sidebars is deprioritized compared to content in the central body of the page.
“Words and phrases located in this area carry significantly more weight than those in headers, footers, or navigation sidebars.” – Gary Illyes, Google
How Google Identifies Main Content
Google doesn’t just scan the raw HTML. It performs positional analysis of the rendered webpage to determine which sections represent the main content. This enables Google to assign importance scores (called tokens) to specific elements of the page.
This is why moving content from the sidebar to the main body of a webpage can significantly improve its ranking potential.
Use Semantic HTML for Clarity
One effective SEO technique to improve indexing accuracy is to use semantic HTML. Tags like <main>, <article>, <aside>, and <footer> help Google’s systems better understand page structure. This process, known as disambiguation, ensures Google interprets your content as intended.
Tokenization: How Google Reads Your Page
Instead of storing entire HTML documents, Google indexes a tokenized version of your content. Tokenization breaks down the text into machine-readable chunks, allowing Google to:
- Understand context
- Retrieve relevant results more efficiently
- Reduce reliance on exact-match keywords
This process enables better semantic understanding, meaning you should focus on helpful content for users, not just stuffing keywords.
The Real Problem With Soft 404 Errors
One of the most important revelations from Illyes was about soft 404s, which he called a critical error. A soft 404 occurs when:
- A page that should return a “404 Not Found” instead returns a “200 OK” status.
- A page is empty or shows an error message but still appears functional to Google.
These soft 404s can waste crawl budget, mislead search bots, and severely limit indexability.
When Is a 404 Actually Okay?
It’s a common misconception that all 404 errors are bad. In fact, a proper 404 response is the correct behavior when a page no longer exists and there’s no suitable replacement.
“Redirecting missing pages to the homepage may seem helpful, but it can create soft 404s and damage SEO.” – Gary Illyes
Avoid redirecting expired URLs to unrelated pages. Only redirect if there’s a clear, relevant new destination for that content.
At SEO Guru NYC, our team of experienced SEO consultants in New York understands the technical nuances of Google’s indexing process—from optimizing main content placement to resolving soft 404 issues that may hurt your site’s visibility. Whether you’re looking to improve on-page structure, implement semantic HTML, or boost your crawl efficiency, we can help. Ready to get your website indexed, ranked, and converting better? Contact us today for a free consultation.
