Google Explains Why Its Crawler Ignores Your Resource Hints via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google's clarification that its crawler ignores resource hints due to their potential for manipulation marks a significant shift in how website owners should approach search engine optimization. This means that website owners who have been relying on resource hints to influence Googlebot's crawling behavior may need to reassess their strategies, as these hints are not being taken into account. Specifically, website owners should focus on other factors that can improve their website's crawlability and indexing, rather than relying on resource hints. To adapt to this change, website owners can take the following actionable steps: review their website's HTML validity to ensure it is error-free, even though it's not a ranking factor; focus on optimizing their website's structure and content to improve crawlability; and regularly monitor their website's crawl stats and adjust their SEO strategies accordingly, using tools like Google Search Console to track Googlebot's activity and identify areas for improvement.