Some information about Google (and sometimes Bing) and its search engine, gathered unofficially here and there in recent days, with this week's program including a few answers to these questions: Can Google ignore all the links from sites that spam? Is there a risk in choosing a domain name too similar to another? Do Markdown versions of pages have any SEO value?
Google can ignore links from sites that spam
John Mueller reminds that if a site violates Google's anti-spam policies, its outgoing links can simply be ignored entirely ignored by Google. In other words, a site considered a spammer no longer passes any link value ("link juice") to the sites it points to.
John Mueller: " JI don't quite understand what you mean by "link penalty", but in general, if our systems detect that a site is generating outgoing links in an irrelevant way or not in accordance with our policies, we may choose to ignore all links coming from that site. For some sites, the added value of the links is simply not justified. "
Source : Search Engine Roundtable
Reliability rate: 
Agreed!
This is not new, but it is an important confirmation.
Goossip #2
Watch out for domains with names that are too similar
A webmaster was worried about having a domain very close to another (only one letter different). John Mueller replies that this is generally not a problem generally not a problem for SEO itself.
The only real identified risk: Google's functionality « Did you mean…? " If someone types your brand, Google may suggest the other domain thinking it's a typo, and this can happen for some time until Google understands that the two brands are distinct. The more "strong" the other domain is (age, reputation), the longer it may take.
Source : Search Engine Roundtable
Reliability rate: Agreed!
Choosing a domain too close to a competitor is not only an SEO risk (risk of confusion). It's also a legal risk (unfair competition) and a barrier to building a strong, memorable brand, especially if the two sites' businesses are similar.
Goossip #3
Markdown versions aren't very useful from an SEO standpoint
An SEO consultant saw claims circulating that Google Search Central would serve versions Markdown of its blog posts to boost its visibility in AI results. He digs into the subject, inspects the page's source code, and finds that the link to the Markdown version is not crawlable (accessible only via a JavaScript event, not via a standard href). He asks John Mueller if he's missing something.
John Mueller's response : Just because Google does something on its own sites doesn't mean it's an important SEO practice or even related to SEO.
Source : LinkedIn
Reliability rate: We have some doubts…
The SEO community tends to over-interpret every move Google makes. At the same time, you can't completely blame them!
The article “Goossips SEO: Spam, Domains & Markdown” was published on the site Abondance.
