John Mueller

★★★ Do affiliate links with 302 redirects really pose a cloaking problem for Google?

For affiliate links, it's crucial to either use a nofollow attribute or block the redirect URL via robots.txt. There is no cloaking issue if the link appears as an internal link to the user but redire...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google continue crawling 301 redirected URLs for over a year?

Even after more than a year of a 301 redirect, Google may continue to crawl the old URLs if there are external links pointing to them. However, after a few passes, Google switches the canonical to the...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that Googlebot ignores your 'Load more' buttons and how can you fix that?

For lazy loading content, Google recommends using the Intersection Observer API. Googlebot renders pages with an extremely long viewport and can load content detected as visible. Scroll events or 'Loa...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does JavaScript for Navigation and Content Really Hurt SEO?

Using JavaScript for navigation and content is not automatically bad for SEO. You need to test with the URL Inspection Tool to verify if Google can see the links and content in the rendered HTML....

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are content clusters really recognized by Google?

Google does not have a specific concept of 'content cluster'. It does not identify through markup or tags that this is a content cluster. Google simply analyzes the internal linking to understand whic...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really verify all your redirected domains in Search Console?

If you're using multiple domains in your website's setup, even if they redirect elsewhere, you should verify them in Search Console to gain access to error information for those URLs....

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why isn't Search Console showing any Core Web Vitals data for your site?

If Search Console is not showing a Page Experience report, it is likely because Google does not have enough site data, based on the Chrome User Experience Report. You would then need to manually test ...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is lazy loading really compatible with Google indexing?

For lazy loading, Google recommends using the Intersection Observer API. Googlebot uses a very long viewport during rendering and will be able to index content visible within this viewport. Scroll eve...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do chain redirects sabotage your site restructuring efforts?

During restructurings, redirects should lead to the final destination as quickly as possible, not through multiple progressive steps. Each redirect step takes time to be processed and causes fluctuati...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does traffic really have no impact on Google rankings?

Google does not use traffic as a ranking factor for search. For Core Web Vitals, Google does not differentiate where traffic comes from (social, paid, organic, bookmarks)....

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does internal linking really speed up the indexing of your new pages?

Indexing speed heavily relies on the internal linking structure. To accelerate the indexing of new pages, they need to be linked directly from the homepage or important pages. Pages buried deep in sub...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you stop using nofollow on About and Contact pages?

Having an 'About' or 'Contact' page linked throughout the site is standard structure. Google knows this is a normal part of a site and does not consider it the most important page just because it is l...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do iframes really kill your content's indexing?

You cannot rely on iframe content being found and indexed by Google. Google tries to determine whether the iframe content is truly part of the surrounding page or an independent page. To ensure indexi...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google weigh its ranking signals through machine learning?

For certain ranking signals, Google utilizes a lot of machine learning to determine how to integrate them, while for others, it uses less. This largely depends on whether Google has a clear metric to ...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do orphan pages hurt your SEO even when indexed?

Creating pages that are only accessible via the XML sitemap (not linked within the site) is a bad practice. Google can find and index them, but can't give them any weight because there is no context o...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really avoid multiple progressive redirects to protect your SEO?

Restructuring a site with multiple successive redirects (one per month over a year) is poor SEO practice. Each redirect step takes time to process and causes fluctuations. You should redirect directly...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why doesn’t Google treat all 404 errors the same way in Search Console?

Google differentiates between the pages we are trying to index and others. If a page is in the sitemap and returns a 404, it is considered an error. If it’s just a random URL returning a 404, it’s mar...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you ditch dynamic rendering for Google indexing?

Dynamic rendering (client-side version for users, server-side version for Googlebot) is no longer recommended. It’s easy to misconfigure, and Googlebot can index errors that are invisible to users. Do...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can intrusive pop-ups really jeopardize your Google indexing?

Pop-ups that cover the screen or block interaction with content (even partially) are considered intrusive interstitials, unless they are legally required (cookies, age verification). They can cause SE...

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really deploy thousands of 301 redirects without risking your SEO?

Adding more than 1000 301 redirects at once is totally acceptable and does not affect SEO. It is normal during a rebranding or redesign. The number of redirects is completely irrelevant....

May 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available