John Mueller

★★★ Can Google Penalize Your Site for Another Site's SEO Violations in Your Network?

John Mueller explained on Twitter that if a website violating Google's guidelines is subject to a manual action, and the search engine teams detect other similar sites belonging to the same network, t...

Feb 08, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the text/HTML ratio really useless for SEO?

Google does not consider text/HTML ratio for SEO. It is not a ranking factor. It can play a minor role for speed, or in extreme cases of huge pages (hundreds of MB) exceeding download limits, but this...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do 301 redirects really transfer all ranking signals without any loss?

With a 301 redirect, Google groups the old and new URLs together and transfers all signals (links, etc.) to the canonical URL (usually the destination). It's also necessary to update internal and exte...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google keep crawling outdated 404 URLs on your site?

It is normal for Google to check old URLs that return 404 from time to time, even after years. This is not a sign of a problem, just the systems ensuring nothing is missed. Old sites naturally accumul...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google group your pages to measure Core Web Vitals?

Google does not have CWV data for every individual page. Pages are grouped according to the available data: at the domain/origin level if there is little data, or by groups of similar pages if there i...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google overlook your Lighthouse scores when ranking your site?

For the Core Web Vitals ranking signal, it is the field data that is taken into account, not lab data....

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do you really need to wait 30 days to see the impact of your Core Web Vitals optimizations in PageSpeed Insights?

Field data in PageSpeed Insights is delayed by about 30 days. To quickly verify if changes are improving performance, use lab data from testing tools, then wait 30 days to see the actual impact in the...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that your PageSpeed Insights tests don't accurately reflect what Google really measures regarding Core Web Vitals?

For ranking with Core Web Vitals, Google uses what real users see (field data), not the renders from Googlebot or PageSpeed Insights. Lab tools (controlled environment) provide predictions, not actual...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why do PageSpeed Insights and Googlebot show different results for your site?

PageSpeed Insights is based on Chrome, not Googlebot. Googlebot also uses Chrome for rendering but must obey robots.txt for all embedded content (CSS/JS), unlike PageSpeed Insights. The differences be...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why can manual link actions take several months to get a response?

Manual link actions can take several months to be reviewed. Resubmitting a reconsideration request does not have negative effects, but duplicates are ignored. If it takes a long time, consult the help...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you create related content to boost your topical authority?

Creating content on topics related to your main field (e.g., laptop reviews if you sell laptops) helps build a reputation for knowledge in this area for both Google and users. This strengthens trust a...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really use rel=canonical for syndicated content?

For syndicated content, Google recommends using rel=canonical to point to the original source. If that's not possible, Google will try to recognize the syndicated content and rank the original source....

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google convert your SVGs into pixel images internally?

Google converts SVG files into pixel images internally to process them consistently with other images, particularly to create thumbnails and manage sizing. Vector formats like SVG do not have a well-d...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are intrusive interstitials really a negative ranking factor?

Intrusive interstitials that prevent users from interacting with the page content are considered a negative ranking factor. If the page takes a moment and then displays the full content, it is not an ...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do user comments really count for SEO?

Google considers comments as part of the page content. While recognized as the comments section, they are treated slightly differently. If users find your pages through the comments, deleting those co...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you choose an exact match title or a user-optimized title?

There is no definitive answer as to whether an exact match title or a user-optimized title ranks better. Google understands synonyms and context. It's essential to test both approaches to see which at...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Core Web Vitals: Which version truly impacts your ranking when Google shows the AMP?

When Google has data for both AMP and non-AMP versions and displays the AMP version in the results, it is the data from the AMP version that is used for ranking. This principle also applies to interna...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really track Core Web Vitals for AMP and non-AMP pages separately?

Google tracks CWV data for both AMP and non-AMP versions separately based on actual user data. If users go directly to the non-AMP URLs and use Search to access the AMP URLs, both versions will have d...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can a poorly optimized homepage really penalize an entire site?

Google tries to be as granular as possible, page by page. But the pages of a site are linked to each other. If an important page (e.g., homepage) has a poor score, it will affect the other pages becau...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google omit certain unique sites in its results?

Two different sites with unique content, even on the same topic (e.g., two astrology sites), should be ranked individually. If Google treats them as identical and omits one, it's potentially a problem...

Feb 05, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available