John Mueller

★★★ Should you really include HTML pages in an image sitemap instead of just JPG files?

Image sitemaps must reference the URLs of HTML pages that contain the images, with the image extension to indicate which images are present. Submitting only image files in a sitemap is ineffective, as...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Where do Core Web Vitals data in Search Console really come from?

Search Console bases its Core Web Vitals data on the Chrome User Experience Report (field data). Search Console does not invent these figures and does not conduct its own measurements. You need to inv...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ What does Google really consider to be crossing the line with paid links?

Paying bloggers to write articles with links or paying for PR articles with links constitutes paying for links, which goes against the guidelines. These links must have nofollow or rel=sponsored to be...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it really necessary to add nofollow to every link on a noindex page?

If an entire page is marked as noindex, Google already sees that no signals should be transmitted. Adding the sponsored or nofollow attribute to individual links may help machine learning systems but ...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does SafeSearch really block your rich results?

If a site or pages are marked by SafeSearch as adult content, they will not be eligible for rich results on those specific pages....

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do Web Stories really count as regular pages for Google?

Web Stories are regular pages that Google crawls and indexes as such. They can be implemented before the specific visual features are activated in your country....

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the switch to HTTP/2 by Googlebot impact your Core Web Vitals?

The switch to HTTP/2 crawling by Googlebot has no impact on the user-visible speed metrics (Core Web Vitals). These performance reports remain unchanged as they measure the real user experiences, not ...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Your HTML Buttons Sabotaging Your Crawl Budget?

HTML button elements are not considered links by Googlebot. For a link that looks like a button, use a normal HTML link styled in CSS instead of a button with JavaScript....

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do complex migrations really lead to ranking fluctuations?

During major migrations (domain change, CMS change, structure change, hosting), ranking fluctuations are inevitable. It's impossible to guarantee that the final setup will have equivalent SEO to the i...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it really necessary to optimize for search intent or is it just a semantic trap?

Search intent is based on what users are looking for. We don't optimize for intent but for what users are searching for. Analyze the queries and conduct user studies to identify the aspects to cover....

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really delete your old low-quality content to boost your SEO?

Removing or improving low-quality content does not negatively impact rankings. Google only accounts for indexed pages to evaluate overall quality. It is better to improve existing content, but if that...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do hyphens really disrupt the exact match of your keywords?

Google recognizes hyphenated words as separate terms. Over time, Google's statistical systems automatically learn to treat certain variants as synonyms, especially for frequently searched terms, but t...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does the position of a link in the structure really affect crawl frequency?

Google crawls pages it considers important for a site more frequently. Links from the homepage help Google understand that a page is important and deserves to be crawled more often. Pages like legal n...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can hreflang really substitute for internal links on your international pages?

Hreflang helps with page swapping by country but is not equivalent to a regular HTML link. For new country pages, internal HTML links are necessary for Google to understand how they fit into the site....

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does using noindex during migration mean you're losing all your SEO value in Google's eyes?

If you use noindex on old URLs during a migration instead of redirecting, all the value collected by those old URLs will be lost....

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does choosing ccTLD or subdirectories really give you an SEO advantage for international markets?

There is no inherent SEO advantage to using ccTLDs or a generic domain with subdirectories for international purposes. Both approaches are valid. The choice should be based on long-term considerations...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google ignore your title and meta description tags?

Google does not always show exactly the title and description defined in the meta tags. Google's systems attempt to automatically determine which title and description are most suitable for each searc...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really worry about Google's transition to HTTP/2 crawling?

Google has started to deploy HTTP/2 crawling. The rollout is gradual with a sample of sites, and notifications are sent via Search Console. The goal is to proceed slowly to ensure that everything func...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you effectively manage content migration between multiple sites using Canonical or 301 Redirects?

To move content between multiple sites, you can either use the canonical (if the content remains on both sites but one is prioritized) or the 301 redirect (if the content no longer exists except on th...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the URL removal tool really prevent Google from crawling your pages?

Using the URL removal tool in Search Console simply hides pages from search results for about 6 months, but does not stop crawling or indexing. Pages remain in Google's systems and continue to be proc...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available