John Mueller

★★★ Does Google really limit Discover traffic based on server capacity?

Google imposes no traffic limits coming from Discover based on server capacity. If a site is deemed relevant to users, it will be displayed without visitor restrictions....

Jan 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Does Google Flag a Redirected URL as Blocked by Robots.txt When It Actually Isn't?

SEO expert Glenn Gabe indicated on Twitter that, in Search Console, if URL A redirects to URL B which is blocked by robots.txt, URL A will be marked as also blocked by this file, even though, in reali...

Jan 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Submitting a Disavow File Actually Hurt Your Site in Google's Eyes?

John Mueller explained for the 2,476th time 😉 that submitting a disavow file to Google does not provide any negative signal to Google about the site that submitted it: "The disavow tool is a purely te...

Jan 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Use 404 or 410 Status Codes for Better SEO Performance?

John Mueller reiterated on Reddit (sic) that using 404 (Page not found) or 410 (Gone) status codes does not pose a major problem for the search engine....

Jan 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do hyphens in URLs and content really harm your SEO?

Google treats words with or without hyphens as separate words and employs statistical methods to recognize that they are synonyms, not a specific linguistic model. For frequently searched terms, Googl...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google refuse to index images without a parent HTML page?

Images can only be indexed by Google if they are part of an HTML page. An image sitemap works with the image extension that indicates which images are found on which HTML landing pages. Submitting onl...

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

★★ Should you worry about a SEO penalty for being featured in Google News?

There is no disadvantage to being visible in Google News in addition to traditional search results. Google algorithmically checks whether the content meets News criteria. It is recommended to submit y...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is x-default really essential for a homepage with language redirection?

For a multilingual site where the homepage redirects based on the user's browser language, it is crucial to add x-default to the homepage. Without x-default, Google assumes that the homepage is not pa...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the technical duplicate content issue really harm your site's SEO?

Google handles technical duplicate content (multiple URLs generating the same content) by automatically selecting a canonical version to index. Only this canonical version counts for indexing and qual...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really delete your old content or improve it for SEO?

For old low-quality content, Google recommends either improving or completely removing it. Removal is done by returning a 404/410 or noindex. Just let Google recrawl naturally, without using the manua...

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 take your pages out of Google's index?

The URL removal tool does not remove pages from Google's systems but only hides their visibility in search results. The pages remain indexed and count towards the site. To truly remove content, you mu...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does HTTP/2 really enhance your site's Core Web Vitals?

The switch to HTTP/2 crawling by Google does not influence speed metrics visible to users in the Search Console reports. The speed advantage pertains only to Google's crawling side, not the measured u...

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

★★ Do homepage links really boost crawl frequency?

Google crawls pages that receive links from the homepage more frequently. These internal links help Google recognize that these are important pages for the site that deserve to be crawled more often....

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google rewrite your titles and meta descriptions even with your optimizations?

Google does not always display 100% of the title and description of all pages in the search results. The systems attempt to automatically determine which titles and descriptions are optimal, and can t...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you detail each URL in a reconsideration request after a manual penalty?

For a reconsideration request after a manual action, it is sufficient to clearly indicate what problem was identified and what measures were taken to correct it. There is no need to provide all techni...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does technical duplicate content really penalize your site?

When Google detects technical duplicate content (multiple URLs pointing to the same content), it chooses a canonical URL and only indexes that one. Only the indexed version counts for the site's quali...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ 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