John Mueller

★★ Does Google's Natural Language API truly reflect how search operates?

Google's Natural Language API can be useful for testing entity recognition, but it does not exactly match what Google uses in search. Search takes into account much more context and surrounding text t...

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

★★ Do noindex pages really block the transmission of value through their links?

If an entire page is set to noindex, Google understands that there is no need to transmit value to the links present on that page. Adding the 'sponsored' attribute to the links helps Google's machine ...

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

★★★ Why doesn’t Google's URL removal tool actually take your pages out of its index?

To truly remove content from Google's index, you need to return a 404, 410 code, or use the noindex tag. The URL removal tool merely temporarily hides pages from the results without taking them out of...

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

★★ 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

★★ Does HTTP/2 really boost crawl budget or does it just overload your servers?

With HTTP/2, Google can crawl more pages because requests are managed differently. However, some servers may be under the same strain as before. Google adjusts the crawl volume based on the reactions ...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really be concerned about Google’s HTTP/2 crawling?

Google has begun rolling out HTTP/2 crawling. The rollout is being done gradually across samples of compatible sites, with notifications sent via Search Console. The goal is to ensure everything works...

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

★★★ 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

★★★ 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

★★★ 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

★★★ 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

★★★ Should you really implement all Schema.org types to boost your SEO?

Google supports a subset of the Schema.org types. Focus on the rich result types listed in the Google Search documentation for visible effects. Other Schema.org types likely won't have any visible imp...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Infinite Scroll Really Hinder Your Content's Indexing on Google?

For Infinite Scroll, having paginated links is very important for crawling and indexing. The History API alone is not enough as Googlebot does not trigger user actions like scrolling. Without paginate...

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

★★★ 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

★★★ 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

★★★ Should you really redirect ALL URLs during a migration?

When migrating that changes URL parameters, redirect old URLs to new ones to preserve value. At a minimum, redirect the most important URLs identified through Search Console traffic. Redirects help tr...

Jan 15, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available