John Mueller

★★★ Can Artificial SERP Clicks Actually Boost Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller has once again reminded us that creating a "click machine" that would type queries into the search engine and then automatically click on your site's link without returning to the SERP af...

Nov 30, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Longer Link Anchors Actually Better for SEO Than Short Ones?

John Mueller explained during a hangout that providing a long link anchor could be a good thing because it gives more contextual information about what the target page offers and this may potentially ...

Nov 30, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can Plagiarism of Your Content Actually Hurt Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller also reminded on Twitter that the fact that other sites copy your content will not cause your content to rank lower in the search engine's results....

Nov 30, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you use rel=canonical between multiple sites in the same network to prevent signal dilution?

If a publisher has multiple sites and publishes the same content across their network, they should use rel=canonical to indicate the preferred version. This allows value to concentrate on one version ...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really delete your disavow file or risk a manual action?

If you delete your disavow file, all those links will once again be treated as normal links. The Web Spam team could then review the site and take manual action if the links are problematic and there ...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do old customer reviews harm the ranking of your product listings?

On product pages of e-commerce sites, having old user or professional reviews is perfectly acceptable. Google does not penalize pages for having old reviews, as they can be very helpful for users....

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can Google really ignore your links without giving you any warning?

It is very likely that Google is already automatically ignoring certain specific types of links, as these are links that are very easy for Google's systems to identify and neutralize....

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do keyword-rich anchor texts serve as a negative signal for Google?

Regarding footer links, Google examines the specific anchor text. If the anchor is heavily stuffed with keywords to promote the site, it's more problematic. If it's just the URL or the company name, i...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really combine hreflang signals from HTML, sitemaps, and HTTP headers?

Google combines hreflang annotations from HTML, sitemaps, and HTTP headers. If you have hreflangs in the HTML and others in the sitemap, Google will try to combine and add them together....

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the cached page truly reflect what Google indexes?

The cached page is a technical copy of the fetched HTML, not a representation of what is actually indexed. To check indexing, use the URL Inspection Tool. JavaScript may not execute on cached pages as...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ What happens when your hreflang tags contradict each other between HTML and sitemap?

A hreflang conflict occurs when the same country-language combination points to a different URL in HTML and in the sitemap. In this case, Google does not prioritize either one: it likely ignores this ...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the search volume for your brand really boost your SEO?

A brand's search volume is not useful as a ranking factor because when someone searches for that brand, Google would already try to show the brand's pages since they are likely very relevant to those ...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really stop using the URL inspection tool to index your pages?

Websites should be able to be crawled and indexed normally within a reasonable timeframe without using manual tools like the URL inspection tool. If you're depending on this tool for normal indexing, ...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really target multiple countries with a single hreflang page?

Hreflang allows a single page to target multiple country/language versions. You can have one page for English in Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and a different page for English ...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do Google’s manual actions really focus on global patterns, or can they also sanction isolated cases?

Manual actions generally involve a much broader pattern than just one bad example. It may happen that some individual examples provided are debatable, but they fit into a larger problematic pattern....

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google translate your queries to display foreign content?

In certain areas where content is scarce in the local language, Google can translate the query into another language, search for results in that language, and present them via Google Translate clearly...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really stop using the URL Inspection Tool to get your pages indexed?

The URL Inspection Tool is fantastic for urgent situations where an error needs to be quickly resolved, but it shouldn't be used for regular updates or adding new content. Using this tool for routine ...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the overall quality of a site truly influence its crawl frequency?

To ensure Google crawls your site more frequently and retrieves the latest information, focus on enhancing the overall quality of your site so that Google's systems are motivated to seek out the lates...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you verify if your cookie banners are blocking Google’s indexing?

To check if Google can crawl and index your content behind cookie banners, use the URL Inspection Tool for a live test. Look at the HTML version that Google uses for rendering and indexing, and check ...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the length of your anchor text really impact your SEO?

Google does not treat long or short anchor texts differently. Whether the anchor contains two words or seven words, Google simply uses it to provide additional context about the pages. A longer text m...

Nov 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available