John Mueller

★★ Why do your local performance tests never match Search Console data?

The Core Web Vitals data in Search Console is based on what real users have experienced, aggregated over a month. Your local connection to the site may be very different from that of the average user,...

Nov 13, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Core Web Vitals really going to change your SEO ranking?

Core Web Vitals do not currently affect SEO (as of November 2020), but they will become a ranking factor as part of page experience in May 2021. A CLS greater than 0.25 could have a negative effect on...

Nov 13, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are orphan pages really invisible to Google?

Pages without internal links are considered non-critical by Google because you are hiding them from users navigating your site. Therefore, Google will assign them less weight in search results. If the...

Nov 13, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google really determine the publication date of an article?

To ensure that Google correctly recognizes the date of an article, make sure that the date displayed on the page matches the date in the structured data. Google can display a snippet with a date if it...

Nov 13, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you feature in Top Stories without being a news site?

Top Stories and the News tab in Google Search are specific variations of search. Any site can appear there, with no need to be a news site or listed in Google News. These surfaces utilize slightly dif...

Nov 13, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ 301 Redirect or Canonical for Merging Two Sites: What's the SEO Difference?

To merge two websites, use a 301 redirect if you want to completely combine the sites and clean up the old one. Use the canonical if you want to keep the old site active for reasons other than SEO whi...

Nov 13, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How many EMDs can you buy without triggering a doorway page filter?

Buying multiple exact match domains (location + product) can be viewed as doorway pages by Google. For 10-15 domains, this is probably not a major issue. Beyond 100 or 1000 domains, the risk that Goog...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you prioritize a long hub page or multiple detailed pages for your SEO?

There is no definitive answer indicating that a long page is better than several short pages. The strategy depends on your objectives. Having fewer, stronger pages can be effective, but sometimes sepa...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you still structure your pages now that Google understands passages?

Passage ranking helps Google better understand poorly structured pages, but that doesn't mean webmasters should do nothing. Properly structuring your content remains a best practice. It's more about h...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can Google truly spot all expired domains repurchased for their backlinks?

Google's systems attempt to understand how to manage expired domains repurchased for their backlinks. Google generally succeeds in identifying cases of abuse, although this is not always perfect. The ...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google always index the canonical page before the source page?

There is no fixed order between indexing duplicate content and processing the canonical tag. Sometimes Google directly follows the canonical link and indexes the destination page; other times, it firs...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do you really need to follow the H1-H6 hierarchy to rank on Google?

Google does not require a perfectly hierarchical heading structure. Having an H3 without a parent H2 or multiple H1s on a page is acceptable. There is no SEO advantage to having a clear structure, nor...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can missing subfolders in a URL actually harm your pages' SEO?

It is not necessary for all subfolders of a URL to be functional. Google treats URLs as individual identifiers of content. If /play/movie exists but /play returns 404, this does not affect the indexin...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ AVIF in Image SEO: Why Does Google Still Ignore This Format in Search Images?

AVIF is not listed in the public documentation for Image Search and is likely not supported at this time. Evergreen Googlebot can render these images for text-based web search, but not for Image Searc...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it really necessary to write lengthy articles to rank your recipe pages?

Google does not count the number of words on a page. There's no need to fill your recipe pages with thousands of words or long stories to rank well. Short pages with precise content can rank very well...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really show only one site when content is syndicated across multiple domains?

If you publish the same content on two different sites, Google is expected to choose only one to display in the results as Top Stories, not both. Just because the same content is published does not me...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really standardize your URL structure for better rankings?

Google does not require a consistent URL structure on your site. Mixed structures (with and without subfolders) technically work. However, a clear structure helps better analyze performance in Search ...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you choose your tech stack based on SEO?

There is no single web technology that is better for SEO. HTML, JavaScript, AMP, WordPress, or other CMS all work well by default in Google search. The choice should be based on your specific needs, y...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it enough to use the right text in FAQ Schema markup, or do you need to copy the exact HTML?

For FAQ Schema, the visible text on the page must correspond to the text in the JSON markup, but the HTML may vary slightly. You can have affiliate links in the visible text and remove the A tags from...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does BERT really make exact match keywords obsolete in SEO?

With BERT and the advancements in machine learning, the importance of having exact keywords on your pages is diminishing. It’s no longer necessary to include all variants (singular/plural, common miss...

Nov 10, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available