John Mueller

★★ Can 307 HSTS redirects really harm your site's SEO?

Googlebot does not see the 307 HSTS redirects that you would see in a browser, and this poses no issue for SEO. 307 HSTS redirects do not affect Google's crawling....

Oct 28, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Publishing First Really Guarantee Google Will Recognize You as the Original Author?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the fact that Google indexes content first does not make that content original and "canonical". In other words, just because a spammer plagiarizes your content b...

Oct 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Should You Really Limit the Number of Outbound Links on a Web Page?

For years, Google has indicated that there is no limit to the number of outbound links (internal or external) on a web page that are read by the search engine's robots. However, Gary Illyes indicated ...

Oct 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Your Slow Site Penalize Your Fast Pages?

John Mueller explained in a hangout that generally, the search engine uses granular data to analyze and test each page of a site. But sometimes, particularly regarding web performance (loading time), ...

Oct 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Can Google Penalty Reconsideration Reviews Take Anywhere from 1 Week to Several Months?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the timeframe for processing a reconsideration request for a site that has received a manual action could vary from one week to several months, without any real ...

Oct 19, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why do your rendering tests fail while Google indexes your page correctly?

Google's testing tools (Mobile-Friendly Test) have shorter timeouts than actual indexing to provide quick answers. If rendering works in the URL Inspection tool but not in the tests, it’s likely a tim...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really create keywords from your content, or is the process the other way around?

Google does not read content to decide which keywords to target. Instead, Google receives a query and searches for documents containing those words via an inverted index, then ranks those documents. G...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really think twice before splitting your site into multiple domains?

Dividing a site into multiple domains is even more challenging than merging sites. Google generally recommends concentrating content rather than splitting it, unless there are very good business reaso...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do you really need to specify a time zone in the lastmod tag of your XML sitemap?

The last modified date in an XML sitemap must include a time zone according to the datetime standard. Using 'Z' indicates UTC, but other time zones can be specified. Google uses this data as a guide t...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does a 302 redirect ultimately equate to a 301 in terms of SEO?

Using a 302 redirect instead of a 301 for a permanent migration will lengthen the canonicalization time, but in the long run, the difference will not be significant. However, a 301 remains the recomme...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does alternating between noindex and index jeopardize your crawl budget?

Frequently alternating between noindex and index on pages disrupts Google. Pages with prolonged noindex are treated as 404s and crawled less frequently, making sitemap signals ineffective....

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does recovery from a Page Layout penalty take months?

After fixing issues related to the Page Layout algorithm (excessive ads above the fold), recovery is not instant. Google must reprocess a large part of the site to understand that the problem is resol...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are link exchanges for content really punishable by Google?

If you exchange content (such as product reviews) for backlinks, it may be considered a problematic link exchange by Google's Web Spam team. It is recommended to use nofollow links in this case to avo...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does a domain migration really transfer all ranking signals?

During a simple domain migration (one-to-one), Google typically transfers all ranking signals. Google has worked long to make these migrations as smooth as possible, and in most cases, they work very ...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Google really evaluate Core Web Vitals section by section on your site?

Google tries to be as granular as possible in assessing Core Web Vitals. If your site has a clear structure (subdirectories or subdomains), Google can treat slow and fast sections differently. Without...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does merging two websites lead to traffic loss even with perfect redirects?

Merging two sites is more challenging than a simple migration because Google needs to recalculate the internal linking structure, determine which pages are relevant, and how they connect to the rest o...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really prioritize incremental linking for pagination instead of linking everything from page 1?

To help Google focus on the first page of a paginated series, link the pages incrementally (page 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc.) instead of linking everything from page 1. This signals to Google that the first ...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really host your news blog on the same domain as your product site?

To add a news section to a product site, it is recommended to keep it on the existing domain rather than creating a new domain. This allows for immediate benefit from the authority of the site. A clea...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google impose a maximum threshold for ads within the viewport?

There is no specific percentage or pixel limit for ad sizes within the Page Layout algorithm. Google does not indicate that ads should represent a maximum of X% of the viewport or Y pixels....

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is splitting a website into multiple domains a strategic mistake to avoid?

Separating a website into multiple domains is almost harder than merging sites, as the internal linking changes completely. Google generally recommends focusing content rather than splitting it, unles...

Oct 16, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available