John Mueller

★★ 404 or noindex for deindexing: which method should you really prefer?

Using 404 or noindex to remove pages from the index produces the same final result. Noindex can be slightly faster, but the difference is negligible at the scale of a site. Choose the most practical m...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you reconfigure Search Console every time you migrate from www to non-www?

When changing a prefix (www/non-www), you must verify the new property if the verification is prefix-based. Domain verification avoids this problem. Search Console is not required for the website's op...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really worry when a 404 page turns back to 200?

Changing a 404 page to 200 does not incur any penalty. Google normally reindexes the new content. However, a long-term 404 page gets crawled less frequently (possibly every two months). Thus, repeated...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why do your rich snippets only show up in site query and not in regular SERPs?

When technically valid rich snippets that comply with guidelines do not display normally but appear via a site query, it can indicate that the quality of the site is not reaching the required level to...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google refuse to track featured snippets in Search Console?

Featured snippets are not distinguished in Search Console because Google treats them as normal search results. Their presence can be indicated by a position 1 and their absence by a lower position, vi...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do uppercase URLs really create duplicate content that Google penalizes?

Google treats URLs as case-sensitive. Identical URLs with uppercase/lowercase variations create technical duplicate content. Small sites manage this easily, but very large sites must normalize via con...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can your staging URLs be indexed even without any links pointing to them?

Even without visible links, development URLs can be discovered by Google through browser extensions that track website popularity or through public mailing lists where developers share links via email...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the URL switch between AMP and canonical HTML capable of really harming your ranking?

Switching from the AMP version to the canonical HTML version (or vice versa) does not change the page ranking. It’s solely a matter of displayed URL. If a drop in ranking coincides with an AMP change,...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ What happens when you migrate from www to non-www without 301 redirects, and how does it destroy your SEO?

When transitioning from www to non-www (or vice versa), 301 redirects are essential. Without redirects, Google sees the old version as broken and gradually removes it, treating the new version as a co...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is the URL Parameters Tool in Search Console really unnecessary for your e-commerce site?

For most e-commerce sites, the URL Parameters Tool is unnecessary if canonicals, noindex, and internal links are correctly configured. It is really only useful for very large sites experiencing a surg...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really stop adding the current year to your SEO titles?

Adding the current year to article titles (e.g. 'how to create a website in 2020') does not help with ranking. Google does not have an algorithm that favors content featuring the current year. This pr...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do you really need to follow technical guidelines to achieve a featured snippet?

Google has no explicit technical guidelines for obtaining featured snippets. They are normal search results displayed differently. The algorithms automatically determine their appearance, which can fl...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you balance internal navigation to maximize both crawling and ranking?

Internal navigation serves two purposes for Google: enabling complete discovery of site pages and understanding which pages are important and how they are interconnected. It is essential to find a bal...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is server authentication the only real shield against indexing staging environments?

The best method to prevent the indexing of staging environments is server-side authentication (password or IP restriction). While robots.txt or noindex tags work, they can be mistakenly pushed to prod...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really rely on external testers instead of SEO tools to evaluate quality?

To identify quality issues on a site, Google recommends seeking the opinions of external individuals unfamiliar with the site, rather than relying solely on SEO tools. These independent testers can us...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does HTTPS restrict access to critical SEO features?

HTTPS is a necessary condition to use many features of modern browsers, including geolocation, autofill, camera access, progressive web apps, and push notifications....

Sep 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really be worried about an HTTPS migration impacting your SEO rankings?

Migrating from HTTP to HTTPS generally does not negatively affect a site’s ranking. It is still the same website integrated in the same way into the web, and the HTTPS boost is too weak to be visible ...

Sep 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does HTTPS really boost rankings in Google Search?

Google Search gives a slight ranking boost to pages that properly use HTTPS. However, this ranking signal remains quite weak and is generally not visible separately from other ranking factors....

Sep 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really keep HTTP to HTTPS redirections forever?

HTTP to HTTPS redirections should ideally remain in place forever. Once a site has migrated to HTTPS, there is no reason not to maintain these redirections permanently....

Sep 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do free SSL certificates harm your Google rankings?

Any SSL certificate supported by modern browsers like Chrome is suitable for Google Search. Free certificates, especially those provided by Let's Encrypt, are perfectly appropriate for an HTTPS migrat...

Sep 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available