John Mueller

★★ Do links in embedded tweets really affect your SEO?

When a tweet is embedded on a third-party site, Google can technically treat the links in that tweet as part of the page. However, Twitter heavily uses nofollow: these links generally have no direct S...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it true that Google is blocking the indexing of new sites?

There has been no general blocking of new sites or publishers since December 2019. Many new sites normally appear in search results. Reported cases concerning Google News have been forwarded to the Ne...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are URL parameters really a non-issue for SEO anymore?

URL parameters have not been an SEO problem for a long time. Google automatically handles the canonicalization of URLs with parameters. The parameter management tool is only useful for sites with tens...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it really necessary to index all pagination pages to optimize your SEO?

Google must index paginated pages to recover all content and internal links (e.g., products from an e-commerce category). Each paginated page needs to be linked with standard HTML links (next/previous...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why is Google so tight-lipped about its indexing incidents?

The indexing incident on August 10 was resolved quite quickly, and Google has very little additional information to share publicly. The incident on August 15 appears to have been very brief. Google do...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does nofollow really block indexing, or can Google still crawl those URLs?

Google can now follow nofollow links to discover new URLs and potentially index them. However, the passing of PageRank and ranking signals through nofollow remains independent and is not guaranteed: j...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it really necessary to nofollow site-wide links to your legal pages to optimize PageRank?

Having 10 links instead of just one to a legal page (privacy, contact) on every page of the site probably wouldn't change anything. Google understands that these pages are linked everywhere without be...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really combine signals from multiple links pointing to the same page?

Contrary to popular belief, Google does not limit itself to the first link found on a page. There is no single defined behavior: Google can combine signals from multiple links pointing to the same des...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can JavaScript really hide your links from Google without destroying them?

If an HTML link remains present in the rendered code even when a JavaScript event captures the click (e.g., mobile dropdown menu), Google processes it normally. The only problematic case is if the HTM...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can the JavaScript History API really force Google to change your canonical URL?

When JavaScript uses the History API to change the URL after the page has loaded, Google may interpret this change as a redirect and choose the modified URL as canonical. This behavior depends on the ...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do internal 301 redirects really dilute PageRank?

If your internal links point to URLs that redirect via 301, Google follows the redirect, identifies the final URL as canonical, and treats the link as if it points directly to the destination. No loss...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really set a crawl limit in Search Console?

The crawl limit setting in Search Console defines a maximum that Google will not exceed, not a volume that Google will always achieve. Google recommends keeping this setting on 'automatic' unless craw...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really have to choose between reducing duplicate content and using canonical tags?

Reducing duplicate content makes crawling and indexing easier, but it is unrealistic to completely eliminate duplication on all sites. The rel=canonical helps Google identify preferred versions. Both ...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really update the lastmod date of the sitemap for every minor change?

Google recommends using the lastmod date in sitemaps only for significant content changes, not for minor changes like an update of a counter or metric. Priority and changefreq are generally ignored by...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does a poorly configured sitemap really diminish your crawl budget?

The Crawl Budget is determined by two factors: Google's demand (how many pages need to be recrawled) and technical limits (server capacity, optional limit in Search Console). A poorly configured sitem...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google ignore identical modification dates in your sitemaps?

If all URLs in a sitemap have the same modification date (for example, today's date), Google completely ignores this lastmod field and uses the sitemap only to discover new URLs, not to prioritize re-...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Have links in guest posts really lost all SEO value?

If you are doing guest articles primarily to obtain links, it's safe to assume that these links generally hold no SEO value. This position from Google has been consistent for several years....

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do security alerts in Search Console really block Google's crawling?

Security alerts in Search Console (malware, phishing, hacked site) do not affect how Google crawls the site, but they can impact the display of pages in search results. Google remains cautious about w...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is rel=canonical in syndication really reliable for controlling indexing?

If you publish your content on other sites with a canonical link pointing to your page, Google can either index both pages separately (if they are sufficiently different) or choose a canonical URL by ...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does having ads on your site really hurt your Google rankings?

Adding advertising to a site does not negatively affect rankings, as long as certain rules are followed: visible content above the fold (not just ads), compliance with the Better Ads Standards. Moneti...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available