John Mueller

★★★ Should You Create Your XML Sitemap Manually or Use an Automated Tool?

John Mueller explained on Reddit that, for large-scale websites, creating XML Sitemap files manually is not recommended, but rather using a tool (plugin or otherwise) from the CMS being used......

May 25, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Will Google Penalize Your Pages After Removing a Noindex Tag?

John Mueller explained on Twitter that a page that was initially deindexed via a meta robots "noindex" tag and then had this tag removed at a later time returns to a "normal" indexation situation afte...

May 25, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really treat UGC just like your editorial content?

Google does not differentiate between content written by the site owner and that created by users (comments, discussions, complete pages). Any content published on a site is considered to be endorsed ...

May 19, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really use rel='ugc' on all links generated by your users?

By default, a website publisher cannot guarantee the quality of links added by users in user-generated content (UGC). Google provides the rel='ugc' link attribute to indicate that these links originat...

May 19, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you block all UGC content from Google indexing by default?

To manage a large volume of user-generated content, Google recommends blocking these pages from indexing by default (via a noindex meta tag) and allowing them to be indexed only after validating their...

May 19, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really mark all your UGC links with rel='ugc'?

For links added in user-generated content, Google recommends using the rel='ugc' attribute to signal that the site owner cannot guarantee the quality or relevance of these links....

May 19, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really treat all content published on your site in the same way?

Google does not differentiate between content written by the site's publisher and content generated by users (comments, discussions, full pages). Any content published on a site is considered content ...

May 19, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Noindex Your XML Sitemap to Optimize Crawl Budget?

Frédéric Dubut (Bing), followed by John Mueller (Google), explained on Twitter that there is absolutely no problem with setting an XML Sitemap file to "noindex" (via the HTTP header) and that the URLs...

May 18, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Google Core Updates Really Impact Your Google Business Profile?

John Mueller explained, once again on Twitter, that Google's "core updates" have no impact on the display of "My Business" data in the SERPs. The two systems are uncorrelated. That said, there can be ...

May 18, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Protect Yourself from Negative SEO with the Disavow File?

John Mueller explained, again on Twitter, that the disavow file system was not originally created to combat the phenomenon of Negative SEO: "Not to pour oil on the fire, but Negative SEO is not one of...

May 18, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it really necessary to avoid using multiple title and meta description tags on a single page?

Adding a second meta description or title tag on a page provides no SEO advantage. Google treats this as an extension of the existing tag. It's better simply to modify the unique tag already in place....

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are jump links really useless for Google's crawling?

Internal anchor links (with #) are not crawled by Google because they point to the same page. However, Google recognizes them and can sometimes display them in search results to direct the user direct...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you disavow ghost backlinks that are only visible in Search Console?

Backlinks from empty pages that are only visible in Search Console and not in other SEO tools are likely due to a technical error (empty for users, full for Googlebot). There is no reason to disavow t...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google only index one version when your country pages are nearly identical?

When two pages have identical or nearly identical content (same language, different countries), Google often chooses one as canonical, even with hreflang. Hreflang allows for swapping the displayed UR...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can you really block Googlebot state by state in the U.S. without breaking everything?

If you need to block certain U.S. states (not the entire country), you can block Googlebot based on the IP geolocation of the state, but it's technically challenging because the state-IP mapping is no...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are 500/503 errors lasting a few hours really invisible to your indexing?

Temporary server errors (500, 503) lasting a few hours are managed automatically by Google: systems wait and retry later. These errors are not reported in Search Console and do not affect indexing as ...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really reduce the number of language versions for hreflang?

For hreflang implementation, it is strongly recommended to have fewer pages (fewer language/regional variations) instead of creating landing pages for each country/language combination. Simplifying la...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Hreflang Really Ensure Accurate Geographic Targeting for Your International Traffic?

Hreflang is not an absolute directive. It is normal to see traffic from foreign countries landing on language versions that are not intended for those countries. Google recommends using a suggestion b...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really worry about 301 redirects and multiple 404 pages?

Having a lot of 301 redirects and 404 pages on a site is perfectly acceptable. There's nothing special you need to do with these pages, and there's no need to block them. It's a normal situation with ...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do temporary 404 errors during a migration really kill your SEO?

If pages return temporary 404s during a migration (for a few days) before redirects are set up, Google will recrawl the URLs, see the redirects, and treat them normally. The impact on ranking will be ...

May 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available