John Mueller

★★★ Does structured data really influence rankings on Google?

Adding additional types of structured data (such as online schema) does not change page rankings. It provides more information to Google and can generate different rich results, but it does not affect...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really use unavailable_after to manage temporary content?

To control which pages remain indexed, use the noindex meta tag on pages that you no longer want to index. For temporary content like events, use the unavailable_after tag to tell Google when a page w...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can removing pages from a sitemap actually limit their crawling by Google?

Sitemaps help Google crawl better, but do not limit what is crawled. Removing pages from a sitemap does not prevent Google from crawling or indexing them. Google crawls the site normally even without ...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Discover really work without strict technical criteria?

There are no specific technical requirements, mandatory formats, or necessary meta tags to appear in Discover (except for not blocking crawls). You need to create content that your audience really lik...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Core Web Vitals truly a ranking factor or just smoke and mirrors?

In June 2020, Core Web Vitals are not yet a ranking factor. Google announced that it would give approximately six months' notice before using them. The position changes observed at the announcement da...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it true that a well-ranked website can lose its relevance without making any mistakes?

Don't stop once the site is well-ranked. The web evolves quickly, and a stagnant site can become less relevant even without errors. You need to continue optimizing, anticipating trends, and maintainin...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google really assess the importance of your pages through internal linking?

Google determines the importance of a page by its position in the site architecture and internal links. A page linked from the homepage with significant anchor text will be judged more critical than a...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does image quality really affect rankings in Google’s web search?

The quality of images (resolution, sharpness) does not affect rankings in standard web search, but influences how these images appear in Google Images. If you are targeting visual search traffic, impr...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Googlebot send an HTTP referrer when crawling your site?

Googlebot does not send an HTTP referrer when crawling, even when following redirects or links. Consequently, pop-ups or conditional messages based on the referrer will never be seen by Google and do ...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the source of content affect the crawl budget?

There is no difference in the crawl budget based on whether the content is written by you, a team of writers, or generated by users. The important factor is to structure the site so that Google can cr...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you include all your pages in a general sitemap?

General sitemaps must include all your pages. News sitemaps are limited to the last 1000 articles and are specifically meant for Google News, but can be used by any website. Including all URLs in a si...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does user-generated content really expose your site's SEO liability?

If you publish user-generated content (UGC) on your site, Google considers it to be content you have chosen to publish. It is not necessary to use rel=UGC, but if the content is of low quality, it's u...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Core Web Vitals: Why do your laboratory tests fail to impact your ranking?

Google uses field data from the Chrome User Experience Report for ranking, not laboratory data. Testing tools (extension, PageSpeed Insights in lab mode) are useful for testing and seeing the immediat...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google only crawl a fraction of your known pages?

Google has only crawled a portion of known URLs from a site since its inception. If Google crawls 20,000 pages out of 100,000 known (via sitemap), only those 20,000 can be indexed. This number increas...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google suddenly show more non-indexed URLs in Search Console?

Google now prominently displays discovered but non-indexed URLs in Search Console. This is not a change in indexing itself but in the way this information is reported. Google has always been selective...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why hasn't your site been migrated to mobile-first indexing yet?

Google has been notifying sites about significant problems detected ahead of the mobile-first indexing migration for quite some time. The remaining unmigrated sites are mainly either sites with no mai...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do pop-ups after a 301 redirect really harm your SEO?

Displaying an informative pop-up after a 301 redirect to inform users that they have been redirected does not affect SEO. Google follows the redirect without sending a referrer and likely will never e...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really estimate the Core Web Vitals of low-traffic sites?

For sites lacking sufficient traffic in the Chrome User Experience Report, Google cannot display Core Web Vitals data in Search Console. However, the site will not be excluded from search results: Goo...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Google really testing the AMP version for Core Web Vitals even if the mobile version is indexed?

For evaluating Core Web Vitals and the page experience score, Google tests the version that users actually see. If a site has an AMP version, it is the AMP version that will be tested for speed and us...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is JavaScript navigation without URLs ruining your site’s mobile-first indexing?

If a site's mobile version uses only JavaScript for navigation, without normal URLs (everything stays on the same URL with changing layers), Google will not be able to crawl and index the content. Wit...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available