John Mueller

★★★ Do e-commerce transactions actually influence Google rankings?

Purchases made by consumers on e-commerce sites are not utilized by Google as a ranking factor in organic search....

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should your alt text really describe the image rather than optimize your keywords?

Alt text should describe what the image shows, not include all the site's keywords. This helps users understand the images and does not benefit from merely including keywords....

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can you really block your site from Google Discover in certain countries?

Google Discover operates algorithmically and organically, and there is no manual method to block a Discover site in a specific country....

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can superfluous text on product pages harm your Google ranking?

Arbitrarily adding text to a product page to cover potential keywords does not benefit you. Google employs keyword stuffing algorithms to identify this type of unnecessary content and may refrain from...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you remove hreflang from noindex or redirecting pages?

When hreflang code is applied to noindex or redirecting pages, Google ignores these specific pages in the hreflang linkage....

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ What happens when you merge two websites: Is cumulative traffic really guaranteed?

Combining two websites can lead to an inevitable ranking adjustment. Google does not guarantee a simple sum of traffic from the old sites due to this merger. The impact can be positive, neutral, or ne...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really give up national domains for a generic .com in international SEO?

Generic domains (like .com) can be geographically targeted in Search Console, which is not possible with country-specific domains (like .de, for example). To reach multiple countries, it is better to ...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does server location really influence Google rankings?

Generally, the server location has minimal impact on rankings if the loading time difference is measured in milliseconds. Speed, as long as it remains within normal limits, should not be a direct obst...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can A/B testing really harm your natural search ranking?

A/B tests do not pose a problem for SEO. Googlebot does not use cookies, so it will potentially analyze each version without a pre-existing cookie. Use canonical tags to indicate the main version of a...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Googlebot really execute all your JavaScript, or is it just bluffing?

Googlebot executes JavaScript to index the final content rendered by it. However, if the analysis shows that the rendering of JavaScript does not lead to major changes, Googlebot may process the page ...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Googlebot really crawl millions of pages on very large sites?

There is no strict limit on the number of pages that Googlebot will crawl on a site. If a site is recognized as important, Google may crawl up to millions of pages, but this behavior can vary based on...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that Site Search Box markup is really unnecessary for displaying the search box in Google?

Site Search Box markup does not affect the display of the site search box in Google's search results. It mainly depends on user behavior rather than semantic markup....

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really show Googlebot an ad-free version of your pages?

It is acceptable to treat Googlebot as a premium user who sees ad-free pages if this aligns with the user experience, but it is advisable to limit this to content protected by a paywall....

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really hide navigation links on an e-commerce site?

Rather than hiding links or using only JavaScript techniques to manage extensive catalogs, it's advisable to make some content accessible via 'rel=nofollow' tags or canonical tags, rather than simply ...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really remove links from search results without affecting the index?

The tool to suggest outdated links in the new Search Console allows you to temporarily remove pages from search results, but not from the index at all. For a permanent removal, you must use a 404 erro...

Feb 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why do Search Console and API data differ (and should you be worried)?

Data aggregations in Search Console may slightly differ from the API results due to the distinct aggregation methods used, particularly with privacy filtering....

Feb 18, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do HTML5 semantic tags really impact Google rankings?

Google can understand the structure of a page without HTML5 tags. Using tags like <main> or <article> does not directly improve SEO ranking but promotes better overall readability....

Feb 18, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do major site migrations always seem to lead to ranking drops?

During major migrations or restructurings, expect significant ranking fluctuations as Google needs to reassess the new structure of the site and its relevance....

Feb 18, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does schema.org markup really enhance natural SEO?

Broader schema.org markup can help understand a page, but only certain properties lead to rich displays in search results. Make sure to use those that are documented and supported by Google....

Feb 18, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really recycle exhausted product URLs to maintain PageRank?

For replaced products, use the old URL for the new product and move the old product to an archive section to maintain the authority of the page and its visibility in search results....

Feb 18, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available