John Mueller

★★★ Can you really rank without backlinks in SEO?

Sites can rank solely based on their content without inbound links, but this takes time. Promoting your site through other means than just adding links can help improve site recognition and potentiall...

Feb 07, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How should you craft a reconsideration request after a manual penalty for low-quality content?

When submitting a reconsideration request after a manual action for low-quality content, it's advisable to detail how many problematic domains have been removed and to explain that this contributes to...

Feb 07, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do language prefixes in URLs (/fr, /en) really affect international SEO?

For SEO purposes, maintaining URL patterns with language prefixes like /ar or /en is appropriate for language versions. It does not affect rankings if the language prefix is omitted. However, it is im...

Feb 07, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does US Hosting Really Speed Up Google's Crawling of Your Website?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the search engine's bot does not prioritize site crawling based on the geographic location of the server. Specifically, US-based sites are not crawled better or ...

Feb 03, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Translate Image File Names on Multilingual Websites?

John Mueller explained during a hangout that it is not necessary, on a multilingual site, to translate image file names by copying them for each site. For example, if the French version is the main ve...

Feb 03, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really recrawl a page to get Google to acknowledge your link changes?

Google evaluates pages based on the current status of links and content. Changes made to links, such as removing a nofollow attribute, are taken into account during the recrawl of the affected page....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do URLs with recent dates really boost your SEO?

The fact that a page has a recent date in its URL does not provide any intrinsic SEO advantage. The relevance of the content outweighs its perceived freshness....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can featured snippets come from URLs outside of position #1?

Featured snippets do not necessarily have to come from URLs ranked in the first position, but Google must find them relevant to the query....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do URLs blocked by robots.txt really consume your crawl budget?

URLs blocked by robots.txt do not consume the crawl budget because Google does not actively crawl them; sites should not worry about this consumption unless they have millions of URLs....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can poorly implemented structured data really mislead Google?

Google can be misled by poorly implemented structured data markups, and sites displaying inappropriate rich results should be reported....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really focus all your content on the homepage for single-product websites?

If a site's scope is reduced to a single page, it is better to concentrate the content on the homepage rather than redirecting to an internal product page....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are structured data becoming an unmanageable headache for SEOs?

The evolution of structured data is likely to lead to increased complexity, while solutions such as CMS extensions can simplify their implementation....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why are your pages struggling in the SERPs even when targeting the same query?

When Google perceives multiple possible intents behind a query, this can lead to fluctuations between different pages of the same site in search results....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do JavaScript redirects really pass PageRank?

Links that go through JavaScript redirects can pass weight and signals if Googlebot is capable of following them. Otherwise, they are treated as if they do not exist....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it true that Googlebot still serves old versions of your pages?

Google may attempt to render old versions of pages for various reasons, but this shouldn't lead to significant problems. This behavior is normal and linked to the re-checking process....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google index non-canonical pages even when the rel=canonical markup is correct?

Even with correct rel=canonical markup, Google can sometimes index non-canonical pages due to conflicting signals like internal links or non-compliant sitemap files....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is site speed really a negligible ranking factor in Google?

Site speed is a ranking factor, but it is generally not a high priority and its influence may be delayed compared to other factors....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does an URL overhaul take longer to index than a domain change?

When you change URLs without moving the site to another domain, Google must relearn the website's structure, which takes longer than a simple domain migration....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do you really need to duplicate breadcrumbs on the mobile version to stay indexed?

With the shift to mobile-first indexing, only the content and markup present on the mobile version are taken into account. Breadcrumbs that are only available on the desktop version will no longer be ...

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can DMCA complaints really hurt your site’s rankings in the SERPs?

The number of valid DMCA complaints received can affect a site's ranking. Unfounded complaints that are successfully disputed do not have a negative impact....

Jan 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available