John Mueller

★★ Is it really necessary to fill in the priority and changefreq fields in your XML sitemaps?

The 'priority' and 'change frequency' fields in XML sitemap files are not critical for Google. Only the 'lastmod' attribute is important for facilitating change detection....

Oct 31, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do you really need to translate your entire site to use hreflang effectively?

It is possible to have sections of a site in different languages without translating the entire content. Use hreflang to link the versions of translated pages, helping Google understand the multilingu...

Oct 31, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can layout changes really hurt your organic search rankings?

Significant layout changes that emphasize non-informative elements, such as a booking tool, can make it difficult for Google to determine the main content of a page, which can affect its indexing and ...

Oct 31, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really trust the page speed score for optimizing your SEO?

Page speed scores oversimplify complex measurements and should be used for a general estimation. It's crucial to focus on specific insights from tools to understand where and how to improve a site's s...

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is there really a limit to reused content on news sites before facing penalties?

Creating unique and engaging content is essential for news sites. Reproducing content from other sites may be seen as rewritten content, often identifiable by our algorithms....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you block parameterized URLs in robots.txt or through Search Console settings?

If you use robots.txt to block a URL, we cannot use its content, but the crawl preference settings with parameterized URLs do not actually block the crawl....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really stop using the site: command to count your indexed pages?

You shouldn't rely on the 'site:' command for the exact count of indexed pages; it's better to use data from Search Console....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google truly count impressions in Search Console?

Search Console counts impressions when pages are shown to users in the search results, even if the page is not immediately visible in the viewport....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you optimize your content for BERT or is it a waste of time?

BERT aims to understand natural language. There are no specific optimization measures to take for BERT, other than writing naturally....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really trust speed measurement tools to optimize your pages?

Tools like Test My Site, GTmetrix, and PageSpeed Insights measure different aspects of page speed in unique ways. Google recommends using these tools to identify easy improvements based on your audien...

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really speed up news indexing with sitemaps?

Using sitemaps and ensuring that the information is easily extractable helps to quickly bring new content to the forefront of Google searches....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that crawl budget is managed at the server level rather than the directory level?

Google assesses load capacity at the host server level, not at the folder level, to manage crawl budget....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really manipulate structured data to get rich snippets?

Using a type of tag structure that does not match the main content in order to obtain rich results is unacceptable....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are lingering indexing problems due to a Google bug or technical issues with your site?

If indexing issues persist after the August 8th bug, they are not related to this bug, but may be due to individual technical problems of the site....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really trust lab data to gauge your site's speed?

Google uses theoretical page speed data derived from labs and real field data to evaluate user experience in terms of speed. There isn't a single threshold to achieve; the main goal is to make the sit...

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do you really need to 'fix' an algorithmic penalty to regain your traffic?

Algorithmic penalties are not "penalties" to fix but assessments of relevance. Improving the site doesn't necessarily bring it back to its previous state if that state was based on unnatural practices...

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can non-mobile-friendly pages really survive Google's mobile-first indexing?

Non-mobile pages can still be indexed through mobile-first indexing, but they will not be considered user-friendly for mobile users....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really implement hreflang on all multilingual sites?

Hreflang tags are only necessary if you experience issues with local search results showing the wrong regional version....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does YouTube really have a SEO advantage in Google Search?

YouTube is treated like any other website. No special prioritization is given in search results simply because content mentions YouTube....

Oct 30, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Buy an Expired Domain for Your SEO?

John Mueller had an amusing analogy about buying domain names, knowing that they can be tainted with a Google penalty: "It's like buying a used car; sometimes it's easy to get the vehicle running well...

Oct 21, 2019 ⚡ Analysis available