John Mueller

★★★ Does Google really keep a page indexed after a 500 or 404 error?

Google is resilient to 500 and 404 errors. If the page is important, Google may retain its indexed status until the page becomes accessible again....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do semantic tags H2/H3 really impact Google rankings?

It is advised to use structuring tags (H2, H3) to organize content. This can help search engines and users (such as those using screen readers) better understand the structure of the text....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you fix all the 404 and 500 errors flagged in Search Console?

The performance reports in the new Search Console show site performance, while the Crawl Errors section displays errors encountered while attempting to crawl your site. Errors like 500 and 404 can be ...

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can similar domain names really harm your SEO?

Sites with similar domain names have no algorithmic overlap that would affect your domain, even if they link to you....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are hidden mobile links really counted by Google in mobile-first indexing?

Google counts links in HTML even if they are hidden on mobile. If a link is only in the desktop template and not present in mobile HTML, it will not be considered with mobile-first indexing....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is there a truly effective way to implement hreflang for international SEO?

Whether through subdomains, subdirectories, or URL parameters, different methods can be used to implement hreflang. Choose the method that best meets your tracking and management needs....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you remove an entire section of your website from Google in under 24 hours?

To quickly remove an entire section of a website, using Google's URL removal tool for specific directories allows for removal in less than one day. More fragmentary removals require the use of 404 cod...

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ HTTPS and Mobile Indexing: Why Does Google Treat HTTP and HTTPS as Two Different Sites?

Migrating a HTTP version to mobile indexing does not guarantee that the HTTPS version has also transitioned to mobile indexing. Google treats HTTP and HTTPS separately....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How can you speed up your e-commerce site's crawl without wasting Google’s budget?

For large e-commerce sites, optimizing crawling is crucial by identifying unnecessary URLs or optimizing URL parameters to reduce unnecessary crawl requests....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is using the disavow tool still effective against negative SEO attacks?

Google generally recognizes low-quality links from BlackHat tools and tends to ignore them. Using the disavow file remains a reasonable precaution but should not be the sole method of protection....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can the robots.txt really block the indexing of your pages?

A noindex directive in the robots.txt file is not officially supported and may not work anymore. It is recommended not to rely on this method to prevent the indexing of pages....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does mobile-first indexing really change the snippets visible to all mobile users?

During the transition to mobile-first indexing, all users coming from mobile search should see a snippet that closely matches the mobile content of the site....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really reactivate disavowed links without facing penalties?

When a site disavows links and later reactivates them, Google processes the current disavow files and reintegrates the links removed from the file with each update....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the canonical tag really work like a 301 redirect?

The use of the canonical tag is similar to redirects in designating a primary page, but clear signals must be provided to Google to avoid any ambiguity regarding which page to canonize....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do 301 redirects really transfer 100% of PageRank and SEO signals?

When redirecting one URL to another, Google strives to transfer as many signals as possible, including backlinks, to the new URL. However, some signals can remain attached to the old URL....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really combine canonical and hreflang to manage multilingual duplicate content?

To manage duplicate content from authoritative sources, it is recommended to use the rel=canonical tag to reinforce the canonical source. Hreflang should be used if the content is specifically transla...

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are Google My Business and traditional SEO really two separate worlds?

Google My Business and Google Search are separate. The ranking factors for Google My Business can be very different from those of web search and are not influenced by customer recommendations....

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does focusing too much on ranking factors risk missing the bigger picture?

John Mueller points out that concentrating solely on ranking factors can lead to losing sight of the ultimate goal of providing something that answers users' questions. Ranking factors can change quic...

Jul 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Structure Your Content with H1 to H6 Tags for SEO?

John Mueller explained in a hangout that using H1 to H6 tags is a good practice. They help the search engine understand the content structure and the relationships between different blocks of informat...

Jul 16, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do JavaScript Links Actually Pass PageRank and SEO Value?

A user asked Google whether links placed in code using <div href> + JavaScript were recognized by the search engine. John Mueller indicated that while these links could be used to identify certain URL...

Jul 16, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available