John Mueller

★★★ Do noindex pages transfer PageRank before being deindexed?

Google initially treats pages with the noindex attribute by indexing them and viewing their links. Over time, if a page remains noindex, Google may consider it a 'soft 404' and remove those links from...

May 31, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really clean up old redirect chains for SEO?

Google processes information from old redirects and does not require specific actions like forcing a 410: showing old URLs in the info query is normal....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do GDPR pop-ups really hurt your Google indexing?

Pop-ups that do not block access to the main HTML content generally do not affect indexing. Avoid redirecting to interstitial pages that require interaction to display the content....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are PWAs really causing crawl and indexing issues for Google?

PWAs offer application-like features but require a technical understanding of JavaScript rendering for SEO optimization....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Hreflang: Is it essential to translate all your pages to avoid losing international traffic?

Using hreflang for translated pages is beneficial. If certain pages are not translated, it is acceptable but may create a confusing experience for users....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google's URL Parameters tool really replace robots.txt for controlling crawling?

The URL parameters management tool can indicate to Google to reduce the crawling of specific URLs but does not equate to a prohibition by robots.txt....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do canonical and noindex tags in HTTP headers really work the same way as those in HTML?

The rel=canonical and noindex tags in the HTTP header are treated as if they were tags in the HTML header and must be in the static HTML to be effective....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google dynamically choose result formats for each query?

Google's algorithms dynamically determine which content or formats (video, news) are most relevant for a given query....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the URL format truly affect Google rankings?

Google does not favor one URL format over another; it does not influence SEO ranking. The choice of URL format is often related to analytical tracking....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does lazy loading really delay the indexing of your content?

Googlebot must be able to render all content. Loading text content via lazy loading can delay its indexing from a few days to a week....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really block country interstitials for Googlebot?

It's acceptable to display interstitial banners to users outside the target area, but you must allow users, including Googlebot which crawls internationally, to access the site's content....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really treat Googlebot like an average visitor in your A/B tests?

Google recommends treating Googlebot like an average user during A/B testing (including in the test variants), while noting that Googlebot does not return cookies between visits....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is server-side rendering for JavaScript really an underrated SEO lever?

If JavaScript content is prerendered on the server side, it reduces the processing time needed for Googlebot and improves the perceived loading speed....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Googlebot slow down its crawl on your site and how can you prevent it?

If a server responds too slowly to Google's requests, the bot will decrease the frequency of its crawl to prevent overwhelming the server....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is loading speed really a Google ranking factor or just an SEO myth?

Google differentiates reasonably fast sites from truly slow ones. For ranking purposes, Google uses speed as a factor to some extent, especially when pages take several minutes to load....

May 29, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Subdomain or Subdirectory: Which Structure Should You Choose for Better SEO?

John Mueller, him again, confirmed in a hangout that Google treats subdomains (blog.example.com) and subdirectories (www.example.com/blog/) in the same way....

May 28, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can You Really Use a Single robots.txt File to Declare Sitemaps for Multiple Different Domains?

Always John Mueller and always Twitter with the fact that a robots.txt file that would be identical and shared by several websites contains the addresses of several XML Sitemap files, one for each sit...

May 28, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the Number of Slashes in a URL Actually Affect Google Rankings?

John Mueller indicated, again on Twitter, that the number of slashes ("/") in a URL had no impact for Google and that the search engine does not count how many times this character appears for any ana...

May 28, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Duplicate Your Page Title in the Main Image's Alt Attribute?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that duplicating a page's title (Title tag) in the Alt attribute of that page's main image was not a problem in itself......

May 28, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Shared Hosting Really Hurt Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller stated repeatedly on Twitter that using the same IP address for multiple websites (for example in the case of shared hosting) does not cause any problems in terms of "search". And that th...

May 21, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available