John Mueller

★★ Are 404 pages really neutral for SEO?

From an SEO perspective, the content of a 404 page is not taken into account. However, an informative 404 page helps lost users and can indirectly benefit SEO if it generates positive interactions....

Feb 21, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that hidden mobile content is indexed just like visible content?

On mobile, content that is not visible by default is not considered less important. This is a change from the desktop version where it was previously the case....

Feb 21, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really clean up dead links in your disavow file?

It is not necessary to clean up dead links in the disavow file, but if you want to ensure that certain problematic links are disregarded, you can add them to the file....

Feb 21, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Google identify a site as ‘official’ for a brand?

Google does not identify a site as official for a certain brand name. Any site containing a product or brand name can potentially show up in search results....

Feb 21, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Really Worry About Bounce Rate for SEO Optimization?

John Mueller also indicated in this hangout that there is no point in inhibiting the browser's "Back" button when displaying a website in an attempt to manipulate the bounce rate. According to John Mu...

Feb 20, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Use Google's URL Inspection Tool to Speed Up Page Indexing?

John Mueller provided an interesting insight during a hangout about how Google indexes web pages on a site. In fact, there are two possibilities for this: the "classic" method (Googlebot finds a link ...

Feb 20, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can Google's Advertising Bots Actually Discover New Pages for Indexing?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google's robots used for Adwords and Adsense advertising (examples: Mediapartners-Google, Mediapartners, AdsBot-Google and AdsBot-Google-Mobile-Apps) are not use...

Feb 13, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does splitting or merging domains slow down your SEO visibility?

Splitting a domain or merging sites can lead to fluctuations in search results due to the necessary reassessment of the new content....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google rewrite your title and meta description tags without asking for your permission?

Google can alter titles and descriptions to better align with user search intent, especially if the tags contain keyword stuffing....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do 410 errors really harm your site's SEO?

410 errors, indicating removed pages, are normal and do not negatively impact a site's SEO....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is hiding content on mobile really safe for SEO?

On mobile websites, where space is limited, Google is less strict about hiding content, but critical content should ideally be immediately visible on desktop versions....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that hreflang can indicate duplicate content in multilingual subdomains?

For identical subdomains in different languages, use hreflang tags to indicate the appropriate regional version to avoid duplicate content....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the 503 code really a friend of SEO during server overload?

The 503 error code indicates a temporary issue preventing Google from accessing the server's content. It is useful for managing periods of server overload....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How long does it really take for a metadata change to affect your rankings?

Changing a page's metadata can take from a few days to several weeks to be reflected in search results, depending on crawl frequency and content reassessment by Google....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the Data Highlighter still worth it compared to JSON-LD?

For structured data, Google treats embedded markup (JSON-LD, Microdata) and those created via the Data Highlighter similarly, although new features are first supported in the embedded markups....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do hamburger menus really harm your internal link SEO?

Hamburger menus that conceal links until clicked are perfectly acceptable as long as the links are not dynamically loaded after the click but are available upon page loading....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do intrusive pop-ups really destroy your SEO?

Pop-ups that block access to content, such as those requesting personal information before entry, may be penalized by Google's algorithm. It is recommended to use non-intrusive banners....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Googlebot really index images using lazy loading?

Googlebot can see images loaded via lazy loading if they are loaded at the initial page load, but it does not click or scroll to load other dynamic elements....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do backlinks pointing to an AMP page really benefit its canonical HTML version?

AMP pages generally include a 'rel=canonical' tag pointing to the standard HTML version, allowing the benefits of backlinks from the AMP page to be transferred to the normal page....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do footer texts really harm your site’s SEO?

Texts placed in footers generally do not have a negative impact on SEO, provided they do not contain excessive keywords that could be perceived as keyword stuffing....

Feb 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available