John Mueller

★★★ Can changing your template cause a drop in your SEO traffic?

Significant modifications to a site's template elements, such as adding a navigation menu, can temporarily affect the perceived relevance of a page in search results as the site stabilizes....

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does noindex really affect your site’s crawl budget?

Adding a noindex to a page does not stop Google from crawling it to see the noindex, but this crawling does not indicate that the page will negatively affect the overall crawl budget if used appropria...

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you pay to remove spam backlinks created without your consent by directories?

If directories are creating a large number of links to your site without your consent and then asking for money to remove them, there’s no need to pay. Use the disavow tool to counteract the effects o...

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google refuse to display your rich snippets even with perfect schema.org markup?

The overall quality of a site influences Google's decision to display rich snippets in search results. Even if structured data is implemented correctly, a site must be deemed high quality for these sn...

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How do internal links really influence Google’s crawl?

Internal links are crucial for Google’s crawling. Without links between pages, it becomes difficult for Google to explore the site and understand the context and content of each page....

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why aren't your structured data appearing in the SERPs even with correct technical implementation?

For structured data to be displayed in search results, technical implementations must be correct, the data must comply with Google's policies, and the site must be of high quality for Google to trust ...

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are you really liable for everything that’s written on your site’s forums?

As a webmaster, you are responsible for all content on your site, including user-generated content on forums. Forums must ensure that their content is useful and high-quality to avoid negative impacts...

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do shortened affiliate links harm your site's SEO?

Google generally does not view shortened affiliate links as deceptive if they are used for tracking purposes and not to hide the affiliation. However, it's advisable to link directly whenever possible...

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Could auto-canonicalizing your pages prevent a silent indexing disaster?

Pages can use rel=canonical tags pointing to themselves to avoid duplicate content due to URL parameters. It is important to ensure that the canonical URL is the clean version, free of errors such as ...

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google disregard your hreflang tags without mutual confirmation?

For hreflang tags to be taken into account, each page must confirm the hreflang tag of the other. If one page points to another language with hreflang but there is no return from the latter, Google ig...

Dec 01, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really disavow 301 redirects pointing to other domains?

If a URL redirects via 301 to another domain, you need to disavow the target URL since Google accounts for redirects in its indexing....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do image sitemaps really need to link images to their destination pages?

Image sitemaps must associate images with destination pages for adequate indexing in image searches....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it really possible to rank without backlinks in SEO?

It is possible to rank without backlinks, but difficult, as they help Google understand the context and relevance of a site....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Googlebot really crawl from the US, and how does that affect your international indexing?

Googlebot must have access to your content from its locations, typically in the US, to ensure global indexing....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why are your search terms disappearing from Search Console?

Unique search terms are not displayed in Search Analytics to protect user privacy....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do HTML sitemaps still matter for SEO?

HTML sitemaps assist user navigation while XML helps search engines identify new or modified pages; an HTML sitemap is unnecessary if the navigation is already clear....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does rel=noreferrer truly block PageRank and harm SEO?

The rel=noreferrer tag is primarily interpreted by the browser, having no impact on SEO....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why might Blogger send invisible redirects to Googlebot?

Use Fetch as Google to check how Googlebot views Blogger redirects; some configurations can send Googlebot a direct redirect without an intermediate warning message....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really favor absolute URLs in 301 redirects?

301 redirects can use absolute or relative URLs, but using absolute URLs can simplify debugging....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How should you approach an international homepage: redirection or content switching?

For multilingual sites, choose the method (redirection or content switching) that best suits your international homepage strategy....

Nov 17, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available