John Mueller

★★★ Could too many 301 redirects actually kill your crawl budget?

Having too many individual pages that redirect via 301 once can affect Google's crawling efficiency, especially if this creates infinite structures. Googlebot will follow up to five consecutive 301 re...

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Domain Authority (DA) actually useless for Google SEO?

Domain Authority (DA) is not defined by Google, and John Mueller doesn’t know what factors are taken into account to calculate this metric. For Google, links should be created naturally and not artifi...

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really disavow links from the old domain after a migration?

After redirecting a site to another, it is recommended to use the disavow file only for the new site to which the links are redirected. The disavow file from the old site will likely be ignored....

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do Panda and Penguin still really matter in your page rankings?

Panda, Penguin, and over 200 other factors influence page ranking. Google constantly adjusts these factors to enhance the relevance of search results....

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How do your site's internal signals really affect Google crawling and ranking?

Google uses various internal signals to determine the importance of a site's pages, such as links from the homepage. Important pages need to be made visible through a good internal link structure....

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are structured data enough to get into Google's Knowledge Graph?

Using structured data markup helps Google extract information about websites for the Knowledge Graph, but it does not guarantee display in the Knowledge Graph, as this information is confirmed by data...

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Google really crawl all your JavaScript content?

Google now recommends discontinuing the AJAX crawling scheme as it is capable of handling most content generated by JavaScript. Webmasters must still ensure that JavaScript executes correctly and that...

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the Search Console's URL removal tool really take your pages out of Google's index?

The URL removal tool in Search Console temporarily removes URLs from search results but does not erase these URLs from the index itself. It is recommended to use noindex for complete removal....

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can slow server response times really damage your crawl budget?

A quick server response allows Googlebot to crawl more pages. A response time exceeding one second can limit Google's ability to effectively explore the entire site....

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How long does it really take for Google to incorporate a website structure overhaul?

When a website structure changes, Google updates its rankings as it recrawls individual pages. It is important to use redirects correctly so that Google understands the equivalences between old and ne...

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is switching to HTTPS really going to decrease your PageRank in SEO?

Transitioning from HTTP to HTTPS should not cause a drop in a site's ranking, although each redirect does involve a slight loss of value. The impact is minimal compared to the security benefits provid...

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really use noindex instead of robots.txt to manage low-value pages?

To help Google ignore low-value or temporary pages, it is advisable to use the noindex attribute rather than simply blocking access to these pages via robots.txt, as this enables Google to see and rem...

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are 302 redirects really treated differently from 301s by Google?

Google handles 301 and 302 redirects based on their nature. A 301 is considered permanent, while a 302 is viewed as temporary. However, Google may interpret a 302 as a 301 if behavior suggests that th...

Oct 16, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you successfully merge multiple websites without losing your organic traffic?

To merge multiple websites into one, use 301 redirects to indicate to Google how the content from the old sites is redirected to the new site....

Oct 15, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are proxies and duplicate content really harmless for your indexing?

Content available through a proxy is not inherently problematic. Google tries to handle them technically and prevent duplicates from harming the primary site's indexing....

Oct 15, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Merging multiple sites: Why does Google never guarantee traffic retention?

Merging multiple sites into a single site is complex and can take months to be properly processed by Google. It is not guaranteed that the combined traffic will equal the sum of the original sites....

Oct 15, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do structured data reviews really boost your Google ranking?

Using structured data to mark up reviews helps Google better understand the content and may enable the display of rich snippets in search results, but it does not directly improve rankings....

Oct 15, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ JSON-LD or RDFa: Which Schema Markup Format Should You Choose for Your SEO?

If you are already using a markup format like RDFa, continue using it. If you are starting fresh, use JSON-LD as it is more flexible and more easily adaptable to new features....

Oct 15, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you copy the doorway pages of your competitors who rank higher than you?

Google does not recommend following competitors' examples by using dubious techniques like doorway pages, as this can lead Google to devalue your site....

Oct 15, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really disavow all toxic backlinks?

If you receive links from sites you consider undesirable, use the disavow tool to inform Google that you do not want these links to be counted in the evaluation of your site....

Oct 15, 2015 ⚡ Analysis available