John Mueller

★★ Is the Alt Attribute for Images Really Useless for SEO on Google Search?

According to John Mueller, the text content specified in the ALT attribute of IMG tags would only be used for Google Images search. This text would not be taken into account as part of the algorithm f...

Mar 28, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are out-of-stock products hurting your e-commerce site's overall search rankings?

When something is out of stock, we'll treat it more like a soft 404 error and remove that URL from search results. However, if only a single product reference is out of stock, the ranking of the rest ...

Mar 28, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really afford to wait for an unstable ranking to stabilize on its own?

If your ranking is fluctuating, waiting won't automatically improve the situation. You need to convince Google's algorithms that your site is clearly the best result, otherwise you're leaving it to ch...

Mar 28, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Google's testing tools really crawl in real-time or do they rely on cached data?

The mobile-friendly test and URL inspection tool do not use any cached data to display information. They really retrieve this information live directly from your server....

Mar 28, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really avoid URLs with parameters for SEO?

There's a general assumption that URLs with parameters are bad for a site, and that's simply not the case. It's not something I would consider critical; it's more about polishing the site to make it a...

Mar 28, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do brand mentions without backlinks actually help your SEO rankings?

If there's no link to your pages, then it's not really a link. It's not something we would see as a half-value link or anything like that. We don't treat these mentions as links....

Mar 28, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the order of links in your HTML code really affect Google's crawl priority?

If we look at an HTML page, the order of the links is not related to the order of our overall crawl of these pages on the site. As long as these links are on the HTML page and we can follow them, we c...

Mar 28, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Discovered but not indexed: Has Google really never crawled these pages at all?

When a page appears as 'discovered - currently not indexed' in Search Console, it means Google has seen a link to it but has not yet crawled it. The next step would be 'crawled - not indexed' before e...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do structured data errors really block your pages from being indexed?

A page can be indexed even if structured data is incomplete, incorrect, or absent. A page can even be indexed if the HTML is completely broken. Schema.org errors absolutely do not block a page from be...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is centralizing your competitive content really better than spreading it across multiple pages?

Duplicating important content across hundreds of pages dilutes its value in search results. You must balance between local pages and strong centralized content: highly competitive content should stay ...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does internal linking really show Google which pages matter most on your site?

Internal linking allows you to signal to Google what matters on your site. For seasonal or priority content, you need to create visible links from your home page. Google follows these signals to deter...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does simply changing a city name create doorway pages that Google will penalize?

Creating hundreds of pages by simply changing one word (city, street, region) to generate traffic to the same business constitutes doorway pages, which violates guidelines. It's different for franchis...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really choose page titles independently of what users actually search for?

Page titles displayed in search results are now chosen based on the page itself, rather than on the user's search query. You can use a 'site:' search to see the currently indexed title and resubmit th...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really trust the recommendations your SEO tools are giving you?

SEO tools make assumptions about what Google will do, and these assumptions can be incorrect. You must always use your judgment before blindly following recommendations from a tool, even a popular one...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Subdomain or subdirectory: Does Google really have a preference?

Google does not prefer either subdomains or subdirectories. Using blog.example.com or example.com/blog is equivalent from an SEO perspective. What matters is that both parts of your site are well-conn...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why Do Click Counts Differ Between Page-Level and Query-Level Reports in Search Console?

The differences between page-level and query-level clicks in Search Console are explained by anonymized queries. At the page level, all data is visible, but certain low-volume queries are not displaye...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the target attribute in links really have an impact on Google SEO rankings?

Google completely ignores the 'target' attribute in HTML links because it only concerns browser behavior (opening in a new tab, frame, etc.). Only the 'href' attribute matters for crawling. A link wit...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is switching from a ccTLD to a gTLD really enough to conquer new international markets?

Switching from a ccTLD (country domain) to a gTLD (generic domain) to target other countries completely changes the level of competition. Ranking well locally doesn't guarantee ranking globally: you n...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Is Google Refusing to Index a Technically Perfect Website?

More and more sites are technically correct (sitemaps, internal links) but Google doesn't index all their content because the quality bar is rising. It's no longer enough to be technically sound and s...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you still bother fixing broken redirects years after a migration?

For a failed migration in 2020 with many broken links, after two years, fixing those redirects will probably make little difference anymore. What mattered was capturing the lost external links at the ...

Mar 22, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available