John Mueller

★★ 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

★★★ 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

★★★ Do User Engagement Signals Really Influence Google Rankings?

John Mueller explained during a webmaster hangout that Google does not take into account "engagement" (i.e., interactions: time spent on page, bounce rate, number of pages viewed on the site, traffic,...

Mar 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Do Links in Editorial Content Actually Carry More SEO Weight Than Footer or Sidebar Links?

John Mueller explained during this same webmaster hangout that the search engine takes into account all outbound links from a page, whether they are in the editorial content or around it (header, foot...

Mar 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can a 500 Error on Your robots.txt Really Block Your Entire Site Crawl?

Still in this hangout, John Mueller indicated that if, when the bot attempts to read a site's robots.txt file, it received a server error (5xx type) via a CDN or not, this resulted in a loss of displa...

Mar 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the meta keywords tag actually harm your Google rankings?

The presence of the meta keywords tag poses no problem for Google Search. It is generally small enough not to change the overall page size, so there is no strong reason to remove it if it is already p...

Mar 15, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Which meta tags does Google actually use for SEO rankings?

Google offers official documentation listing all the meta tags that the search engine uses and understands. It is recommended to consult this resource to know which elements can influence search resul...

Mar 15, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really remove the meta keywords tag from all your websites?

Googlebot pays no attention whatsoever to the content of the meta keywords tag, regardless of what values it contains. This tag is completely ignored by Google's indexing process....

Mar 15, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Which meta tags actually impact your Google rankings?

The meta tags that truly have an effect on Google search results are primarily the meta description tag and the meta robots tag. The title element, although technically not a meta tag, is also treated...

Mar 15, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you remove the meta keywords tag from your pages?

Google Search does not use the content of the meta keywords tag for search engine optimization. This position has been consistent since at least 2009 and remains unchanged today....

Mar 15, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really use one global index for all countries?

Google does not have separate indexes for each country. There is essentially one global index. Even though there are multiple data centers, content that is crawled and indexed in one center quickly be...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does your internal linking tree structure really matter to Google?

It is recommended to use external crawlers to generate a graph of your internal linking structure. The structure should resemble a tree with a central point and progressive branches. If it's just a co...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do Search Console positions fail to reflect your actual search rankings?

The positions displayed in Search Console are based on what users have actually seen. If few people see the site in position 1 and no one scrolls to position 200, only position 1 will be reported even...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do high-traffic pages carry more weight in your Core Web Vitals score?

For Core Web Vitals, Google examines a sample of your traffic through the Chrome User Experience Report. Pages with the most visits are the ones that matter most. Low-traffic pages don't affect your o...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How many internal links should you actually place on each page to boost your SEO?

There is no optimal number of internal links per page. What matters is being able to recognize the site structure during crawling: homepage, first-level categories, second level, and so on. The struct...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really ignore your URL structure for SEO rankings?

Google does not base its assessment on URL structure (number of slashes) to determine page hierarchy. It's the internal linking structure that counts: how many clicks from the homepage to reach a give...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are ranking fluctuations really normal, or could they be hiding a technical issue?

Ranking changes where pages move up and down in search results are completely natural. This isn't necessarily a sign of content quality or technical problems. Pages can even temporarily leave the inde...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really distinguish between 'edit video' and 'video editor' as different user intentions?

Google tries to understand synonyms but looks at the complete context of the query. Terms like 'edit video' and 'video editor' may seem synonymous but user expectations are different, so the results c...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does your FAQ schema markup really need to be on the ranking page to generate rich snippets?

FAQ markup can be displayed in search results for the page where it is found. If the markup is on a separate page that doesn't appear in the results, Google won't be able to display this rich snippet....

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does user engagement really influence your Google rankings?

Google does not use engagement as a ranking factor. However, signals pass from one page to another through the site's internal links. If a page is considered very good with many external links, these ...

Mar 14, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available