John Mueller

★★ Should you include your brand name in news article titles for better search visibility?

For news websites, it is recommended to add the brand name in titles. Google attempts to display the site name in title links for lower-level pages, so including it yourself guarantees that this infor...

Feb 04, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do server errors really kill your Google rankings?

Server connectivity problems do not affect page quality or ranking. However, if Google cannot access your robots.txt for a certain amount of time, some pages may be removed from the index. Pages are t...

Feb 04, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really remove backlinks pointing to your domain's old content?

It is not necessary to ask external sites to remove content about a domain's former activity. Websites evolve naturally and what worked as a link in the past may no longer work in the future without c...

Feb 04, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really disavow links that don't match your current niche anymore?

It's not necessary to disavow links simply because they concern an old activity or another country. Disavowal should only be used for truly problematic links (bought, manipulative). Links that are the...

Feb 04, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really erase the SEO past of a purchased domain?

When a domain is reused for a new activity, Google organically learns over time that it's a new site and treats it accordingly. There is no specific timeframe for this transition. What matters is clea...

Feb 04, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you worry about changing page titles frequently—or is Google totally fine with it?

Changing page titles daily (for example to update prices) has no particular SEO impact. Google doesn't give special weight to titles that change frequently. The main challenge is that Google may not r...

Feb 04, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really overlook poor SEO practices if your site has quality content elsewhere?

Google acknowledges that most websites possess many strong elements on which ranking systems can focus, even in the presence of some poor practices....

Feb 01, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can a single SEO mistake permanently tank your Google rankings?

A simple SEO error will not permanently ruin a website's position in Google search results. Honest mistakes are handled thoughtfully by Google's systems....

Feb 01, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really tolerate unintentional SEO errors?

Google recognizes that nobody is perfect and it's easy to fall into bad SEO practices, whether due to misinformation found online or well-intentioned but incorrect advice....

Feb 01, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you lift a Google manual penalty without wasting months of your time?

After correcting the issues that led to a manual action, webmasters can submit a reconsideration request. Google then verifies that everything has been fixed and can cancel the manual action....

Feb 01, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really notify all manual actions through Search Console?

When Google needs to apply a manual action against a site, the team informs the owner via Google Search Console, giving them the opportunity to fix the problem and submit a reconsideration request....

Feb 01, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really ignore detectable SEO manipulation without penalizing your entire site?

When Google's systems can automatically recognize and isolate a poor SEO practice, they simply try to ignore it and focus on the good parts of the website....

Feb 01, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the Number of Folders in Your URLs Really Hurt Your SEO?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the number of folders/directories in a URL had no importance for the search engine. A URL can be labeled as https://www.example.com/dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/page.html...

Jan 31, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are geo-redirects really blocking your content from getting indexed by Google?

Geo-redirects are problematic because Googlebot typically crawls from a single location. If US users are redirected and Googlebot follows suit, Google cannot index the original content. This also crea...

Jan 30, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the .edu domain extension really boost your SEO rankings?

The .edu TLD offers no advantage for SEO. Google considers it simply as a different domain, with no special privilege for queries related to schools or education....

Jan 30, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really reset your site's evaluation when migrating from a subdomain to a primary domain?

When migrating from a subdomain to the primary domain, Google must reevaluate your entire site because there is a merger happening. You need clear mapping from old to new URLs and must verify everythi...

Jan 30, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Core Web Vitals really have no impact on crawling and indexation?

Core Web Vitals is a ranking factor for Page Experience, not a quality factor. It does not affect a site's crawling or indexation. Server speed can affect crawling, but CWV (which includes fonts, thir...

Jan 30, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really reuse the same URL for seasonal pages every year?

For seasonal pages, reuse the same URL each year (e.g., /black-friday instead of /black-friday-2021). This way all accumulated signals continue to work. You can remove/no-index during off-season and t...

Jan 30, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why aren't your FAQs showing up in rich results despite correct markup?

To display FAQs in rich results, three criteria are required: being technically correct, respecting Google policies (content visible on the page), and Google considering the site as trustworthy. The p...

Jan 30, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the Search Console API really show the exact same data as your web interface?

Search Console API data and user interface data come from exactly the same database tables. The API allows you to obtain more example rows. Totals can differ because certain low-impression queries are...

Jan 30, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available