John Mueller

★★ Why does Google choose not to index certain pages on your site?

It is normal for Google not to index every page of a website. The amount of content indexed partly depends on Google's understanding of the overall quality of the site....

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really delete low-traffic pages to boost your SEO?

Removing content solely based on low traffic is not recommended. Important pages may have low traffic (seasonal content, for example) but still hold value. The analysis should be manual and contextual...

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is crawl budget really insignificant for your site?

For a site publishing a few pages per day or even 10,000 pages daily, crawl budget is generally not a limiting factor. Google can easily crawl these volumes. Crawl budget only becomes relevant for sit...

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does hreflang really change the ranking or just swap the URLs?

The implementation of hreflang exchanges the URL displayed in search results to show the appropriate version for the user, but does not alter the page's ranking....

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does improperly formatted breadcrumb markup lead to a Google penalty?

Breadcrumb markup errors do not trigger manual actions from the spam team. Google has more significant issues to address. It is recommended to test the display in search results....

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does new content really get an automatic ranking boost?

Google does not apply an automatic ranking boost for freshly published or republished content. Updating old content is preferable to republishing it if the content remains the same....

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do you really need to choose between a 301 redirect and a canonical link for a migration?

To migrate from a subfolder to a subdomain, using a permanent 301 redirect or a canonical link are both valid approaches. Temporarily maintaining both versions with a canonical link is acceptable but ...

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does unique content really enhance a site's overall ranking?

Having unique content on a site does not automatically result in better rankings for generic queries. Uniqueness only aids in specific searches for that unique content. Removing duplicate content via ...

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really not use Chrome and Analytics data for rankings?

Google does not use Google Chrome data for ranking, except for the Chrome User Experience Report for Page Experience metrics. Google Analytics data, including bounce rate and time spent on site, are n...

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that Top Stories can thrive without AMP? Here's what you need to know!

Google no longer requires AMP pages to appear in Top Stories. However, Page Experience metrics such as Core Web Vitals and speed are still taken into account....

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does JavaScript-generated URLs really waste your crawl budget?

URLs discovered in JavaScript or mentioned randomly hold low priority for crawling. Google prioritizes new content and important pages before these random URLs. Therefore, the crawl budget is not nega...

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google truly measure Page Experience in its algorithm?

Page Experience factors include mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, Core Web Vitals, and intrusive interstitials. The latter currently lacks a dedicated report in Search Console....

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you publish more frequently to be crawled more regularly by Google?

Google adjusts its crawl frequency based on the update frequency of content. A site that updates its content every hour will be crawled more frequently than a site updated once a month. This does not ...

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does nofollow really prevent a page from being indexed?

The rel='nofollow' attribute indicates not to pass PageRank but does not guarantee that a page will never be indexed. To block indexing, always use the noindex tag....

Jan 09, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really use rel=canonical between different domain names?

It is possible to use the rel=canonical link element across different top-level domain names, such as between different country-code domains (ccTLDs). The rel=canonical tag is not limited to the same ...

Jan 05, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do new TLDs (.space, .tech, .xyz) realmente hold the same SEO weight as a .com?

New top-level domains (like .space) are equivalent to traditional generic TLDs such as .com in terms of SEO. Google does not differentiate between them for SEO purposes. Choose the one you prefer from...

Jan 05, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do ccTLDs really prevent multi-country geotargeting?

The only limitation of ccTLDs is that you cannot specify other countries for geotargeting. For instance, with a .fr site for France, you may be visible globally, but you won't be able to explicitly ta...

Jan 05, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can a ccTLD Really Serve as a Global Domain Without Penalizing International SEO?

Country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) can work for a global website. Although a ccTLD helps Google's systems geotarget for that specific country, it still allows for global visibility....

Jan 05, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you choose www or non-www to optimize your SEO?

Google has no preference between the www and non-www versions of a domain name. You can use whichever you prefer. Sometimes there are technical reasons to choose one over the other, but often it is si...

Jan 05, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Nofollow, UGC, and Sponsored Attributes Really Impact Your SEO Differently?

John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that in purely SEO terms, there are no differences between the nofollow, ugc, and sponsored attributes on a link....

Jan 03, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available