John Mueller

★★ Will accidental dofollow links in your PR coverage actually hurt your rankings?

If the majority of PR article links correctly use nofollow, a few accidental dofollow links aren't a problem. Google won't penalize you if the essentials are correct and algorithms can identify and ma...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the 503 status code really protect your pages from deindexing during an outage?

During a technical outage, serving a 503 code for one or two days protects indexation. Google considers this a temporary problem and does not remove pages. A 404 or error page would result in their re...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ CCTLD, subdomain or subdirectory: which structure for international geotargeting?

For international geotargeting, CCTLDs are very clear, but subdomains and subdirectories also work effectively. Avoid URL parameters for geographical targeting as Google cannot apply geotargeting to t...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is your franchise network losing visibility because of duplicate content across multiple domains?

For franchise websites with identical content except for address and phone number, Google may consider them as duplicates. Recommended solutions: consolidate all locations under a single strong domain...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really control which images Google displays in your search snippets?

The images displayed in organic search result snippets are not based on any particular markup. Google automatically selects images from the page according to its algorithms. You cannot control which i...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Crawled vs Discovered: Are these two non-indexed statuses really the same thing?

The statuses 'Crawled, not indexed' and 'Discovered, not indexed' are essentially equivalent. In both cases, Google knows the URL but has decided not to index it....

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you worry when the number of indexed pages drops?

A decrease in the number of indexed pages is not always a real problem. It can reflect technical cleanup, such as the removal of pages with accidentally indexed parameters. You need to analyze the act...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can invalid structured data penalize your SEO performance?

Invalid structured data on a page does not lead to its removal from the index. It affects neither crawling, nor indexing, nor ranking. Google simply reports the error if you wish to use these structur...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the 'Crawled, Currently Not Indexed' status really just a sign of poor website quality?

When a page is crawled but not indexed, it generally indicates that Google is not convinced of the site's quality. Significantly improving the overall quality of the entire site is the main recommenda...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really crawl your site less when it perceives low quality?

Google doesn't crawl all web content and must prioritize. Crawl frequency reflects the overall quality perception of a site. If algorithms aren't convinced of quality, fewer pages will be crawled and ...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do you really need technical perfection to rank well on Google?

Google uses many different factors in its algorithms. A site doesn't need to be perfect on all these factors to rank well. Errors on one factor can be compensated by strong results on others....

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really penalize a website that buys links in bulk?

Google will not remove a site from search results simply because it buys links. Algorithms seek to identify and ignore or reduce the weight of poor-quality links. A site can rank well despite paid lin...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do internal links in the header or footer really have less SEO value?

There is no quantifiable difference between internal links placed in the header, footer, or content. Google does not make any particular distinction based on the location of internal links on the page...

Jan 21, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Will desktop Page Experience signals be a game-changer for your SEO rankings?

Page Experience signals will be rolled out for desktop search results (scheduled for around April-May 2022). This rollout is separate from mobile-first indexing: what gets indexed and what measures sp...

Jan 20, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really keep 301 redirects live for a full year or more?

301 redirects must remain active for at least one year following URL migration. This is the minimum duration recommended by Google to ensure a complete transition....

Jan 18, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How long does a URL migration really take before Google fully processes it?

A complete URL migration can take several months before being fully completed and Google has reprocessed the entire site....

Jan 18, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really treat all URLs the same way during a migration?

Google rapidly processes the most important pages during a URL migration, then progressively reprocesses the rest of the site. This differentiated process enables a phased transition....

Jan 18, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Google Search Console really essential for a successful site migration?

The migration must be monitored in Google Search Console reports. You need to verify redirects for all pages to ensure the transfer is happening correctly....

Jan 18, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do you really need to update ALL internal elements after a URL migration?

You must update all internal elements of the site: links, forms, structured data, sitemaps and robots.txt file so they point to the new URLs....

Jan 18, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really redirect EVERY single URL when migrating your website?

During a URL migration, you must set up 301 redirects from all old URLs to the new ones. This is an essential step in the migration process....

Jan 18, 2022 ⚡ Analysis available