John Mueller

★★ Does the number of products really influence category SEO?

The number of indexable products in a category is not a ranking factor. A category page with 10 products, where only 2 are indexable, is not considered low quality if the information is present on the...

Nov 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google’s support for WebP images transform SEO strategies?

Google's image processing systems support images in the WebP format. The same system is utilized across all areas of Google Search, including Discover and Google News....

Nov 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ What should you do with your canonicals when a product is out of stock?

It is possible to change the canonical tag of a canonicalized product variation to another variation when the canonical version is out of stock. There will be latency since Google prefers to maintain ...

Nov 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google Really Accept 301s with No-Cache Cache-Control Headers?

Google accepts 301 redirects with no-cache cache-control headers. If it's a 301, it is treated as such, regardless of additional cache headers. Google's crawling system works differently from browsers...

Nov 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is cloaking really a concern for SEOs?

Showing less content to search engines than to users doesn't pose a cloaking issue. The problem arises when you show search engines a rich page while presenting something different or minimal to users...

Nov 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why should site migrations be one-way?

<p>When migrating a site, it's advisable to either proceed incrementally in the right direction or make a complete change all at once. Back-and-forth migrations (moving to B and then returning to A) c...

Nov 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is blocking CSS files a risk to your SEO strategy?

Blocking CSS files in robots.txt can cause problems and should be avoided. Being able to see a page fully helps Google better understand the page and confirm that it is mobile-friendly....

Nov 03, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are RSS feeds really impacting SEO crawling?

Having RSS feeds is not problematic for crawling, even though Googlebot frequently fetches them. Google's systems automatically balance the crawl across a website, crawling some pages more often only ...

Nov 03, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why isn't there a one-size-fits-all solution for sitemaps in SEO?

There isn't a straightforward universal solution for sitemaps that works for all types of websites. Most site configurations have their own simple sitemap solutions built-in or available through plugi...

Nov 03, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that you can't reset a website's indexing?

It is not possible to reset a website's indexing. If the site has been modified, search engines will automatically focus on the new version and gradually ignore the old version over time....

Nov 03, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Are Redirects Essential When Changing URLs?

To assist Google in focusing on the new version of a modified website, it is recommended to use redirects from the old URLs to the new ones....

Nov 03, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Your CMS Choice (WordPress, WooCommerce...) Really Impact Your Google SEO Rankings?

John Mueller explained during a webmaster hangout that the search engine does not rank the sites it crawls and analyzes based on the CMS used (when it can potentially be detected). Using WordPress doe...

Nov 02, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Penguin Really Penalize an Entire Website and Not Just Individual Pages?

John Mueller also explained in this hangout that Penguin (long integrated into the search engine's general algorithm) doesn't just analyze backlinks (and potentially ignore them) at the granular level...

Nov 02, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why should you steer clear of using a generic author name on your SEO site?

It's essential to avoid using generic author names like admin since they provide no information to users. A brand name is acceptable, but for certain topics like health, identifying a qualified expert...

Oct 30, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do ccTLDs Really Impact Local SEO Rankings?

Google uses country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) as a factor for geographic targeting. For queries where the user is looking for something local, websites with corresponding ccTLDs are favored. For...

Oct 30, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Hreflang really always necessary?

Before implementing hreflang for a multilingual site, you should check in Search Console if Google is already showing the right pages in the correct languages. If that’s the case, hreflang may be redu...

Oct 30, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do page titles really impact SEO rankings?

Google uses page titles as a small ranking factor. It's important not to create titles that are completely irrelevant. It is the content of the title tag that gets used for ranking, even if Google sho...

Oct 30, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Noindex Pages Really Affect Google's Perceived Quality?

Google does not consider noindex pages in the overall quality assessment of a site or in core updates. Only indexed content serves as the basis for quality algorithms, as it is what is displayed to us...

Oct 30, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does it take up to 6 months for the impact of a disavow file to show up?

The effects of a disavow file manifest incrementally over a period of 3 to 6 months as Google processes the links. A visible effect in just a few days after submission is therefore not related to the ...

Oct 30, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why are search titles now fixed to each page?

Since the title update, the title links displayed in search results are determined on a per-page basis, rather than dynamically based on the query. This simplifies testing: you can alter the title, su...

Oct 30, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available