John Mueller

★★ What happens when you shift from formal to informal language in your content?

Transforming all the content of a website from formal address to informal (from 'Sie' to 'Du' in German) is not an SEO issue at all. Google simply recognizes that the text has changed and reindexes th...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you swiftly remove a subdomain from Google's index?

To quickly remove a mistakenly indexed staging subdomain, the best approach is to use the URL removal tool in Search Console at the domain/subdomain level. It operates in about half a day and temporar...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Does Noindex Really Affect Your Link Signals?

When a page is marked as noindex, Google may initially process the links on that page before completely removing it from the index. There exists a transitional state where the page can be marked as ca...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Could showing less content to Google actually enhance your SEO?

Showing less content to Googlebot than to users is acceptable. The problem arises only if you show MORE to Googlebot, as this creates a misleading promise in search results. Hiding certain elements li...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Could the combination of HTTP/HTTPS actually stem from Google My Business?

If a homepage appears in HTTP but the sitelinks are in HTTPS despite correct canonicalization and 301 redirects in place for a long time, it may stem from an outdated URL in the Google My Business pro...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really worry about bad backlinks?

Spammy or low-quality links pointing to a site are automatically ignored by Google. The disavow tool still exists in Search Console, but in the vast majority of cases, it is not necessary to use it as...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you choose domain verification or individual properties in Search Console?

For new domains, verifying at the domain level is usually sufficient. However, it's advisable to also add individual variants (http/https) because some older Search Console tools (like URL parameters ...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google decide what type of content to display?

Google attempts to determine what type of content to display (web, images, videos, books) based on search intent. For certain highly specific product queries, systems may decide not to show videos eve...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How does Google actually monitor cloaking?

Google does not systematically monitor cloaking on a large scale by comparing content across different user agents. Checks are conducted through sampling. Google sometimes uses other user agents (simi...

Oct 07, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does URL Length Really Impact Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google uses URL length as an ultra-light criterion in the context of defining a canonical page (if it discovers duplicate content): "We use URL length with a ver...

Oct 04, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Block Sponsored Links from Indexing in Your E-commerce Category Pages?

Recently, John Mueller has been actively communicating about category pages, particularly on e-commerce sites (see previous weeks). This week, he responded on Twitter to a question about integrating (...

Oct 04, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Does Google Rank Specific Passages Instead of Entire Pages?

During a webmaster hangout, John Mueller explained in a few words what the Passage Ranking algorithm was: "we essentially take a very long page and generally these are pages that are not very well opt...

Oct 04, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does a temporary noindex really affect Google's recrawl?

Adding and then removing a noindex tag will not have a negative long-term effect. Google will continue to crawl the URL normally, especially if you add internal links to those pages. The crawl rate ma...

Oct 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that having more pages leads to better indexing?

Just because a site has many pages doesn’t mean Google will crawl and index them all. If Google isn’t convinced by the quality of the initial pages, its systems won’t take the time to index millions o...

Oct 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Pages Blocked by robots.txt Really Affect Your SEO?

Pages blocked by robots.txt that show up as indexed in Search Console do not count against site quality. It is mainly a warning to inform owners. If you do not care about these pages, just leave them ...

Oct 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does using display:none really affect your SEO?

Using display:none in CSS on internal links in the footer is not a best practice, but the Webspam team will not take manual action against it. This is different from hidden purchased links, which woul...

Oct 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How do noindex tags affect the de-indexing timeline for large websites?

For a large website, processing noindex tags can take up to a month. De-indexing usually happens in a gradual and progressive manner, not all at once....

Oct 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really avoid mixing multiple languages on the same SEO page?

Google does not recommend having multiple languages on the same page, as it makes it difficult to identify the primary language. It is better to create separate pages clearly in one language only....

Oct 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can a sitemap really stop Google from crawling all your pages?

Removing pages from the sitemap file only aids in additional crawling, but it does not prevent Google from crawling those pages and does not remove them from the index. The sitemap does not stop natur...

Oct 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google prioritize static content for the ranking of interactive pages?

For interactive content such as quizzes or surveys, the ranking is based on the static content that appears on the page. Googlebot does not attempt to fill out forms to discover content....

Oct 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available