John Mueller

★★ Should you focus on concentrated traffic or dispersed traffic for SEO?

Google does not favor pages that rank for a few keywords with high traffic, nor those that rank for many keywords with low traffic. It's a strategic decision based on competition and the site's object...

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you worry about media attachment pages for SEO?

The media attachment pages automatically generated by WordPress (an image with header/footer) are not considered problematic by Google. They do not negatively impact the overall quality of the site as...

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google prioritize field data over lab data for SEO?

For ranking, Google uses field data from Search Console that shows the real-world experience of users, not lab data from Lighthouse. While Lighthouse tests are useful for identifying improvements, the...

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why Doesn't Google Index All of Your Pages?

For most websites, Google never indexes 100% of all the pages. There is always a certain proportion of pages that are not indexed, which is normal in the functioning of Google....

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do URLs with or without a trailing slash matter so much in SEO?

Google treats URLs with a trailing slash (/) and without a trailing slash as two distinct URLs and indexes them separately. It is crucial to consistently use the same variant across all internal links...

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How can you optimize your crawl budget for expired auction pages?

For an auction site with thousands of expired products, using noindex on completed auction pages and optimizing the internal linking to active auctions is a valid strategy. With 10,000-100,000 pages, ...

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that you can't use Google My Business reviews in schema?

Including Google My Business reviews in schema markup on your site goes against Google's policies regarding structured data for reviews. Reviews must be collected directly from the website to be prope...

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ How can you avoid the negative impacts of network caching on your SEO tests?

To bypass network caching issues when testing with PageSpeed Insights, adding a random parameter after the URL (e.g., ?123) generally forces intermediate servers to fetch the most recent version of th...

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it necessary to change domains after removing a large amount of content?

When 75% of the content of a domain needs to be removed (with a 410 status), it's generally advisable to maintain the existing domain and clean up the content rather than migrate to a new domain. A do...

Aug 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why should you rely on Search Console instead of the site: command?

To find out how many pages Google has indexed on your site, you should use Google Search Console rather than the site: query. It is the official and reliable tool to obtain this information....

Aug 17, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that the site: command isn't reliable for evaluating indexing?

The number of pages displayed in a site: query doesn't necessarily reflect the actual number of pages indexed by Google. There's no need to worry about the counts shown in a site: query....

Aug 17, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google recommend Search Console for diagnosing indexing issues?

Google Search Console is a free tool that website owners can use to gain insights into how Google Search views their site, including the number of pages currently indexed and how they appear in the re...

Aug 17, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the site: command really a reliable SEO diagnostic tool?

The site: query is not intended to be comprehensive or used for diagnostic purposes. It limits results to a specific site but does not represent a complete collection of all pages on that site....

Aug 17, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Isn't Your Site Affected the Same Way by Every Google Core Update?

John Mueller explained during a hangout with webmasters that each "core update" has its own truth and can impact one site or another differently. Also, a site impacted by a core update will not necess...

Aug 16, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Worry About Click Bot Traffic in Search Console?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that in the "Performance" menu of Search Console, traffic coming from click bots is not necessarily removed. Therefore, there may be "automated" traffic displayed, wh...

Aug 16, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Could non-indexing signal a deeper quality issue with your site?

For small sites, if a significant percentage of pages is not indexed, the issue is usually related to the overall quality of the site rather than technical problems. Modern CMSs are technically sound,...

Aug 14, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google really handle 500 errors?

Google retries pages that return 500 errors. If the errors persist, Google slows down the crawling of the entire site. If 500 errors continue, Google eventually deindexes those URLs. A 500 error rate ...

Aug 14, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Do Navigation Links Really Impact Your SEO?

Google counts navigation links as normal internal links. When you move links from a page to the global navigation, you distribute the value of those links across all pages that contain that navigation...

Aug 14, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why Doesn’t Google Index All Your Pages?

It is completely normal for Google not to index every single page of a website. Indexing naturally fluctuates, and no website, regardless of its size, sees 100% of its pages indexed. This is not neces...

Aug 14, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does hreflang really weaken your SEO in competitive markets?

With hreflang, each country URL must be indexed and ranked separately. If you create multiple country versions of the same page in a highly competitive market, it lessens the relative strength of your...

Aug 14, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available