What does Google say about SEO? /
John Mueller is one of Google's most active spokespeople on search engine optimization topics. As a Search Advocate, he regularly answers the SEO community's questions during Google Search Central sessions and on social media. His statements are a prime source of information for understanding how Google Search works and the best practices to follow.
Quick SEO Quiz

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🕒 ~1 min 🎯 5 questions
★★★ Why is active promotion essential for new websites in SEO?
For a new website, simply submitting a sitemap is not sufficient. Google must understand how the site fits into the broader context of the web. Actively promoting the site through advertising, social ...
Jul 23, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Should you really worry about localized URLs for SEO?
Translating URL slugs into the local language (for example, /produit/ vs /product/) has no significant impact on search engine optimization. Some sites utilize localized URLs, while others stick to gl...
Jul 23, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Do multilingual backlinks really build themselves?
Backlinks to different language versions of a site develop naturally over time. Users from a linguistic region will naturally link to the version in their own language. There is no need to manually bu...
Jul 23, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Does translated content really count as unique by Google?
Even if the source content is identical, once translated into another language, Google considers it as unique content. Therefore, each language version must have its own canonical....
Jul 23, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ How should you configure canonical tags for multilingual websites?
For international sites with different language versions, each version constitutes unique content. Each page should have its own canonical tag pointing to itself, even if the content is translated. Th...
Jul 23, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★ Why is it so challenging to pinpoint a website's actual hosting?
It is often impossible to determine from the outside how a website is actually hosted: a single server, a cluster of servers, a single data center, or multiple data centers....
Jul 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Does the type of hosting truly impact your website's speed and SEO performance?
A dedicated server isn’t always fast, and a shared server isn’t automatically slow. Performance depends on the server’s capacity, not whether it’s shared or dedicated....
Jul 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Is it true that an overloaded server can hinder your SEO performance?
<p>When too many websites are hosted on a system with limited capacity, the server can become overloaded and very slow. This leaves users unhappy and can make it more challenging for Google to crawl t...
Jul 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Should you really worry about 'bad neighborhoods' in SEO?
The presence of other low-quality sites hosted on the same server (referred to as 'bad neighborhood' by some SEOs) is not a concern for Google. Hosting providers typically monitor these situations....
Jul 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ How does Google manage sites on shared servers?
Google assesses each website based on its own merits, rather than its virtual neighbors on the same server. The presence of other sites on the same server does not influence a site's ranking....
Jul 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Does Shared Hosting Really Affect Your SEO?
Using shared hosting is perfectly acceptable for Google Search and does not negatively impact a site's SEO. There is no need to switch to dedicated hosting or a dedicated IP address for SEO reasons....
Jul 20, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Does the text/code ratio really influence SEO rankings?
Google does not use the text/code ratio as a ranking factor. Only page loading speed and Core Web Vitals should be monitored....
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Does the age of a website really influence its SEO ranking?
Google has no preference between new or old sites. Assessment is based on what is most relevant to users, not on the age of the domain or the number of links....
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Why are breadcrumb structured data essential for SEO?
Breadcrumb structured data is very useful because Google is displaying fewer raw URLs and favoring navigation links. Specifying these links via structured data ensures a better display....
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Is it worth using structured data without Rich Results for SEO?
Structured data that doesn't generate Rich Results has a minimal positive effect on the understanding of entities, but this effect is generally not measurable. Prioritize visible structured data in th...
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Why should you avoid marking third-party reviews in structured data?
Reviews collected by third-party platforms should not be marked with structured data on your site. Only the platform that actually collects the reviews can mark them; otherwise, there is a risk of com...
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Could using nofollow on internal links actually enhance your SEO strategy?
Using nofollow on internal links to pages with high link density or noindex pages can be tested to optimize the crawl budget. Google will not penalize this practice....
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Why does Google take several months to reevaluate your site?
After improving a site's quality, Google typically requires several months, even up to six months, to reevaluate the overall quality of the site and adjust its ranking accordingly....
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Could cutting down the number of pages actually boost your SEO?
Presenting a limited set of high-quality pages (e.g., 20,000 instead of 100,000) allows Google to better crawl and assess quality, then gradually expand across the entire site....
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Could your crawl budget be restricted by server speed and quality issues?
The two main reasons for a limited crawl budget are slow server response time (aim for less than 300-400ms) and a lack of trust in the overall quality of the site....
Jul 19, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
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