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.
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🕒 ~1 min 🎯 5 questions
★★ Should large platforms really worry about spammy backlinks?
If you are a large site and you receive a few hundred random spammy links, just ignore them. Disavowing is only useful if you have purchased links in the past or if the links clearly appear to be boug...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Is it true that the lang meta tag no longer matters for Google?
Google does not use the lang meta tag to determine the language of pages. Google attempts to understand what language pages are in by analyzing the text itself....
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ How can server-side JSON-LD boost your dynamic content SEO?
You can use any server-side system to dynamically generate JSON-LD, including prices and availability from a database. This is how most e-commerce sites operate....
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Do links to external sources really impact your SEO?
Citations to authoritative sources (such as manufacturers) should be standard links without nofollow, as long as they are not affiliate links. These are organically provided information. The UX aspect...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Could Ignoring the Priority Tag in Your Sitemap Actually Boost Your SEO Strategy?
Google does not use the priority tag in sitemap files. Initially, Google believed that it would help determine which pages to crawl more frequently, but this has turned out to be of little use....
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Can Video Thumbnails Show Up Without a Sitemap?
Removing a video from the video sitemap does not necessarily remove the video thumbnail from search results. If Google detects a video on a page and considers it relevant, Google may still display tha...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ How do Core Web Vitals truly affect URL indexing?
Chrome collects data from the Chrome User Experience Report by URL. For ranking, Google uses signals from the pages that are actually displayed in search results, not from all pages of the site....
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Could Geolocated Pages Be SEO Traps?
Creating 10 to 20 pages for provinces with unique content and specific information can make sense. However, creating hundreds or thousands of pages per city dilutes the site's value and risks being se...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Why does Google view structured data formats as equivalent?
Google treats JSON-LD, microdata, and RDFa as completely equivalent. If a feature is available in these different formats, they are entirely on par. Google does not give any special treatment to JSON-...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Why doesn’t Search Console control your site's SEO?
Search Console is primarily a reporting tool on what happens in search; it does not control what happens. The launch of a new Search Console does not change Google's search systems. There are no limit...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ How do redirects really impact your SEO metrics?
When Google encounters a redirect, all search signals are transferred and applied to the new URL, including the Core Web Vitals metrics from the Chrome User Experience Report. Fluctuations are expecte...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ How could removing a product link from your homepage impact your SEO?
If you remove a product link from the homepage, Google will likely view that product as less significant among your offerings. Structuring the homepage with sections such as 'popular products' and 'ne...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ How should you handle canonicalization and hreflang for identical multilingual content?
When regional language versions have identical or very similar content, Google indexes a single URL as canonical but continues to treat hreflang annotations. The URL displayed is switched based on the...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ How long does Google take to recrawl my e-commerce site?
For a medium to large e-commerce site, Google may take between 2 to 3 weeks to recrawl the entire site. Therefore, visible changes in 2 days would not be related to a technical modification on the pag...
May 22, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ How do structured data truly impact your SEO visibility?
Providing additional information through structured data does not increase the site's ranking in search, but it allows pages to be presented more prominently in search results when users look for them...
May 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
Why is it essential to verify site ownership before using Search Console?
To use Search Console, you first need to verify the ownership of the website you are working on. If someone is already working on the site's SEO, it's simply a matter of asking to be added to the site...
May 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ Why is JSON-LD becoming essential for SEO experts?
Over the past year, JSON-LD has emerged as the most popular way for websites to provide structured data. All modern metadata specific to Google's search can be provided through JSON-LD and the schema....
May 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ Why should you hire an SEO expert right from the start of your project?
For a site that needs to be highly visible in search engines, it is highly recommended to work with an SEO expert to discuss the project from the very beginning. This allows you to identify and avoid ...
May 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★★ How do structured data transform your SEO strategy?
Search engines use machine-readable elements called structured data to interpret content. These elements indicate which pages to index or ignore and provide information such as the type of content (re...
May 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
★★ How does the Crawl Stats report change your approach to SEO analysis?
The new Crawl Stats report in Search Console provides insights into crawling: how many requests were made, what responses the servers returned, and availability issues. This makes it easier to recogni...
May 18, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available
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