Martin Splitt

★★★ Can Google really manually manipulate your site's ranking in the SERPs?

There is no guaranteed method to rank a site in the top position. Google and Bing cannot manually adjust a site's ranking within their systems. Search engines strive to meet user needs by matching sea...

Jun 30, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google Ads really boost your organic SEO?

There is a strict separation between paid ads and organic search results. Advertising (Google Ads or Bing Ads) does not improve a site's organic ranking. The two systems are completely distinct....

Jun 30, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why is JavaScript more costly to crawl than images or videos?

JavaScript is the most costly resource on a website for search engines, unlike images or videos. Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with client-side hydration offers the best balance: it provides initial con...

Jun 30, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does search intent remain the Achilles' heel of so many SEO strategies?

Many webmasters focus solely on technical optimization and third-party tool metrics but overlook the user's search intent. Search engines must align the query's intent with that of the document. Servi...

Jun 30, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is 'it depends' really the most honest SEO answer from Google?

Google officially recognizes that 'it depends' is a valid and frequent answer in SEO because many different factors and contexts come into play. Recommendations cannot always be universal and must ada...

Jun 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it true that “creating the best possible site” has become Google’s worst SEO advice?

Google acknowledges that telling webmasters to “build the best possible site” is not sufficient. The SEO community needs concrete and actionable recommendations to prioritize optimizations (HTTPS, spe...

Jun 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is page speed really just a secondary ranking factor in Google?

Google refutes the claim that page speed is the most important ranking factor. While speed is a factor to consider, it is not the primary criterion for ranking....

Jun 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why is "it depends" considered the most honest answer in SEO according to Google?

Google asserts that even though no one wants to hear it, "it depends" is the real answer to many SEO questions. Recommendations are contextual and vary based on the specific situations of each site....

Jun 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really ditch third-party tools to test the HTML rendering of your pages?

Google recommends using its official tools (Mobile-Friendly Test, Rich Results Test, URL Inspection Tool) rather than third-party tools to check the rendered HTML. These tools show exactly what the Go...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it really necessary to avoid duplicate meta tags in HTML and JavaScript?

Having duplicate meta tags (for example, in index.html and via React Helmet) is problematic. You need to either remove them from the static HTML file and generate them solely through the JavaScript fr...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google overlook links hidden behind your dropdown menus?

Links that require user interaction (like hovering over a menu with the mouse) or that are loaded solely via JSON without being present in the rendered HTML will not be discovered or crawled by Google...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you unblock JavaScript and CSS in robots.txt for better SEO?

Blocking access to JavaScript and CSS files via robots.txt prevents Google from downloading these resources, which can cause rendering issues. If content is generated by JavaScript or if non-native la...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google crawl your JS/CSS files but never indexes them?

Crawling involves making an HTTP request and retrieving the result. Rendering executes the crawled JavaScript in a browser to produce the content. Indexing stores useful content to display to users. J...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can blocking JavaScript and CSS really hurt your SEO?

If JavaScript and CSS are blocked but improve user experience (like interactive features), it can harm SEO. Google considers user experience in ranking, so serving a degraded experience by blocking th...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you abandon onclick to avoid being penalized for cloaking?

Having a link with href and an onclick handler that prevents the default action and updates the current page's content is not considered cloaking, as long as the displayed content meets expectations a...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really see the HTML you think is optimized?

Google's testing tools (URL Inspection Tool, Rich Results Test, Mobile-Friendly Test) display the rendered HTML as seen by Googlebot. If an element appears in this rendered HTML, Google sees it. If it...

Jun 17, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does late JavaScript really hurt your Google indexing?

For scripts that modify elements like title tags or headings, it is recommended to load them as early as possible in the page rendering. Google uses heuristics to determine when the page is complete; ...

Jun 17, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really rewrite your title tags and meta descriptions: should you still optimize them?

Google can rewrite the title tags and meta descriptions displayed in search results, even if they have been correctly rendered by JavaScript. The appearance in the SERPs is not a good indicator to tes...

Jun 17, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ What’s the key difference between DOMContentLoaded and the load event that could reshape Google’s rendering approach?

DOMContentLoaded fires when the HTML DOM has been fully parsed, before all external resources (images, iframes) are completely loaded. The load event waits for all resources referenced in the initial ...

Jun 17, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you prioritize hybrid server/client rendering without harming your SEO?

For a hybrid rendering approach (server-side + client-side), prioritize critical content server-side: title, meta description, canonical, and the main content expected by the user (product description...

Jun 17, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available