Google Search Advocate John Mueller has reaffirmed that Core Web Vitals are not major ranking factors, responding to data that suggested otherwise. His statements come amid growing industry discussion about the immediate impact of site performance on search visibility. Mueller’s Stance Mueller stated on LinkedIn: “We’ve been pretty clear that Core Web Vitals are not … Read more
This post was sponsored by DebugBear. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. From a user’s perspective, a slow website can be incredibly frustrating, creating a poor experience. But the impact of sluggish load times goes deeper than just user frustration. Poor page performance affects search rankings, overall site engagement, E-E-A-T, and … Read more
Google has announced the retirement of the sitelinks search box feature. This change, set to take effect on November 21, marks the end of a tool that has been part of Google Search for over a decade. We’re saying bye to the sitelinks search box in Google Search results starting Nov 21, 2024, as usage … Read more
Google’s Web Performance Developer Advocate, Barry Pollard, has clarified how Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is measured. CLS quantifies how much unexpected layout shift occurs when a person browses your site. This metric matters to SEO as it’s one of Google’s Core Web Vitals. Pages with low CLS scores provide a more stable experience, potentially leading … Read more
When it comes to large websites, such as ecommerce sites with thousands upon thousands of pages, the importance of things like crawl budget cannot be understated. Building a website with an organized architecture and smart internal linking strategy is key for these types of sites. However, doing that properly oftentimes involves new challenges when trying … Read more
When it comes to large websites, such as ecommerce sites with thousands upon thousands of pages, the importance of things like crawl budget cannot be understated. Building a website with an organized architecture and smart internal linking strategy is key for these types of sites. However, doing that properly oftentimes involves new challenges when trying … Read more
Today’s Ask An SEO question comes from Michal in Bratislava, who asks: “I have a client who has a website with filters based on a map locations. When the visitor makes a move on the map, a new URL with filters is created. They are not in the sitemap. However, there are over 700,000 URLs … Read more
In a recent update to its Search Central documentation, Google has officially relegated the ‘noarchive’ rule to a historical reference section. The new text in Google’s help document reads: “The noarchive rule is no longer used by Google Search to control whether a cached link is shown in search results, as the cached link feature … Read more
When it comes to large websites, such as ecommerce sites with thousands upon thousands of pages, the importance of things like crawl budget cannot be understated. Building a website with an organized architecture and smart internal linking strategy is key for these types of sites. However, doing that properly oftentimes involves new challenges when trying … Read more
In the world of SEO, URL parameters pose a significant problem. While developers and data analysts may appreciate their utility, these query strings are an SEO headache. Countless parameter combinations can split a single user intent across thousands of URL variations. This can cause complications for crawling, indexing, visibility and, ultimately, lead to lower traffic. … Read more
Crawl budget is a vital SEO concept for large websites with millions of pages or medium-sized websites with a few thousand pages that change daily. An example of a website with millions of pages would be eBay.com, and websites with tens of thousands of pages that update frequently would be user reviews and rating websites … Read more
In the world of SEO, URL parameters pose a significant problem. While developers and data analysts may appreciate their utility, these query strings are an SEO headache. Countless parameter combinations can split a single user intent across thousands of URL variations. This can cause complications for crawling, indexing, visibility and, ultimately, lead to lower traffic. … Read more
Crawl budget is a vital SEO concept for large websites with millions of pages or medium-sized websites with a few thousand pages that change daily. An example of a website with millions of pages would be eBay.com, and websites with tens of thousands of pages that update frequently would be user reviews and rating websites … Read more
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a Google user experience metric integrated into ranking systems in 2021. LCP is one of the three Core Web Vitals (CWV) metrics that track technical performance metrics that impact user experience. Core Web Vitals exist paradoxically, with Google providing guidance highlighting their importance but downplaying their impact on rankings. LCP, … Read more
Despite significant changes to the organic search landscape throughout the year, the speed and efficiency of web pages have remained paramount. Users continue to demand quick and seamless online interactions, with 83% of online users reporting that they expect websites to load in three seconds or less. Google sets the bar even higher, requiring a … Read more
The SEO field has no shortage of acronyms. From SEO to FID to INP – these are some of the more common ones you will run into when it comes to page speed. There’s a new metric in the mix: INP, which stands for Interaction to Next Paint. It refers to how the page responds … Read more
When working on sites with traffic, there is as much to lose as there is to gain from implementing SEO recommendations. The downside risk of an SEO implementation gone wrong can be mitigated using machine learning models to pre-test search engine rank factors. Pre-testing aside, split testing is the most reliable way to validate SEO … Read more
There is no better time for organizations to prioritize Schema Markup. Why is that so, you might ask? First of all, Schema Markup (aka structured data) is not new. Google has been awarding sites that implement structured data with rich results. If you haven’t taken advantage of rich results in search, it’s time to gain … Read more
