Jonathan Griffin. Editor & CEO at The Webmaster

The change to how Google treats nofollow links went live today. Nofollow links can now be used as a hint for crawling, indexing, and ranking purposes. Previously, they were not.

Jonathan Griffin

Mar 1, 2020 · 3 min read

Technical SEO

Mueller: Google only uses one price per URL from structured data. Or do they?

Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller says that it is not possible to have more than one price per URL. We show one example where this is not the case.

Jonathan Griffin

Feb 25, 2020 · 2 min read

Technical SEO

Google Patent : Website Representation Vectors used to classify a website's Expertise, Authority, and Trust.

A newly released Google Patent may be used to classify a website's Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT) for particular queries. EAT is typically required for YMYL topics, such as health and finance.

Jonathan Griffin

Feb 25, 2020 · 7 min read

Technical SEO

Google Webmaster Hangout Notes - February 21st, 2020.

Summary of the regular Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangout, hosted by Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller.

Jonathan Griffin

Feb 24, 2020 · 8 min read

Technical SEO

Google doesn't crawl content behind JavaScript Load More buttons. Infinite scroll not much better.

Google's John Mueller has confirmed that they no longer index content behind JavaScript 'load more' buttons. Also, Mueller confirmed that they might not index all content loaded via the infinite scroll technique either.

Jonathan Griffin

Feb 24, 2020 · 3 min read

Technical SEO

Legacy Webmaster Tools Crawl Error Report showing 404 sources may not be coming back

Google's John Mueller said that the ability to see the sources of 404s in the old crawl error report might not be coming back, although there have been some discussions about it.

Jonathan Griffin

Feb 24, 2020 · 2 min read

Technical SEO

Google: Using Hreflang for all possible languages and countries might be a mistake.

In response to a Reddit thread, Google's John Mueller said that you should limit the number of pages created with hreflang to those that are absolutely critical & valuable.

Jonathan Griffin

Feb 24, 2020 · 4 min read

Google Algorithm Updates

Looks like Google rolled out a Small Algorithm Update on February 18th, 2020

The SERP trackers have shown increased volatility around the 18th February, which when combined with chatter on various SEO forums indicate that a small Google update has taken place.

Jonathan Griffin

Feb 19, 2020 · 5 min read

Technical SEO

Google: Don't build too many links too fast or we may ignore them.

Google said that if you build backlinks too fast their algorithms might just ignore them. You might also receive a manual spam penalty if reviewed by their webspam team.

Jonathan Griffin

Nov 4, 2019 · 3 min read

Technical SEO

Google: When Buying Links Use rel=nofollow or rel=sponsored

Buying backlinks is against the Google Webmaster Guidelines. As such, you should use rel=nofollow or rel=sponsored SEO Signals, such as PageRank from being passed.

Jonathan Griffin

Nov 4, 2019 · 2 min read

Analytics

Google's new Site Kit WordPress Plugin provides analytics directly in your dashboard

Google has launched Site Kit, a new WordPress plugin that helps you discover how people use your site, how to improve, and how to monetize your content, all from within your dashboard.

Jonathan Griffin

Nov 4, 2019 · 3 min read

Technical SEO

Google: Sitemap showing for search queries indicates Site Quality Issues

If you are Googling something specific on your site and one of the results is your XML sitemap, then it is likely that you have site quality issues.

Jonathan Griffin

Nov 4, 2019 · 3 min read

Technical SEO

Google: Don't use Crawlers to build Sitemaps. Automate them.

Google's John Mueller replied to a Reddit Thread with some advice on how best to build an XML sitemap, including warning against crawler-based

Jonathan Griffin

Oct 31, 2019 · 2 min read

Technical SEO

Cameos on Google App Shows Q&A Knowledge Graph for Universities

Originally designed for celebrities and public figures to share answers to popular questions directly on Google, it has now been spotted being used by UC Davis University.

Jonathan Griffin

Oct 30, 2019 · 2 min read

Technical SEO

PageRank Sculpting with Nofollow Links a Waste of Time, says Google's John Mueller.

Using internal Nofollow links for PageRank Sculpting is a waste of time and does not work.

Jonathan Griffin

Oct 29, 2019 · 3 min read

Technical SEO

Use Multiple Sitemaps to Monitor Different Parts of Your Site, says Google's John Mueller.

Google recommends using multiple sitemaps so you can filter issues in the Search Console to parts of your site.

Jonathan Griffin

Oct 29, 2019 · 2 min read

Jonathan Griffin is The Webmaster’s Editor & CEO, managing day-to-day editorial operations. Jonathan writes about Web Development, Hosting, and SEO topics. With more than ten years of experience Jonathan also manages his own SEO consultancy, offering SEO developer services. He is an expert on site-structure, strategy, schema, AMP, and technical SEO. You can find Jonathan on Twitter at @thewebmastercom.