Google’s John Mueller shared 2 tips in enhancing content

In one video posted on Google’s Webmasters’ channel, John Mueller answered questions about the enhancing the content focus.

Changing the Focus of the Content

Someone asked on how to shift the content focus. This is regarding the product pages (or PDPs). Here’s the full question:

“I am looking to improve the visibility of my product pages. Many of our PDPs include a large number of images, which include a large amounts of explanatory texts. My concern is that the associate text might be diluting the identity… Do you think moving the images down and the relevant text up would help Google to better interpret the focus of each of these pages?”

John Mueller responded by saying the following:

“So just shifting the location of content within an HTML page… I don’t think that plays a big role at all.

Headings are useful… we can take a heading and see which images (or texts) apply to that heading. But just shifting around things with HTML or with CSS… I don’t think see that playing a big role there at all.”

The Right Way of Using of Headings

Headings are NOT the place for your keywords

• Typically, people add keywords on their headings, thinking this would increase rankings. However, this is a misconception committed by many. In 2001, the heading is where people add the keywords.
• Remember, search engines have changed the rules and released updates over the years. Yes, headings are important, but not in a way to indicate the keywords.
• Instead, the headings should be telling its readers what the content is all about. Of course, in one page, there would be one main topic and various sub-topics. Headings are great page dividers, and it should provide an overview of what that specific section is about.

Mueller’s recommendations on headings:

“Headings are useful… we can take a heading and see which images (or texts) apply to that heading.”

• In this statement, Mueller is clearly saying that every element should be related to each other. The heading you will should be connected to the images and the texts of that specific section.
• When headings do not refer to the content, it’s useless. Thus, this would make your pages earn lower rankings.
• John Mueller even emphasized that moving texts around the page won’t help.

“Just shifting around things with HTML or with CSS… I don’t think see that playing a big role there at all.”

Country picker interstitials can hinder indexing

• In relation the question, John Mueller added that a poorly placed interstitial may obstruct the indexing process. Mueller visited the site the user added with his question, and he noticed an interstitial for country selection. This may contribute to not fully indexing the page.

“One thing I did notice when looking at that example page that you link to is that when I loaded up, after a certain period of time it switches to kind of a country picker interstitial. I don’t know how you are triggering this, and if you trigger this in all locations. For example, if you were to trigger this when Googlebot crawls and renders your pages, that might also result in Googlebot not being able to index your pages properly. So, that’s one thing you might want to double check.”

Follow Mueller’s advice:

• Generally, John Mueller recommends using a banner rather than an interstitial, where users need to select their country or language. If you have a banner, it does not necessarily block the indexing.
• For more information, please watch John Mueller’s full Google Webmaster video.