John Mueller

★★★ Should you really let go of rel=next and rel=prev tags for pagination?

Google no longer uses the rel=next and rel=previous attributes to understand pagination. Its systems now automatically recognize pagination. These tags can remain for accessibility but have no longer ...

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can self-referential canonical tags really safeguard your site from URL duplications?

Using a canonical tag pointing to the page itself allows Google to manage URL variations (www/non-www, UTM parameters, etc.) and consolidates indexing on the preferred version even if different URLs e...

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do News sitemaps really accelerate the indexing of your news articles?

News sitemaps allow for faster crawling only if Google is already trying to quickly index the content of a news site. Putting content into a News sitemap does not speed up indexing if Google is not al...

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really update the publication date after every small change on a page?

Changing the publication date of a page with every small modification (like rearranging images) may seem misleading to users and does not affect rankings. It is better to change the date only during s...

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should AMP pages really adhere to the same Core Web Vitals thresholds as standard HTML pages?

AMP pages will be treated like standard HTML pages for Core Web Vitals. They will need to meet the same thresholds, even though by default, AMP pages are generally fast enough to achieve them....

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does an inactive spam domain automatically regain its reputation after a decade?

If a domain hosted a spam site 10 years ago, the negative effects do not persist after such a long period of inactivity. Old toxic links eventually cease to have any impact....

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Google’s manual actions always visible in Search Console?

If a site has no manual action displayed in Google Search Console, then there is no active manual action against that site. Manual penalties are always visible in this tool....

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really stop all large-scale repetitive link tactics?

Repeating a link-building tactic with a very large number of sites can be identified as an artificial scheme by Google's webspam team, even if the individual tactic seems legitimate....

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are editorial collaborations with backlinks really risk-free according to Google?

Inviting experts to enrich content and crediting them with a link is acceptable. If these experts then freely mention this collaboration on their site, it remains within the guidelines, provided there...

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should we really ban all exchanges of value for links?

Any exchange of value for a link is problematic: paying for a link, proposing a mandatory reciprocal link, or any form of compensation. The site making the link must freely decide to create it....

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do backlinks lose their significance once a website is established?

Links are particularly important at the beginning, when Google doesn't yet know a website and needs to discover it. Once Google understands the site and its context, growth can become more organic wit...

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are links really losing their ranking power on Google?

Links are just one factor among many used for ranking. Removing an excess link will not lead to a sudden disappearance of a site because Google relies on multiple ranking signals....

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really clean up your artificial links if Google already ignores them?

Google's algorithms generally detect and ignore artificial or spam links before they are even removed. Therefore, removing links already ignored by Google will have no impact on ranking....

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Removing Links Trigger a Google Penalty?

Removing links is not considered an alarm signal by Google's algorithms. If a site loses visibility due to artificial links and those links are removed, the site will simply lose that artificial suppo...

Apr 01, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really include the Google verification file in your XML sitemap?

There is no need to include the Google Webmasters verification file in the XML sitemap. This file is only for Search Console and has no utility for indexing....

Mar 31, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is a single domain sufficient for international SEO or risky?

It is entirely acceptable to have a single domain to target a global audience. Many websites only have one version available globally, without the necessity for multiple ccTLDs....

Mar 31, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do image CDNs really penalize your Google SEO?

Using CDNs to serve images poses no issues for Google Search. Images do not need to be hosted on your own server....

Mar 31, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you remove dates from your URLs to improve your rankings?

Including the day and month in the URL is acceptable and does not affect the crawling, indexing, or ranking of the page in Google....

Mar 31, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do multiple canonical tags pointing to different URLs break your indexing?

You should avoid having multiple rel canonical tags pointing to different URLs on the same page. Multiple canonicals with separate URLs should be avoided....

Mar 31, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Return a 503 Code Instead of a 502 When Your Site Goes Down?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that when a site goes down (as recently happened with the fire at OVH in Strasbourg), the main idea was for the server to immediately return a 503 code ("Service Unav...

Mar 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available