John Mueller

★★★ Does a website that changes ownership inherit Google penalties?

When a site changes ownership and domain, Google does not apply previous manual actions to the new owner. If no manual action appears in Search Console, the site is treated as normal. Algorithms evalu...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Core Web Vitals really need to be ALL in the green to boost your ranking?

To qualify for the Core Web Vitals ranking bonus starting May 2021, the metrics must be in the green zone. If any metric is yellow or red, it will not count as compliant. All criteria must be met to b...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does duplicate content really hurt your SEO rankings?

Duplicate content does not result in a negative score. If Google finds the same content on multiple pages, it simply chooses the best matching page to display. It's normal to have shared content on ce...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really transfer all signals in bulk during a complete site migration?

During a complete site migration, if Google can recognize that all indexable content has been moved, it transfers all signals in bulk to the new domain. This is more efficient than a partial migration...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can you trigger a knowledge panel for your brand?

There is no specific directive to activate a knowledge panel. It is not a particular meta tag or type of structured data that triggers its appearance. Google's algorithms automatically detect entities...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google favor a pyramid structure over a flat architecture?

A pyramid website structure helps Google better understand the context and relationships between pages than a flat structure. With a flat structure where all pages are at the same level, Google cannot...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really pay attention to the textual context around your videos for SEO?

For videos, Google has a type of structured data with fields for descriptions and titles. Similar to images, the textual context surrounding the video (caption, section title) also helps Google unders...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does external traffic really influence your site's SEO ranking?

Google does not use traffic from other sources (social networks, other sites) as a ranking signal for search. Traffic diversification is important for a site's stability, but it does not directly infl...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do browser banners realmente cause a penalizing layout shift according to Google?

Google evaluates Cumulative Layout Shift based on metrics measured by tools and real user data. There is no explicit exception for specific pop-ups or banners, even if they come from the browser. Test...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does hosting your videos externally really hurt your SEO?

From an SEO perspective, there is no difference between uploading a video to your site and embedding it from another site. It is common to use a separate CDN for videos, which is technically a distinc...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it true that YouTube competes with your site for video results?

When a YouTube video is embedded on a site, there are two landing pages for that video: the site's page and YouTube's page. Google must determine which one to display in video results. It's not automa...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do internal links between language versions really transfer PageRank?

Translated versions of content are treated as different pages and ranked individually. By creating links between language versions, some of the signals from the performing page can be distributed to t...

Jan 29, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How will the new Index Coverage Report in Search Console transform your indexing diagnostics?

Google has significantly updated the Index Coverage Report in Search Console to better inform website owners about issues affecting indexing. For instance, the previous generic error type 'crawl anoma...

Jan 27, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really give up on buying links for your SEO?

Google's guidelines mention various things to avoid regarding links, such as buying links. Sites often receive questions about what they can do to attract links legitimately....

Jan 27, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are links really the cornerstone of Google's SEO?

Google uses links to find new pages and to better understand their context on the web. While Google employs many different factors in its search, links are an integral part of the web....

Jan 27, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why should large websites rethink their crawling strategy?

Google has released a new guide specifically for large websites regarding crawling. As a site grows, crawling becomes more challenging. This guide compiles best practices to keep in mind and is useful...

Jan 27, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the new crawl report in Search Console really making server logs obsolete?

Google has launched an updated crawl statistics report in Search Console. It provides insights into the number of queries by response code, crawl goals, host-level information on accessibility, and mo...

Jan 27, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is creative content really the secret to earning backlinks naturally?

Creating remarkable content isn't always easy, but it can help reach a wider audience and potentially earn backlinks naturally. Sites should think about creative things they could do in their niche....

Jan 27, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you be concerned about Google crawling with HTTP/2?

Google has started crawling with HTTP/2, an updated version of the protocol used to access web pages. This enhancement has been used to optimize the normal crawl and will be gradually extended to more...

Jan 27, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really use the manual indexing request in Search Console?

The indexing request feature in the URL inspection tool is back in Search Console. It allows individual pages to be manually submitted for indexing in specific situations where it is useful....

Jan 27, 2021 ⚡ Analysis available