John Mueller

★★ Do Google podcasts reveal more than the official documentation?

A large portion of the podcast content revolves around topics that are not officially documented or information that leads to what eventually gets documented. It is about sharing the process and think...

Dec 07, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is the Search Off the Record podcast a reliable source for optimizing your SEO?

The 'Search Off the Record' podcast aims to give insights into the inner workings of Google Search and communications around search. The goal is not to serve as an additional source of documentation, ...

Dec 07, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google really share everything it knows about SEO?

The podcast addresses topics that are not officially documented or information that led to what has ultimately been documented. It discusses the context and process behind Google's official communicat...

Dec 07, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really overlook the nofollow attribute in your SEO strategy?

The changes to nofollow aim to rectify errors on sites and gain a better understanding of problematic parts of the web. Webmasters do not need to optimize or modify anything if they are already doing ...

Dec 07, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you use the address change tool when switching from m. to www.?

There is no need to use the address change tool in Search Console when transitioning from mobile URLs (m.site) to desktop URLs (www). Google will automatically detect the redirects. The tool is meant ...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does mobile-friendliness really have measurable objective criteria?

There is no objective measure to determine whether a page is mobile-friendly or not. Different tools may have different criteria (for example, the size of clickable areas). For Google SEO, use the mob...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does my site fluctuate between the top 3 and page 4 without stabilizing?

Significant and repetitive ranking fluctuations (pages oscillating between the top and pages 3-5) may indicate that Google’s algorithms are hesitating about the quality of the site. It’s a signal to s...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are Core Updates truly disconnected from other algorithmic changes at Google?

Core Updates are generally not grouped with other types of algorithmic changes like indexing changes. If several updates are released simultaneously, it's more of a coincidence than an intentional gro...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does social traffic really have zero impact on Google rankings?

Google does not track or use traffic from platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Pinterest for search ranking. If a user reaches a page through social media and finds the information useful, it has no e...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is your website's partial indexing really just a normal occurrence?

It is extremely common for websites to be partially indexed. This is normal. The indexing rate of any site will always fluctuate over time. The number of discovered pages that are currently not indexe...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google group your pages to measure Core Web Vitals?

Google groups pages for Core Web Vitals using URL patterns and content type. To ensure that sections of the site are processed individually, it is recommended to use clear URL structures (/search for ...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Passage Ranking truly change the game for long-form content?

Passage Ranking aims to better understand the relevant parts of particularly long pages, in order to display them appropriately in search results. It is not an overall ranking improvement, but rather ...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Could ad-blockers be undermining your canonicalization?

Ad-blocker scripts can sometimes redirect to a central page with a rel canonical tag, which can trigger canonicalization issues depending on how Google crawls the site. These redirects can be detected...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why isn't Google indexing all of your discovered URLs?

When many URLs fall under the 'discovered, currently not indexed' category, it means that Google has crawled the site and seen these URLs, but is not convinced that indexing them will provide value to...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do keyword-rich TLDs (.seo, .shop, .paris) really enhance your SEO?

Google treats all new TLDs (top-level domains) such as .club or .tools exactly like any generic domain such as .com. There is no additional SEO value in having keywords, city names, or country names i...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do external reviews showcased on your site truly enhance your organic SEO?

Displaying authentic external ratings or reviews on your site does not influence Google's algorithms or ranking from a purely SEO standpoint. Users may value them for trust, but there is no immediate ...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really ignore Schema.org properties that Google hasn't documented?

Adding structured data properties or schema not mentioned in Google’s documentation probably provides no benefit and probably no harm either. Google recommends using structured data only for items int...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the trailing slash in URLs really matter for SEO?

By default, Google does not consider URLs with and without trailing slashes to be identical. Technically, one represents the root of a directory and the other a file within the parent directory. If Go...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google really analyze the anchor text of your backlinks?

Google analyzes the anchor text of external links both at the individual page level and at the site-wide level. The page-level analysis helps to understand the context of individual pages, while the g...

Dec 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can You Force Googlebot to Crawl Your Site Using HTTP/2?

John Mueller reminded on Twitter that it was not possible to force Googlebot to crawl a site using HTTP/2, following his announcement on this subject last September. Google chooses the protocol used b...

Nov 30, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available