John Mueller

★★★ Should you really implement bidirectional redirection between desktop and mobile versions?

If you have separate desktop and mobile versions, it is recommended to redirect in both directions: mobile to desktop for desktop users, and desktop to mobile for mobile users....

Sep 25, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does mobile-first indexing really ignore the desktop version of your site?

When a site is switched to mobile-first indexing, the main version indexed by Google is the mobile version. Google counts impressions for the primary version and exchanges language URLs, but not deskt...

Sep 25, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really update your content to preserve your Google rankings?

To maintain the visibility of an article, you should not merely leave it as is, hoping something will change. You must continue to work on it and improve it so that Google recognizes there is new usef...

Sep 25, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can a featured snippet truly appear without being the top result in organic search?

Google can display a page as a featured snippet even if it is not ranked first in organic search results....

Sep 25, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do your new content pieces suddenly lose their positions after an initial spike?

It is normal for content to appear very prominently in search results at first, and then stabilize at a lower position. The opposite can also occur. Both situations are normal from Google's perspectiv...

Sep 25, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Focus Exclusively on Core Web Vitals to Optimize Web Performance for SEO?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that "webperf" (Web performance, page load times, etc.) was often a complex topic, but that for SEO, Google stuck to Core Web Vitals and that the 3 criteria of these ...

Sep 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can You Really Recover Your SEO Traffic After Being Penalized by Google?

John Mueller explained in a hangout that after being subject to a manual action, a website should not expect to regain its visibility from before the penalty....

Sep 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do You Really Need a Keyword in Your Domain Name to Rank Well?

John Mueller indicated in a video from the "Ask Google Webmasters" series that the presence of a keyword in a site's domain name is not a criterion taken into account by Google: "In short, no. You don...

Sep 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really sacrifice keywords in your domain name for longevity?

It's better to choose a domain name that can be used long-term rather than one that corresponds only to the current offering. Businesses evolve and migrating domains is difficult. For example, a site ...

Sep 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do keyword TLDs (.jobs, .seo, .tech) really boost your SEO?

Having a keyword in a top-level domain (TLD) name like .jobs does not give any specific ranking bonus on Google. The highest-ranked results for a given search typically do not contain the keyword in t...

Sep 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really ditch exact match domain names for better SEO?

It is recommended to choose a domain name that can be used long-term rather than one that only corresponds to current offerings. Businesses evolve over time, and changing a domain is difficult. For ex...

Sep 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do keyword TLDs (.jobs, .tech, .pro) really boost your SEO?

Google does not grant any ranking bonus for having a keyword in the domain extension (TLD). A site with .jobs, .tech, or any other keyword TLD is not favored for that keyword. The fact that a site con...

Sep 15, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really worry about product duplication with infinite scrolling?

For an e-commerce site, if page 2 loads products from page 1 (infinite scroll), it is not an SEO problem. Google is looking for links to product pages, and finding them duplicated across multiple pagi...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are guest posts considered a shady link scheme by Google?

Guest posts are acceptable if the author seeks to reach an audience (advertising, notoriety) and does not care about the nofollow. If the sole motivation is to obtain a dofollow link in exchange for t...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Google Tag Manager affect your content to the point of impacting your SEO?

If the 'container tag' refers to Google Tag Manager, Google processes it during the page rendering. GTM can add, modify, or remove content via JavaScript. Using URL Inspection allows you to see the re...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Restoring a 404 URL: Does Google Really Wipe All Traces of Its Past Authority?

When a previously 404 URL returns to a 200 status, Google treats it like a fresh URL with no 'score' or 'authority' retained from the old version once it has been deindexed. However, external signals ...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is third-party JavaScript slowing down your site: Does Google really hold you accountable for ranking?

If a third-party JavaScript (e.g., advertising) significantly slows down a page, Google will measure this slowdown when evaluating speed for ranking, without making a distinction between site code or ...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Could your meta tags be hiding from Google without you even knowing?

Some third-party scripts inject tags (e.g. iframe) at the top of the <head>, which can lead Google to believe that the <head> is prematurely closed. Result: robots metatag, canonical, hreflang may be ...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google show spam in brand search results beyond the first page?

If phishing or spam sites are massively appearing on deep pages (top 10 pages) of brand results, it’s often because Google lacks quality content to show beyond the first page. Patterns of spam should ...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the alt attribute still play a role in web page SEO?

The alt attribute should accurately describe the content of the image (e.g., transcribe a quote if the image is a quote). Google uses the alt to understand the image for Image Search, not for traditio...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available