John Mueller

★★★ Does page speed really have such a minimal impact on Google rankings?

Page speed is considered for ranking only on mobile and is a relatively gentle factor. Even a significant score change (e.g., dropping from 100 to 20/100) generally won’t cause a notable drop in searc...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Could cleaning up your artificial backlinks really cause your Google rankings to plummet?

When cleaning up after a manual action related to artificial backlinks, the site may see a drop in rankings because it was previously ranked in an artificial situation. After correction, the ranking r...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really implement both Merchant Center feeds and product structured data?

It is recommended to use both the Merchant Center feed and the product structured data on the pages. The feed powers organic shopping results, while the structured data generates rich results in regul...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why is Google planning to remove the 'crawl anomaly' category from Search Console?

Google is working on removing the generic 'crawl anomaly' category in Search Console. Instead of grouping various issues, the data will be reclassified into more specific and useful categories. This c...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you mimic competitors who rise after a core update?

After a drop due to a core update, it is relevant to analyze the pages that now rank better to identify trends (e.g., informational vs commercial content). This helps to understand what users are look...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do core updates really recalculate your scores continuously between deployments?

Unlike the old Panda or Penguin updates where scores were frozen until the next refresh, modern core updates see their scores regularly refreshed between two major deployments. Google can recalculate ...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really wait for the next core update to reclaim your lost traffic?

A site negatively impacted by a core update does not need to wait for the next update to recover. Improvements can be detected incrementally over time. Some major changes require a full reevaluation d...

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Still Be Using the Speakable Tag for SEO in 2024?

John Mueller explained on Twitter that the Speakable tag was still valid and not obsolete, contrary to what an email received by a publisher from a Googler working on Google News might have suggested....

Sep 14, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Google Really Block a Page's Visibility Based on Country?

John Mueller explained on Twitter that there is no system or mechanism on Google's search engine to limit a page's visibility to one country or another. For example, a page that could be visible on Go...

Sep 09, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Images in XML Sitemaps Count Toward the 50,000 URL Limit?

We know that XML Sitemap files are limited to 50,000 URLs. We also know that for each page URL, we can indicate the URLs of the main images it contains. But do these image URLs count as part of the 50...

Sep 09, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google Really Flag Domains as "Toxic" in Its Algorithm?

John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google doesn't have a "flag" indicating that a domain name is toxic: "We don't have a concept of a toxic domain. It's good to use tools to work on your site, but...

Sep 09, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the URL switch between AMP and canonical HTML capable of really harming your ranking?

Switching from the AMP version to the canonical HTML version (or vice versa) does not change the page ranking. It’s solely a matter of displayed URL. If a drop in ranking coincides with an AMP change,...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google ignore your date structured data if it's not visible?

For Google to recognize the date of an article, it must be confirmed in the visible content, not just in structured data. The algorithms extract all dates (visible and metadata) and choose the one wit...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is keyword cannibalization really an SEO issue or just a myth?

Keyword cannibalization exists but it is not a mysterious penalty. It's a marketing strategy issue: offering a strong and focused page versus several diluted pages on the same topic. The choice depend...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do uppercase URLs really create duplicate content that Google penalizes?

Google treats URLs as case-sensitive. Identical URLs with uppercase/lowercase variations create technical duplicate content. Small sites manage this easily, but very large sites must normalize via con...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ 404 or noindex for deindexing: which method should you really prefer?

Using 404 or noindex to remove pages from the index produces the same final result. Noindex can be slightly faster, but the difference is negligible at the scale of a site. Choose the most practical m...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really worry when a 404 page turns back to 200?

Changing a 404 page to 200 does not incur any penalty. Google normally reindexes the new content. However, a long-term 404 page gets crawled less frequently (possibly every two months). Thus, repeated...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you reconfigure Search Console every time you migrate from www to non-www?

When changing a prefix (www/non-www), you must verify the new property if the verification is prefix-based. Domain verification avoids this problem. Search Console is not required for the website's op...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ What happens when you migrate from www to non-www without 301 redirects, and how does it destroy your SEO?

When transitioning from www to non-www (or vice versa), 301 redirects are essential. Without redirects, Google sees the old version as broken and gradually removes it, treating the new version as a co...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Homepage with URL Parameters: Should You Really Index Multiple Versions or Canonicalize Everything?

A homepage with parameters and one without are two distinct URLs for Google. If the versions are indeed different (personalized content), they can be indexed separately. If they are equivalent, use re...

Sep 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available