John Mueller

★★ Why does HTTPS restrict access to critical SEO features?

HTTPS is a necessary condition to use many features of modern browsers, including geolocation, autofill, camera access, progressive web apps, and push notifications....

Sep 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does HTTPS really boost rankings in Google Search?

Google Search gives a slight ranking boost to pages that properly use HTTPS. However, this ranking signal remains quite weak and is generally not visible separately from other ranking factors....

Sep 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Links from Wikipedia Really Impact Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller explained on Reddit that links from Wikipedia to your site have no impact on your visibility in Google. And even more so for links created artificially and/or automatically on the online ...

Aug 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why Did Google Remove Regex from Search Console Before Even Launching It?

A few weeks ago, the help documentation for the Search Console "Performance" report indicated that it was possible to use regex (regular expressions to filter data). Then John Mueller and Gary Illyes ...

Aug 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Does Google Actually Determine the Canonical URL of Your Pages?

John Mueller provided on Twitter a list of criteria that Google takes into account to define what the canonical URL of a page is (and therefore its "canonicalization"): redirects, internal links, exte...

Aug 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the Mobile First Index Really Apply Automatically to New Websites?

Google indicated in May 2019 that starting from July 1st of that same year, all new sites discovered by the search engine's crawlers would automatically be integrated into the Mobile First Index. John...

Aug 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Optimize Keywords in URLs to Improve Your SEO?

John Mueller explained on Twitter that keywords present in the URL carry low weight in the search engine's algorithm....

Aug 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can automated DMCA complaints harm your visibility on Google?

Some large content providers automatically crawl the web and file DMCA complaints in an automated manner, generating a very high volume of DMCA requests each day. Google processes these complaints but...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can Google really demote an entire site for systematic duplication?

When Google recognizes that an entire site merely copies content from other sites without adding anything of value, it becomes easier to downgrade that site as a whole. In contrast, determining on an ...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google always prioritize the original content source first?

Even if Google identifies that content was published first on site A, it may rank site B, which copied this content but added real value (comments, analyses). Google prioritizes relevance and user uti...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really resolve a duplicate content dispute through Google Search Console?

Google is required to follow the DMCA process as defined by law, without interpretation. In cases of conflicting DMCA complaints (one copying the other and vice versa), Google cannot determine who the...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does mobile-first indexing really offer any SEO advantages, or is it just a myth?

Being already indexed in mobile-first does not provide any advantages in terms of ranking or indexing. It is a technical change (using the mobile crawler). If the site is responsive and equivalent on ...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ What size of pop-up actually avoids Google’s penalty for intrusive interstitials?

Google penalizes intrusive pop-ups that occupy most of the screen and prevent users from accessing the main content. If a pop-up covers a small part of the screen (about 15%) and does not interfere wi...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Google really block a site at position 11 to keep it off page 1?

Google has no algorithm or manual action that blocks a site at a specific position (e.g.: always position 11, never on page 1). If a site is considered relevant for position 11, it can also be relevan...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you truly prioritize certain pages in Google without a dedicated meta tag?

Google does not allow webmasters to specify that one page should rank higher than another on their own site. The only way to signal the importance of a page is through internal linking: strongly linki...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really ditch display:none to differentiate mobile and desktop?

Using display:none to hide content based on the device (desktop or mobile) does not pose a major issue for Google, but a purely responsive layout is recommended in the long run to facilitate maintenan...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it really necessary to duplicate your structured data between mobile and desktop?

If a site displays the same content twice (once for desktop, once for mobile with display:none), it is sufficient to include structured data only once. Including it twice increases the risk of desynch...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the new structured data testing tool really take up to 30 seconds to analyze a page?

The new structured data testing tool takes longer (up to 30 seconds at times) than the old one (4 seconds) because it processes the page through the entire Google indexing pipeline, rather than just p...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you still fill in the priority and changefreq attributes in your XML sitemaps?

Google does not use the priority or changefreq attributes in sitemap files. Only the URL and the lastmod date are taken into account. Priority has been ignored because websites filled it out in a non-...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Google really merging your multilingual pages into a single canonical URL?

When a site has identical content pages targeting different countries (e.g., French Canada vs. France), Google may group (fold) them into a single canonical version in the index. In Search Console, on...

Aug 21, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available