John Mueller

★★★ Are translated pages really treated as unique content by Google?

Pages translated into different languages (even translated content) are considered entirely distinct and indexed independently. Google does not treat them as duplicate content since they consist of di...

Aug 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Could a 304 Not Modified code actually prevent your pages from being indexed?

The 304 Not Modified code should only be returned for conditional requests (with If-Modified-Since). For normal requests, returning a 304 means that no content is available, which prevents indexing. F...

Aug 04, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★★ Do Negative Online Reviews Actually Hurt Your Google Rankings?

During a hangout with webmasters, a user asked whether the fact that certain web pages contain negative reviews about a site could have a negative impact on that site's ranking in Google search result...

Aug 03, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★★ Can Differentiating Interstitials by Traffic Source (Direct vs. SEO) Be Considered Cloaking?

John Mueller explained during a webmaster hangout that it was possible to display different interstitials for direct traffic on one hand and for SEO traffic and Googlebot on the other: rather intrusiv...

Aug 03, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Use Images Instead of HTML/JavaScript Charts for SEO?

John Mueller explained during a webmaster hangout that using images (PNG, JPG or other formats) was preferable (with a properly filled ALT attribute) when displaying charts on screen compared to other...

Aug 03, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★★ Are Links Still the Most Important Ranking Factor in SEO?

Statement from John Mueller (who seems to be the only SEO spokesperson at Google who hasn't gone on vacation 🙂): "links are definitely not the most important ranking factor"....

Aug 03, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is the Concept of "Link Juice" Really Obsolete for Modern SEO?

John Mueller went all out on Twitter, responding to a user who asked a question about internal linking, criticizing articles that talked about "link juice": "If I were you, I'd forget everything you'v...

Aug 03, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★★ Does Google Really Use Analytics Data to Rank Websites in Search Results?

John Mueller explained for the 458,965th time on Twitter that Google does not use data provided by Analytics for its search algorithm......

Aug 03, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why is Google retiring the Structured Data Testing Tool, and what could you potentially lose?

Google will deprecate the general Structured Data Testing Tool to focus on the Rich Results Test, specifically designed to diagnose what can appear in search results. This decision aims to reduce conf...

Jul 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do Google's new JavaScript guides on links and navigation really change the game?

Google has expanded its documentation for JavaScript sites, adding information on links, the History API, URL fragments, and 404 pages. These resources are recommended for developers of JavaScript-bas...

Jul 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you consider Web Stories as part of your SEO content strategy?

Web Stories are a short, informative content format based on AMP that allows the creation of standard HTML pages directly on your own site. They can appear in Google Search, Google Images, and Discove...

Jul 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Could Page Experience Really Shift Your Google Rankings?

Google has announced that the Page Experience benchmark will become a ranking factor in search. This benchmark combines Core Web Vitals (loading speed, interactivity, stability) with other existing si...

Jul 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Core Web Vitals thresholds actually reflect high-quality user experience?

The thresholds used for the Page Experience benchmark are based on high-quality user experience, and their feasibility is verified against data from the Chrome User Experience Report. Tools such as Li...

Jul 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why did Google postpone mobile-first indexing, and what are the risks if your website isn't ready?

Google announced a change to the timeline for mobile-first indexing, extending the transition until the end of March 2021. This additional timeframe allows websites to adjust their pages for mobile-fi...

Jul 31, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Can You Successfully Migrate Your Website Without Losing Your Organic Rankings?

John Mueller provided some insights on Reddit regarding website migration. First of all, if there are changes, they will primarily come from a new CMS and/or new content, not from a domain name change...

Jul 27, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google Ads really penalize the speed of your pages in PageSpeed Insights?

Google's speed testing tools are agnostic to the origin of scripts. If a Google Ads script slows down a page, the tool will report it without special treatment. Users care about speed, not about the s...

Jul 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do negative reviews on third-party sites really penalize your Google rankings?

The presence of an external review page (even negative) appearing in the SERPs for a brand query does not affect the ranking of the main site. Users may get lost on this page, but it does not harm the...

Jul 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really separate your site into thematic subdomains for SEO?

Separating a site into thematic subdomains (sports, politics, etc.) is generally not useful for SEO. The exception is adult content: SafeSearch requires a distinct subdomain to effectively filter this...

Jul 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the FAQ schema work if the answers are hidden in an accordion?

For the FAQ schema, the content must be visible on the page. It is acceptable to display questions with expandable answers, but hiding the entire FAQ block would be problematic. The presence of visibl...

Jul 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really choose a subdirectory over a subdomain for your microsite?

For a microsite related to the main content, Google recommends a subdirectory rather than a subdomain. The subdirectory simplifies technical maintenance (CMS, redirects, Search Console, sitemap) and s...

Jul 24, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available