John Mueller

★★★ Why is Google Discover more demanding than traditional search for showcasing your content?

Google Discover follows the Google News guidelines for eligibility. Since the content is shown to users who are not actively searching for it, the systems are more cautious. A decrease in visibility o...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does your traffic really drop after a publishing break?

A traffic drop after a few months of inactivity is generally not due to the frequency of publication, but to an algorithmic reassessment of the site's relevance. The consistency of publication is not ...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google group your URLs to prioritize crawling?

Google automatically creates groups of similar URLs (e.g., all product pages) by analyzing URL patterns. This helps prioritize crawling: if 90% of a group is no-index, Google deprioritizes new URLs in...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why aren't all your Disqus comments indexed in the same way?

The indexing of Disqus comments varies based on the implementation (caching in static HTML or not). Martin Splitt mentioned a possible bug. Indexing is not uniform across all sites using Disqus....

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are manually posted backlinks in forums and comments really useless for SEO?

Posting links randomly in forums, blog comments, or public listings does not produce a quality signal for Google. It’s better to dedicate this time to enhancing the content. Google ignores this type o...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Domain Authority Really Useless for Your SEO Strategy?

Google does not use a 'Domain Authority' metric in its ranking algorithm. It's a useful third-party metric for understanding a site, but not a Google ranking factor....

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Google really tolerant of technical cloaking?

Serving slightly different content to Google and users (e.g., cached data vs live) is not considered spammy cloaking if the purpose of the page remains the same. The main risk is technical (errors inv...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do you really need to stick to the supported page types for the reviewed-by schema?

The reviewed-by markup can only be used on officially supported page types (e.g., Medical Page). If schema.org does not allow it to be added to NewsArticle, you should not force a non-compliant implem...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really prove the editorial quality of your content to Google with structured data tags?

There is no tag or structured data that allows you to indicate to Google that content has been reviewed by experts. You must convince users of its quality, and then Google's systems will detect it....

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really avoid having multiple pages for the same keyword?

Having multiple pages on the same topic (e.g., a transactional page and an informational page) is normal and acceptable. Google tries to show the most relevant page based on search intent. Cannibaliza...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do you really need to optimize internal link anchors, or is it a waste of time?

For two strong pages on the same topic (e.g., e-commerce and guide), using the same natural anchor (e.g., 'cheese') for internal links is acceptable. There's no need to over-optimize anchors by adding...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really prioritize every Search Console issue as a crisis?

The problems listed in Search Console do not all have the same level of criticality. An inability to index is critical, but speed issues are less urgent. It's necessary to evaluate the real impact on ...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does mobile-first indexing really improve your ranking in Google?

Being migrated to mobile-first indexing brings no ranking or search advantage. It is simply the way Google indexes the site. There is no urgency to force this migration....

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that Google delays mobile-first migration for some sites?

For a site not yet migrated to mobile-first indexing, check that the headings are correctly marked up (not just styled text) and that the number of images (especially thumbnails) is similar between de...

Jun 23, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Nofollow All Guest Blogging Links?

John Mueller said (again) on Twitter that for him (and therefore for Google), all links in "guest-blogging" posts (guest posts) should be "rel=nofollow" or "rel=sponsored". Whether these links were pu...

Jun 22, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are YouTube Links Really Useless for Your SEO?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google's search engine does not use links from YouTube in its algorithm......

Jun 22, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Worry About Ranking Fluctuations During Your Site's First Year?

John Mueller explained during a hangout that it was completely normal to observe fluctuations in the SEO of a new site, up to one year after its launch. According to him, there is no need to make majo...

Jun 22, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really see the content loaded dynamically after a user clicks?

If the content (like answers in clickable cards) is already present in the rendered HTML, Google will see it. If the content needs to be loaded from the server after a user interaction (click), Google...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Core Web Vitals truly crucial for Google ranking?

The importance of signals like speed (Core Web Vitals) varies depending on the query. For a clear navigational search (e.g., 'SEO Roundtable'), Google will not favor a faster but less relevant site. I...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Why does Google sometimes index your AMP pages before their canonical HTML version?

Google may sometimes discover and index an AMP page before its canonical HTML version, especially if links point directly to the AMP. Once the HTML page is crawled, Google connects the two versions an...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available