John Mueller

★★ Do external links to m. or www. affect ranking differently?

With separate mobile URLs, external links pointing to either the mobile (m.) or desktop version are irrelevant. Google combines all signals from both versions, whether or not mobile-first indexing is ...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really keep the canonical from desktop to mobile in mobile-first indexing?

For sites with separate mobile URLs (m.example.com), even after the switch to mobile-first indexing, you must continue to set the rel canonical from the mobile version to the desktop version and the r...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the rel canonical really consolidate ALL link signals to the chosen URL?

When Google recognizes a group of duplicate pages and selects a canonical URL (through the rel canonical and other signals), all external and internal signals, including external links pointing to any...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that word count is really unnecessary for ranking on Google?

Google does not use word count as a ranking factor. There is no minimum word count to be reached (1000, 5000 words). Sometimes short pages are excellent for users, and sometimes long pages are. The im...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the Analytics bounce rate really irrelevant for your SEO?

Google does not consider the Analytics bounce rate as a ranking factor. Redirects to external login systems (Google, Facebook) therefore do not affect SEO, even though they may appear as bounces in th...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really abandon geolocated redirections for a regional selection banner?

For sites personalizing content by state or city, Google recommends displaying a banner that allows users to change their version rather than automatically redirecting. This allows Googlebot to index ...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does geotargeting really depend solely on ccTLD and Search Console?

For geotargeting, Google mainly uses the geographic top-level domain (ccTLD) or the geotargeting setting in Search Console. Links and the server's IP address are only used when Google lacks clear info...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why do your desktop images and videos become invisible to Google in mobile-first?

With mobile-first indexing, if images or videos are very visible on desktop but tiny or at the bottom of the page on mobile, they are less likely to appear in image and video search results. Visual co...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is mobile-first indexing really a ranking factor?

Mobile-first indexing mainly concerns the indexing of mobile content, not mobile compatibility as a ranking factor. Google needs to see the content on mobile. Desktop-only sites with table-based desig...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that automatic geographic redirections sabotage your Google crawling?

Googlebot crawls mainly from a single location per website, typically the United States. If a site automatically redirects US users to a specific version, Google will think that these pages should be ...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does a new website experience roller coaster rides in the SERPs for 12 months?

For a website that is a few months old (8 months to 1 year), it is normal to see significant fluctuations in rankings while Google's algorithms learn where to position the site. This adjustment period...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should we really disregard spammy automated backlinks?

Google automatically ignores spammy links that are created en masse by scripts. Google's algorithms are used to seeing this type of manipulation (thousands of automatically generated links) and comple...

Jun 12, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Domain Age Really Impact Your Google Rankings?

Responding to a question on this topic, John Mueller explained on Twitter that Google does not rank "old sites" - those on domain names created long ago - any better these days. No changes to the trea...

Jun 08, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Ditch Search Console's URL Parameters Tool in Favor of Robots.txt?

John Mueller explained on Twitter that the URL parameters handling tool in Search Console does not replace a "clean" use of robots.txt to block crawling on complex URLs with parameters, and that robot...

Jun 08, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Will Google introduce accelerated validation for your content overhauls in Search Console?

Google is considering extending the validation process for fixes in Search Console (currently limited to technical issues and structured data) to content overhauls. This would trigger expedited re-cra...

May 29, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can a redesign really boost your SEO signals instead of destroying them?

A site migration doesn't always result in a loss of signals. Often, it corrects structural issues and enhances signals. Google needs to reassess these improvements, which takes time, but allows the si...

May 29, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can you deploy structured data through Google Tag Manager without touching the source code?

For sites where developers are not available, Google Tag Manager allows you to add structured data that will be detected by Google. It's more complex than the Data Highlighter but provides an alternat...

May 29, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How can fixing a failed migration within 48 hours completely change your rankings?

After a problematic migration, identifying and fixing differences as quickly as possible is crucial. The longer you wait, the more Google systems learn about the new site as a different site and adjus...

May 29, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do page metadata really impact your Google ranking?

Most metadata is ignored by Google for ranking. Some are useful for social media (thumbnails). Structured data and meta descriptions can influence appearance in the SERPs but not ranking. A different ...

May 29, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does JavaScript server-side rendering hide invisible SEO errors from users?

JavaScript server-side rendering (SSR) produces static HTML similar to WordPress, but if SSR is configured specifically for Google, numerous errors can occur that are invisible to normal users. Compar...

May 29, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available