John Mueller

★★ How does Google handle the indexing of duplicate images across different websites?

Google tries to merge identical images found on different URLs into its index by establishing a single canonical URL, although differences in the content or metadata of the images can sometimes lead t...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it really a concern for your organic traffic when migrating to a new domain?

A complete domain change with 1:1 redirects is generally handled effectively by Google with no significant loss of ranking. Conversely, splitting or merging sites can lead to more substantial fluctuat...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google automatically remove indexed pages that are no longer needed?

Google does not automatically remove pages that are no longer relevant unless a 'noindex' tag is applied or if they are manually removed via the Search Console's removal tools....

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does it sometimes take Google a year to reindex certain pages on your site?

For pages that change rarely and appear infrequently in search results, it may take longer for them to be crawled again and updated in Google's index, sometimes up to a year or more....

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do mobile and desktop search results really display the same pages?

Search results can vary between mobile and desktop, which may influence how often a page appears in results depending on the type of device. However, Google strives to maintain a certain level of cons...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google deindex your pages and how can you fix it?

If the number of indexed pages decreases, it’s generally because Google believes it’s not worth indexing all pages individually. This could indicate a site-wide quality issue rather than a specific te...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it true that Google only analyzes 10% of your URLs in mobile Search Console reports? Should you be concerned about the rest?

Mobile user experience reports in Search Console analyze about 10% of a website's URLs, chosen to be representative. The absence of problems on these samples generally suggests good health for the res...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Pagerank still enough to rank in SEO?

Pagerank is used internally by Google, but it is only part of the many signals considered for website ranking. Therefore, it is more beneficial to focus on multiple quality signals rather than just Pa...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do external links really harm your pages' rankings?

Google does not consider natural, non-paid external links to harm a page's ranking. They help Google understand the context and position of a page relative to the rest of the web....

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really rank websites without human intervention?

Google's ranking is entirely algorithmic, with no human intervention to determine the order. The only manual intervention concerns webspam: the team identifies spam on important queries and takes targ...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google really forget your past SEO mistakes?

Google typically focuses on the current state of a site. Corrected past errors have no lasting effect, except in rare cases: external links (slow reprocessing), geo-targeting (slow change), heavily sp...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can content A/B testing really harm your SEO without you knowing?

Temporarily changing content (e.g., H1) will be indexed by Google if crawled, with potential SEO impact. Testing every two weeks makes tracking very difficult because the timing of reprocessing is unp...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really automate the generation of your XML sitemap?

Mueller strongly recommends automating the sitemap because every small change should reflect quickly. A sitemap generated by crawling your own site is acceptable but less optimal: Google will also cra...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is EAT really unnecessary for SEO if Google claims it's not a ranking factor?

EAT is not a ranking factor that needs to be technically optimized. For a medical forum linked to an established medical site, the essential thing is to clearly position user-generated content for use...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you index the internal search pages of your site?

If internal search pages resemble categories, indexing them can make sense. If they consist of random user searches, it’s better to use noindex or robots.txt. Mueller prefers noindex because robots.tx...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google sometimes display 5 results from the same site on the first page?

Google generally limits to 2-3 results per site for generic queries. If the algorithm detects that the user is looking for a specific site, more results from that site may appear. This is not necessar...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google deindex your blog articles after an update?

When previously indexed articles are deindexed after an algorithm update, it is usually not a technical issue but a problem of perceived quality. Google decides that indexing fewer pages from this sec...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does duplicating a link on the same page really enhance its SEO value?

Having the same link twice on a page (navigation + content) changes nothing in terms of SEO. The second link adds no extra value. However, it can improve user experience....

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really be concerned about internal PageRank on noindex pages?

On a normal e-commerce site, there’s no need to worry about the flow of PageRank between listed pages and noindex pages. Google systems handle this well. The major impact is on crawling (filtered URLs...

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is responsive design really the only viable solution for unifying desktop and mobile?

Mueller strongly recommends switching to responsive design to maintain a single version of the site. This avoids having to choose between desktop and mobile, and simplifies maintenance....

May 01, 2020 ⚡ Analysis available