John Mueller

★★ Are transparent scores really the key to uncovering your hidden UX problems?

A transparently calculated score makes it possible to estimate a website's performance and can help identify concrete problems, such as overly short anchor text, that affect user experience....

Aug 15, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Text-to-HTML Ratio Really Impact Your SEO Rankings?

On Reddit, John Mueller indicated that the text-to-HTML ratio had no relevance for SEO: "Please ignore any report that gives you a text:html ratio. It makes absolutely no sense for SEO. Zero. Nada. Zi...

Aug 15, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Many Times Can You Actually Repeat a Keyword Before Google Penalizes You?

You're worried that Google might consider your content as keyword stuffing. According to John Mueller, there wouldn't be much to worry about, as long as you don't include 300 to 500 mentions of the sa...

Aug 08, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Linking to Wikipedia or CNN Really Improve Your SEO Rankings?

During a conversation on Reddit, John Mueller took the time to answer a question about outbound links. His interlocutor specifically wanted to know if Google considered a small site more credible when...

Aug 08, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Adapt Your Titles Based on What Google Shows in the SERPs?

On Mastodon, John Mueller responded to a user who was wondering whether it was wise to rewrite a page's title based on how Google displays it in the SERPs. The search engine notably tends to remove th...

Aug 01, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you systematically remove old agencies from your Search Console access?

You must verify that no former agency or consultant has verification access in Search Console. You can remove delegated users directly. If they are verified through tokens, you must remove the access ...

Jul 26, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google insist on verifying your website ownership?

Google recommends that you be the verified owner of your own website. If this is not the case, you must verify with your web developer or hosting provider as soon as possible. Verified ownership of yo...

Jul 26, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why should you remove all verification tokens from former users in Search Console?

Visit the Users and Permissions management page in Search Console and remove all verification tokens for these users. You can review the remaining property tokens to ensure that removed users cannot r...

Jul 26, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really monitor Search Console access for your SEO vendors?

Google recommends regularly checking verification access in Search Console when working with external teams. Verification access is found in the Search Console Settings menu....

Jul 26, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why is delegated access safer than sharing passwords with your SEO contractors?

When working with an external team, it's ideal to use delegated access. This allows you to modify access without changing your website. Additionally, for most types of work, agencies won't need comple...

Jul 26, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really restrict SEO tools to read-only access in Google Search Console?

Verify that no SEO tool or service is listed as owner or full user. These tools generally only need to read data and should not be able to make modifications....

Jul 26, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Page Loading Speed Really a Google Ranking Factor or Just an SEO Myth?

On Twitter, a user wanted to know what John Mueller thought about Page Speed and more specifically whether it was a ranking factor for Google. Mueller responded by stating that the notion of Page Spee...

Jul 25, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can Fake Profiles Really Deceive Google in 2024?

In a series of sharp tweets, John Mueller shared his perspective on the use of fake profiles designed to deceive users, whether on LinkedIn or Google. After reminding us that Google uses machine intel...

Jul 25, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why does Google treat certain ccTLDs the same way as generic domain extensions?

Some ccTLDs like .tv, .asia or .eu are treated by Google as generic domains rather than domains targeting a specific country. A list is available in the Help Center....

Jul 20, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really avoid publishing a 'Coming Soon' page on a new domain?

You should not put a 'Coming Soon' page on a new domain because search engines will discover it and stop visiting the site. It's better to wait until the site is ready before making it accessible....

Jul 20, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do keywords in your domain name really matter for SEO rankings?

Everything in the URL can be manipulated by the site owner, so Google probably doesn't give as much weight to keywords in the domain as people think for ranking purposes....

Jul 20, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do hyphens in domain names really hurt your SEO rankings?

From Google's perspective, having hyphens in a domain name (like passport-photos.com vs passportphotos.com) makes no difference for SEO, even though it can improve readability for users....

Jul 20, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you prioritize branding over exact keywords in your domain name?

It is recommended to focus on branding rather than exact keywords in the domain name, because the site will likely evolve over time and changing domains is always complicated....

Jul 20, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can you finally edit code directly in Google's rich results test tool?

Search Console has launched an update to the rich results test that enables code editing, making it faster and easier to test and fix structured markup corrections....

Jul 18, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Google Really Replacing FID with INP in Core Web Vitals—And What Does It Mean for Your Rankings?

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) will officially become a metric that is part of the Core Web Vitals....

Jul 18, 2023 ⚡ Analysis available