John Mueller

★★ Should You Really Ignore Spammy Links in 2024?

Still in a hangout, John Mueller explains that today, Google tends to ignore spammy links rather than penalize sites that use them. And that it is now impossible to know whether, precisely, such and s...

Dec 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Use Generic Disavow Files Containing Lists of Toxic Sites?

Some webmasters use "standard" disavow files containing numerous toxic sites, even when these sites don't necessarily link to their website. However, John Mueller has indicated that Google does not en...

Dec 18, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can an Expired SSL Certificate Really Not Affect Your Site's SEO?

Google recently sent a message to certain webmasters in Search Console indicating that their TLS certificate had expired and required renewal. However, John Mueller indicated in the same hangout as me...

Dec 18, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Can You Tell If Your Site Has Moved to Google's Mobile First Index?

Regarding the Mobile First project, John Mueller indicated in a hangout that one way to know if a site has moved to the Mobile First index is to look at server logs and check Google's activity: if 80%...

Dec 18, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Really Optimize TTFB to Improve Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google does not take TTFB (Time To First Byte or server response time) into account in its algorithm or in any other way to measure the relevance of a result....

Dec 04, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Should You Implement Hreflang Tags in a Mobile First Context?

John Mueller, on Twitter, explained that hreflang tags should follow a "mobile-to-mobile & desktop-to-desktop" pattern within the Mobile First project framework and in the case of a dedicated mobile s...

Dec 04, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should Your Structured Data Really Reflect What's Visible on Your Pages?

John Mueller also indicated on Twitter that structured data tags (particularly Schema.org) inserted into a web page must absolutely describe the content visible to a user when they view the page in qu...

Dec 04, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do You Really Need Perfect Keyword-Optimized URLs to Rank Well on Google?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that a URL doesn't need to perfectly "match" the page content in its wording. For example, a page offering tomato soup recipes can have the URL tomates-leg-soup1.html...

Nov 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can You Really Rank on Google Without Any Link Building?

A user asked John Mueller the following question on Twitter: can a website rank on Google without implementing a "link building" strategy? John's answer was, of course: "yes" 🙂...

Nov 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Disavow Nofollow Links Pointing to Your Site?

A user asked John Mueller on Twitter the following question: should you disavow a URL that links to your site with nofollow? John Mueller responded that nofollow links transmit no signals, so disavowi...

Nov 21, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do JavaScript Links Really Pass as Much PageRank as HTML Links?

John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that the way a link is designed and presented on a web page doesn't matter: HTML or JavaScript, in particular. If Google can read it, it will be treated like all ot...

Nov 13, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does a Direct Link to an Image Boost the SEO of the Page Containing It?

A user asked John Mueller whether a link pointing directly to an image (to a file like http://www.site.com/image/image-name.jpg for example) gave more SEO weight to the page containing that image. The...

Nov 13, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Can You Get Google to Index a New Page Quickly?

John Mueller shared an interesting tip on Twitter: if you want to quickly submit a new page to Google or resubmit an updated version, don't hesitate to use the Search Console and its "Crawl > Fetch as...

Nov 06, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Delete or Improve Low-Quality Content on Your Website?

John Mueller discussed in a recent hangout the approach to take when you have content considered low-quality on your site. According to him (and Gary Illyes as well, who often talks about it), the bes...

Nov 06, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Can You Optimize Internal Link Anchors to Supercharge Your SEO?

John Mueller reminded us in a hangout that using descriptive anchors (link texts) is not only important for external backlinks. This is also critical for internal linking (crosslinking). When creating...

Nov 06, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do You Really Need Schema.org Markup to Get Rich Snippets in Google?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that, to display "rich snippets" in Google's SERPs (review stars, etc.), Schema.org structured data markup is not strictly required in principle. However, examples of...

Nov 06, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Does Google Really Index Hidden Content in Tabs with Mobile First?

John Mueller confirmed during a hangout that content inside a tab would indeed be taken into account, within the Mobile First index framework, with the same weight as content visible by default. Howev...

Oct 30, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Should You Really Ignore Duplicate Content Like Google Suggests?

John Mueller indicated in a webmaster forum that the duplicate content issue should be reserved for "a rainy day, or when a new person joins the company or for the intern hired for the summer." Basica...

Oct 30, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Should You Use Search Console's "Change of Address" Tool for HTTPS Migrations?

When migrating a site from HTTP to HTTPS, it is necessary to set up 301 redirects from the old address to the new one. Oddly enough, in Search Console, the "Change of Address" function does not accoun...

Oct 23, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Disabling Right Click and Text Selection Really Impact SEO or Is It Just a Myth?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that disabling right-click on a web page, as well as the ability to select text with the mouse, has no impact—positive or negative—on SEO, in addition to being comple...

Oct 23, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available