John Mueller

★★ Should You Really Avoid Participating in SEO Contests?

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that one should be wary of SEO contests and the links they could generate because these could prove harmful and contrary to the search engine's recommendations. An ...

Feb 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Really Worry About Bounce Rate for SEO Optimization?

John Mueller also indicated in this hangout that there is no point in inhibiting the browser's "Back" button when displaying a website in an attempt to manipulate the bounce rate. According to John Mu...

Feb 20, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Use Google's URL Inspection Tool to Speed Up Page Indexing?

John Mueller provided an interesting insight during a hangout about how Google indexes web pages on a site. In fact, there are two possibilities for this: the "classic" method (Googlebot finds a link ...

Feb 20, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can Google's Advertising Bots Actually Discover New Pages for Indexing?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that Google's robots used for Adwords and Adsense advertising (examples: Mediapartners-Google, Mediapartners, AdsBot-Google and AdsBot-Google-Mobile-Apps) are not use...

Feb 13, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does URL Structure Really Matter for Google Rankings?

John Mueller also indicated on Twitter that the hierarchy within the different elements of a URL was not important to Google. In other words, an address can contain many directories (example: http://w...

Feb 06, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Quickly Can You Remove a Google Penalty for Intrusive Interstitials?

Regarding the mobile interstitial penalty launched in mid-January, John Mueller indicated that if a site was penalized in this way and corrected the issue, the penalty would be lifted at the next craw...

Jan 30, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★ How Does Google Really Rank Results in a Site: Query?

A frequently asked question: how does Google rank results for a "site:" query? John Mueller indicated that the homepage is displayed first but that afterwards, there is no specific ranking or order ta...

Jan 30, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is AMP Really a Google Ranking Factor for SEO?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that AMP was not a relevance criterion for Google and that the fact that a page is available in this format does not factor into the search engine's algorithm calcula...

Jan 30, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Does Google Warn Webmasters About Mobile First Index Risks?

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that Google will send messages via Search Console to webmasters who own sites that could be impacted in one way or another (and especially negatively, for example f...

Jan 16, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Resubmit Already Indexed URLs in Search Console Regularly?

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that it's not necessary to resubmit via Search Console a URL that is already indexed by Google. Well, obviously... :). This was in response to a question from a web...

Jan 16, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Modify Your Canonical Tags When Switching to Mobile First Index?

As long as Mobile First indexing is being tested by Google, there is no reason to change the "canonical" tags if you have a dedicated mobile site whose pages point to their desktop equivalents. John M...

Jan 16, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do errors in my XML Sitemap actually penalize the indexing of my other pages?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the fact that certain URLs are erroneous or return errors when reading an XML Sitemap file does not affect the reading and processing of other URLs (as on Bing f...

Jan 16, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can Wix Websites Actually Rank Well on Google?

John Mueller also indicated on a webmaster forum that websites built with the Wix platform do not pose major SEO problems, contrary to their long-standing negative reputation: "a website is a website ...

Jan 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★ Why Doesn't Google Index Every Page on Your Website?

John Mueller stated in a hangout that it's normal for Google not to index all pages of a website or XML Sitemap. However, he didn't explain why certain pages are left out :(......

Jan 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Will Mobile PageSpeed Really Be Ignored as a Ranking Factor with Mobile First Indexing?

John Mueller indicated that when Mobile First indexing launches in a few months, a page's mobile PageSpeed score will not be considered as a relevance criterion, at least initially (currently it's the...

Jan 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google Only Penalize Mobile Interstitials Coming From Search Results?

Regarding the interstitial penalty that will be applied starting tomorrow, John Mueller indicated on Twitter that this penalty would only apply to sites that display an interstitial when the mobile us...

Jan 09, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Use Google's URL Removal Tool During a Site Migration?

The end of the year was, it seems, prolific in somewhat bizarre questions from webmasters, as one user asked on a forum whether the URL removal option in Search Console could help during a site migrat...

Jan 02, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should You Really Optimize Your Mobile and Desktop Sites Differently in 2017?

John Mueller indicated that it was important in 2017 to ensure that mobile site optimization was as good as desktop site optimization. This was in the context of the Mobile First index launch, logical...

Jan 02, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google Really Limit How Much Traffic It Sends to Your Site?

John Mueller indicated on a forum that Google does not limit the traffic sent to a website. In other words, it doesn't stop displaying a link in its search results if it believes the traffic generated...

Jan 02, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Can You Ask Google to Speed Up Your Site's Crawl in an Emergency?

John Mueller indicated in a forum that there is a procedure, through an appropriate form, that allows you to ask Google's "crawl" team to perform a specific crawl of your site or ask a question about ...

Jan 02, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available