John Mueller

★★★ Why don’t Google’s algorithm updates necessarily mean your site is bad?

The changes made to Google's algorithms, such as those observed during the broader core update, reflect general evolutions and do not indicate that the affected sites are bad. They are adaptations to ...

Aug 24, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Page Popularity Really Influence How Often Google Crawls Your Content?

John Mueller reminded us on Twitter that the most important and popular pages for Google on a website are crawled more frequently than others....

Aug 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does Content Placement on a Page Really Impact SEO Rankings?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the geographical location (top, middle, bottom) of text on a page doesn't matter to Google. If the text is interesting and relevant, it will be taken into accoun...

Aug 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can a Single Toxic Link Trigger a Manual Google Penalty?

John Mueller reminded on Twitter that a manual action is never decided by the search engine's Search Quality Team based on a single "toxic" link. The problem must be much broader, and many low-quality...

Aug 20, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google's URL Removal Tool Actually Delete Your Pages from the Index?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that the "Remove URLs" tool in Search Console only hides the URL from search results. It will therefore continue to be crawled, analyzed, and indexed until the 90th d...

Aug 13, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Are EMD (Exact Match Domain) Names Really Useless for SEO?

John Mueller provided several pieces of information in a hangout regarding the presence of keywords in domain names: keyword domain names (EMD for Exact Match Domain) do not perform better, according ...

Aug 06, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should You Fear Amazon and Marketplaces for Your Product SEO?

When a user asked John Mueller on Twitter whether listing his products on marketplaces like Amazon would impact his own website's rankings for those products, Mueller responded in an amusing (and indi...

Aug 06, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Google Really Honor the Canonical Tag Every Single Time?

John Mueller, on Twitter, explained that the "canonical" tag is not a guarantee that Google will consider a page as canonical or duplicate. Multiple signals are used and some can sometimes be contradi...

Jul 31, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do You Really Need Lots of Text on Your Pages to Rank Well in Google?

We asked John Mueller whether the amount of text on a web page could play a role as a quality criterion. In other words, could a significant number of pages on a website with very little text in their...

Jul 31, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do Hn Tags (H1, H2, H3) Really Impact SEO Rankings?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that clearly and cleanly structuring editorial content using Hn tags (h1, then h2, then h3, etc.) could potentially help Google understand the content, but that it wo...

Jul 31, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does stock level really influence the ranking of your product listings?

We do not consider stock levels to influence the ranking in search....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you enable HSTS immediately when migrating a domain to HTTPS?

When changing domains, set up HSTS only after ensuring that everything works well on HTTPS....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are directory links really ignored by Google?

Links from directories where you submit your own content are ignored because they do not constitute true recommendations....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do social profiles really improve Google rankings?

Having multiple social profiles will not improve your ranking, as we do not consider social signals for ranking in search....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is your server holding back Google’s crawl more than you realize?

Our crawl speed is limited by your server's ability to handle traffic. You can set your own limits in Search Console....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How long does it take to recover from a Google manual action?

The recovery from a manual action depends on the cause. If the entire site is removed, it takes time to be reindexed after unblocking....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does a noindex tag on an HTML page really prevent the indexing of its associated AMP version?

If a traditional page is set to noindex, we do not follow the link to the AMP page. For a standalone AMP, it can be indexed independently if linked correctly....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can a link without an <a> tag pass on PageRank?

A link is defined by an <a> element with an href. An image alone without an <a> is not considered a link by Google....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the server's IP address still influence local search rankings?

Today, the server's IP address is no longer an important factor for local SEO. Instead, use geographic TLDs or Search Console parameters for targeted localization....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really remove rel=canonical from your paginated pages?

The rel=canonical requires us to understand that the pages are equivalent. For pagination, rel=next/prev or noindex for certain pages can be used....

Jul 27, 2018 ⚡ Analysis available