John Mueller

★★★ Does loading speed really only impact SEO if your site is extremely slow?

Google currently only considers sites that are very slow when it comes to loading speed as a ranking factor. Minor speed differences are not taken into account....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google take up to a year to assess your quality changes?

There is no fixed delay between changes made to your site and their reflection in Google's ranking. It can take up to a year for changes to be fully re-evaluated and integrated by Google's systems....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is Google really managing your bad backlinks all on its own?

For websites without manual action, Google tries to automatically handle bad links whenever possible. In most cases, Google is able to effectively identify and ignore these links....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is the disavow file really the solution to clean up a toxic link profile?

The disavow file is useful if you have a manual action related to links that you cannot clean up. It is best to remove or neutralize these problematic links yourself, but if that is not possible, the ...

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Short Content Killing Your Site’s Organic Traffic?

If your content can be summarized in a simple fact, like a date, it might be displayed directly in search results, and users could skip visiting your site....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really wait until launch day to redirect an old domain to a new one?

In the context of rebranding, it is better to redirect from an old domain to a new one at the time of launch, rather than before, to avoid double redirection....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is it really necessary to duplicate your JSON-LD markup across all your pages?

For JSON-LD markup, it is not necessary to add organizational markup on every page of your site, but for other types of markup like recipes, it must be present on each relevant product page....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does the Google sandbox really exist for new websites?

It's often normal for a new site to begin at a lower rank in search results because Google doesn't have much information about it. Signals collected over time then adjust its position....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Should you really give up forums to build backlinks?

Google is not against forums, but does not recommend creating accounts to drop links, as this could be seen as spam by forum administrators....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Why might your SEO efforts take a year to affect your organic traffic?

Improving a site's UX or content can take up to a year to reflect in search rankings, and there's no guarantee that this will automatically lead to a better position....

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are automatic translations penalized by Google?

Google sees automatically translated pages as autogenerated content, which is not recommended for indexing. It is better to create manual translations, even when using Google Translate as an assistanc...

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is loading speed really just a minor ranking factor?

Currently, Google does not consider small differences in speed (a few milliseconds or seconds) in website rankings. Only very slow sites might be affected. This holds true for both desktop and mobile ...

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you still use the disavow file for SEO?

According to John Mueller, the disavow file is primarily useful if you have a manual action due to problematic links that you cannot clean up. For sites without manual actions, Google generally attemp...

Nov 14, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why does Google show both the mobile and desktop versions of your pages in its results?

Often, when Google displays both 'www' and 'm.' pages for a site, it may indicate that the connection between the mobile and desktop versions of the pages is not well established. Google recommends ch...

Nov 14, 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

★★★ 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

★★★ 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

★★ 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 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

★★★ 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