John Mueller

★★★ Could redesigning your site ruin your SEO if you overlook redirects?

When redesigning a website, it's crucial to redirect old URLs to new ones to retain accumulated signals. A redesign can either improve or worsen positioning based on the quality of the new page struct...

Feb 08, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you still care about Canonical, Noindex, and Nofollow?

Canonical, noindex, and nofollow tags remain important. Canonical is a signal for page consolidation, noindex prevents display in search results, and nofollow disavows links that cannot be guaranteed....

Feb 08, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are sitemaps really essential for quickly indexing your new pages?

Sitemaps are essential for signaling to Google the new and updated pages, allowing for faster indexing....

Feb 08, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are AMP and PWA really useless for organic search?

AMP and PWA are not ranking factors per se, but they can enhance user experience, which may indirectly impact search performance....

Feb 08, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Google algorithms really the same everywhere in the world?

Google's algorithms are designed to function globally and are applied uniformly across all regions. There are no country or language-specific versions for the core algorithms....

Feb 08, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Panda really evaluate your site's design or just the content?

Google's Panda algorithm evaluates the overall quality of a site, including design, not just text. Good design can influence the perceived quality of a site....

Feb 08, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are Progressive Web Apps really indexable by Google?

Although Progressive Web Apps are often based on JavaScript, Google has improved its ability to render these pages. However, there are still steps to follow to ensure that these applications are index...

Feb 08, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does Chrome data really influence your site's Google ranking?

Google generally does not share Chrome data across its various products, and this data is not used in search rankings. User data is only used to assess algorithm effectiveness....

Feb 08, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does hreflang really enhance your international visibility or is it just a technical crutch?

Google recommends using hreflang tags to link similar pages in different languages so that users are correctly targeted based on their country and language. This way, users will see the appropriate ve...

Feb 08, 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 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 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

★★ Why are 15% of Google queries completely unknown to the algorithm every day?

About 10 to 15% of the queries we encounter every day are new to us, meaning that our algorithms must interpret the intentions behind these queries without manual intervention....

Jan 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are accordions and tabs really taken into account by Google in mobile-first indexing?

In the current indexing, Google considers content in tabs or accordions as secondary. However, with mobile-first indexing, this content can be treated as an integral part of the page as we adapt our a...

Jan 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do automatic language redirects hurt multilingual indexing?

It is possible to automatically redirect users to a language version of your site based on their browser settings or location, but you must provide direct access and hreflang tags for each language ve...

Jan 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really use a 404 instead of a redirect for missing e-commerce products?

For products that are no longer available, it is better to use a dedicated 404 page rather than redirecting to a category page. This allows search engines and users to understand the situation without...

Jan 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is website speed really a ranking factor or just an SEO myth?

A website's speed, especially on mobile, strongly influences user engagement and conversions. Even though it is not yet an official ranking factor, optimizing speed is crucial for improving user exper...

Jan 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Do dynamic URLs in JavaScript really cause indexing issues?

As long as the 'Fetch and Render' tool functions correctly in Search Console, using a JavaScript framework to generate dynamic URLs should not pose indexing issues. Google’s cache will display the raw...

Jan 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really worry about a massive influx of backlinks when launching a site?

Launching a new site with a significant media campaign that generates many backlinks is a natural behavior that Google’s algorithms should be able to handle. This phenomenon can occur when numerous si...

Jan 27, 2017 ⚡ Analysis available