John Mueller

★★ Do You Really Need Outbound Links to Avoid a Google Penalty?

John Mueller indicated on a webmaster help forum that Google does not give a "penalty" or negative score to a site that has no external links to other sites. This would therefore be a myth......

Dec 26, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Much Longer Until Search Console Offers a Full Year of Historical Data?

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that the engineering team working on Search Console features has been working for a long time on providing a full year of data history instead of the current 90 day...

Dec 26, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can You Really Rank on Google by Copying Your Competitors' SEO Strategies?

John Mueller indicated on Twitter that there is no universal recipe for ranking well on Google, due to the hundreds of criteria taken into account by the algorithm. Copying what a competitor site does...

Dec 26, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Is Google Really Going to Block Scraping and How Will This Impact Your SEO Tools?

John Mueller and Gary Illyes recently reminded us on Twitter that "scraping" (copying/pasting) Google's search results using automated tools, sending queries to the search engine via software, was aga...

Dec 19, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How Can You Actually Know for Sure If Your Site Is Penalized by Google?

Let's continue with penalties with an obvious point reminded by John Mueller in a hangout: only the owner of a site can know if it is penalized as part of a manual action (through Search Console in pa...

Dec 19, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Does the Order of H1, H2, H3 Tags Really Impact Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller indicated in a hangout that the placement of H1, H2... H6 tags in the source code doesn't matter. The H2 can come before the H1, for example, it doesn't matter. This will have no impact o...

Dec 19, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Can you really restore your site after it has been unindexed due to a DMCA complaint?

If a domain is unindexed due to a DMCA complaint, it is possible to submit a counterclaim to have the decision reviewed. It is important to follow the instructions provided on the help center for this...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really canonize all product variants to a single URL?

For products with many variants, it is possible to use a canonical tag to indicate a main version. This allows combining these variants under a single canonical URL. Ensure that this main page lists a...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Are interstitials directly embedded in the page as penalizing as traditional pop-ups?

Google views content that covers a large portion of the page as interstitials, even if they are directly embedded in the page itself. This can detract from user experience and thus affect rankings in ...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Do intrusive interstitials really cost you rankings on Google?

Starting January 10, Google may penalize sites using intrusive interstitials that harm the mobile user experience. Exceptions include legal obligations and age or cookie checks. For non-commercial int...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Does linking to a relevant page actually improve your own rankings?

Linking one page to another highly relevant page does not automatically make your page a good page. Google evaluates this from the user's perspective. However, it can improve user experience, which ma...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you switch to HTTPS all at once if you have a small site?

Small sites can fully migrate to HTTPS at once, which helps Google crawl and index more quickly. The important thing is to check that the HTTPS version is functioning correctly before the complete mig...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it true that you must regularly update your content to achieve good rankings?

It is not necessary to regularly update the content on your pages to improve their positioning. Only significant changes regarding new relevant content should be made. Minor modifications do not affec...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really add all domain versions in Search Console?

There is no need to add all possible versions of your domain (HTTP, HTTPS, www, etc.) in Search Console if you are certain that there is no relevant data. However, it is helpful to receive notificatio...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Is it really necessary to follow the Hn tag order for SEO?

Google uses title tags to understand the context of the page, but it does not require tags to be ordered in a strict manner (H1 -> H2 -> H3, etc.). What matters is that the content is well-structured ...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ How does Google really detect duplicate sites across multiple domains?

Google detects duplicate sites if multiple domains use the same URL template and parameters, leading to the same content. To avoid indexing errors, ensure that each domain presents unique content and ...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ What page size limit could hinder Google’s indexing?

Google Fetch in Search Console has a high limit regarding page size. If a page exceeds this limit, Google may not fully retrieve it. This may cause slower performance for users, but it does not direct...

Dec 16, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Should you really prioritize JSON-LD for your structured data?

Google recommends using the JSON-LD format for structured data markup, making implementation simpler and cleaner....

Dec 13, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★★ Why doesn't Google show your rich snippets even with valid markup?

Google does not guarantee the display of rich snippets in search results, even if the markup is valid and properly implemented....

Dec 13, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available

★★ Can You Really Trust Google's Official SEO Statements?

Gary Illyes recently indicated that he wasn't lying. John Mueller, for his part, reiterated that the notion of Google not telling the truth to webmasters was a myth and that they could definitely trus...

Dec 12, 2016 ⚡ Analysis available