Similar to with Christmas day yearly, so to with New Yr’s Day – Google’s John Mueller and infrequently different Googlers, are out and searching to reply to some questions on Google Search and search engine marketing. John Mueller to date posted a number of occasions on Reddit this morning, January 1, 2026.
One particular person, John Mueller, has been doing this each New Yr for like 18 years now. John Mueller from Google has a practice of serving to site owners each on New Years and Christmas. He did new years 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, the 2019 additionally, and has executed it yr after yr prior to that. He did it Christmas too in 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, then in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.
The place did he put up to date right this moment?
In a Reddit thread named Massive variety of 404s in GSC. Redirect to homepage or return actual 404/410? John offered an excellent detailed response – he wrote:
Taking a step again, I feel that is a type of conditions the place it would not actually instantly matter for search engine marketing (therefore the assorted opinions), but it surely does have a powerful usability impact. Even with a 1-page web site, folks will attain your web site with invalid URLs – the larger & extra standard the positioning, the extra typically it’s going to occur. Do you wish to assist these customers to seek out the gems inside your web site, or do you wish to shoo them away? They wished to return to your web site for one thing, you simply want to assist them discover it. Having an amazing 404 web page not less than makes it a risk.
As to why does it not likely matter for search engine marketing? This is my considering:* 404: URL would not get listed; it is an invalid URL, so that is tremendous. Simply to be clear: 404s/410s will not be a detrimental high quality sign. It is how the online is meant to work.
* 410: It is a 404, basically.
* Homepage redirect: URL would not get listed. Possibly it stays soft-404 & will get crawled (not nice, not horrible).
* Class redirect: URL would not get listed. Probably a short-term assist for the class web page, however nonetheless complicated to customers. (Should you do that, not less than show one thing on the web page explaining how they bought there.) Longer-term soft-404.
* 200 with 404 web page content material: positively soft-404.
He additionally posted a brief reply on a Reddit thread named Evil search engine marketing methods, he wrote, “This seems like each Monday.”
One other Reddit thread named Does intensive Schema markup truly assist Massive Language Fashions (LLMs) perceive your entity higher, or is it only for Google Wealthy Snippets?
This query will keep on with us for the subsequent yr and longer, and the quick reply is sure, no, and it relies upon (talking from my POV, this isn’t official steering, nor can I converse for anybody apart from myself in fact).
Some options thrive with structured information (to which I additionally rely structured feeds). Pricing, transport, availability for buying is principally not possible to learn in excessive constancy & precisely from a textual content web page, for instance. In fact the small print will change although – which is why it is necessary to make use of a system that makes it straightforward to adapt.
Different options may theoretically be understood from a web page’s textual content, but it surely’s simply a lot simpler for machines to learn machine-readable information as a substitute of attempting to know your web page (which may be in English, or in Welsh, or … decide any of the 7000+ languages). Some visible parts depend on particular structured information; if you’d like it, then observe the directions. These will range throughout surfaces / firms, and will certainly change over time. Should you wait, “that sort” will probably be deprecated proper after you implement it, so make it straightforward to get it added when it is sensible to your web site.
And different structured information sorts, properly, there’s a whole lot of wishful considering. All the time has been, and can proceed to be. Your “finest geo insurance coverage comparability web site” is not going to rank higher by including insurance coverage markup.
And some extra on Reddit the place he wished people a good new years.
He additionally posted on Bluesky:
Glad new yr, Yordan!
— John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 7:34 AM
I’m certain there’s extra to return from each John and representatives at Google and Bing.
Discussion board dialogue at Reddit.
Replace: Rajan Patel, Google’s VP of Engineering of Search is up early working too:
Thanks Barry. Wanting into it. Glad new yr!
— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel) January 1, 2026
Martin Splitt:
Let’s examine what this yr has in retailer.
— Martin Splitt (@divingfor.enjoyable) January 1, 2026 at 8:51 AM
Alright. I’m considering of restructuring and rewriting the JavaScript search engine marketing documentation to be extra geared in direction of an search engine marketing viewers. I am simply unsure what that must be like 🤔
— Martin Splitt (@divingfor.enjoyable) January 1, 2026 at 10:36 AM
