Why Google Doesn’t Like Some search engine optimisation Metrics

We see Googlers over the years downplay, nullify and even mock some SEO metrics. They’ve done this with third-party tools and their own tools – heck, that’s why they did away with the toolbar PageRank metric. But why do Googlers dislike these SEO metrics?

John Mueller of Google explained on Twitter that his issue with them is that many SEOs treat these SEO metrics as the ultimate SEO goal. So when you hit a certain DA number or you reduce your toxic links by Y, or your keyword density hits Z-percent, your SEO goals have been met and you are done.

John said “The part I struggle with (with our tools too) is the desire to treat them as a goal of their own, or as a checklist.” He said he has “nothing against third party metrics like these – and I’m sure they’re made by smart, honest, & well-meaning folks.” But he added “Simplifying them to a checklist (“fix toxic links”) is misdirected work, selling them as such (which imo you don’t do) is unfair towards everyone involved.”

He said every time he sees a metric thread, he cringes a bit. “Everytime I see a “how to improve $METRIC” thread, I cringe a bit: so much wasted energy. Do I post to tell them that the metric is irrelevant to Google? (I don’t) Creating metrics is hard, money matters, and it’s not your fault they’re used like this, but it’s lost time…”

Here is the context of this:

I do sympathize with @JohnMu‘s repeatedly being asked about 3rd party metrics, as if they are Google’s metrics.

But there’s sometimes a tendency among SEOs to take this as an argument against 3rd party metrics existing at all, which I don’t think would serve the industry well.

— Tom Capper (@THCapper) June 7, 2022

… you’d know how they work, what they show, and how that’s relevant to your real goals (money! eyeballs! whatever). Simplifying them to a checklist (“fix toxic links”) is misdirected work, selling them as such (which imo you don’t do) is unfair towards everyone involved.

— 🐝 johnmu.xml (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) June 7, 2022

Every time I see a “how to improve $METRIC” thread, I cringe a bit: so much wasted energy. Do I post to tell them that the metric is irrelevant to Google? (I don’t)
Creating metrics is hard, money matters, and it’s not your fault they’re used like this, but it’s lost time…

— 🐝 johnmu.xml (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) June 7, 2022

Personally, I don’t look at SEO metrics but it’s funny to hear Google say this when they publish core web vital metrics. I guess those are different because they measure real page speed but they should really be more downplayed in terms of an SEO metric.

Forum discussion at Twitter.