He adds:
“None of this is easy, you still need to figure out what to change to adapt to a dynamic ecosystem online, but I bet if you want to change your site’s robots.txt (for example), it’s a matter of 30 minutes at most.”
Context
Mueller’s response followed research presented by Andrew Mcleod, who documented consistent patterns across multiple websites indicating rapid ranking changes after performance modifications.
In one case, a site with over 50,000 monthly visitors experienced a drop in traffic within 72 hours of implementing advertisements.
Mcleod’s analysis, which included five controlled experiments over three months, showed:
Traffic drops of up to 20% within 48 hours of enabling ads
Recovery periods of 1-2 weeks after removing ads
Consistent patterns across various test cases
Previous Statements
This latest guidance aligns with Mueller’s previous statements on Core Web Vitals.
In a March podcast, Mueller confirmed that Core Web Vitals are used in “ranking systems or in Search systems,” but emphasized that perfect scores won’t notably affect search results.
Mueller’s consistent message is clear: while Core Web Vitals are important for user experience and are part of Google’s ranking systems, you should prioritize content quality rather than focus on metrics.
Looking Ahead
Core Web Vitals don’t directly affect rankings, per Mueller.
While Google’s stance on ranking factors remains unchanged, the reality is that technical performance and user experience work together to influence traffic.
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