For decades now, many SEOs have disagreed with Googlers about how to do SEO and how to rank sites well in Google Search. Some of those who disagree feel Google is either lying to the industry, some feel those Googlers don't know the answer and some feel they just know better.
John Mueller of Google tweeted about this the other day when he was asked to detail what is wrong with an article on Google ranking factors. He said on Twitter "When Googlers give corrections, there are often claims that it's not true - be it from Googlers wanting to mislead, or them being incompetent."
The funny thing, this just happened on Reddit on the topic of keyword density where John gave his advice, saying not to focus on that as a metric and someone said in response to John "don't agree with you, have you done any SEO recently to test this? I have."
Here was what John wrote on the topic of keyword density:
Mentioning a concept at least once on a page is one thing, but anything past that doesn't really make sense. You're focusing on a metric that's irrelevant to search engines. This is pretty much one of the first things all sites did when search engines first appeared 25? years ago. Any tool that's still recommending keyword density is stuck in that time -- the world has moved on significantly. I'd recommend spending your time wiser.
The SEO's response:
Dont agree with you, have you done any seo recently to test this? I have. Maybe there is other low hanging fruit to capture under the opportunity cost framing of tasks but take a look at the biggest organic ranked sites in google and you can see how they use it and they are testing it with millions of pounds of investment.
Here is John's tweet about this in general:
That's tempting, but it generally just starts arguments. When Googlers give corrections, there are often claims that it's not true - be it from Googlers wanting to mislead, or them being incompetent. I'd rather we just focus on giving good, helpful advice.
— 🦝 John (personal) 🦝 (@JohnMu) March 29, 2022
It is always interesting to see SEOs disagree with Googlers. Sure, they are human, they can get things wrong here and there. But when you see a Googler say something over and over again, and keep seeing some say that is wrong, it makes you wonder why...
Sure - you should test everything yourself but when a Googler disagrees, maybe use that as a sign to think about how you tested it originally and come up with new testing plans?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
