John Mueller Discusses Search Traffic Limit Theory

Google’s John Mueller recently discussed the theory that the search engine giant puts a limit on the amount of search traffic that websites receive. Many affordable SEO consultants suspect that this might be the case and were keen to hear Mueller shed light on the matter. Gaining more knowledge on how Google actually works allows these professionals to develop better affordable SEO tactics for their clients’ websites.

SEOs are mostly concerned about how this affects Google Discover, a feature in Android where Google shows all kinds of websites that are relevant to a mobile user’s interests. For instance, if the user is interested in bicycling, Google Discover may suggest blog articles in the feed about biking.

Some marketers in the SEO community speculate that Google controls how much traffic a website can receive. Publishers sometimes notice that traffic comes in bursts and that the daily traffic they receive seems to have a limit. For this reason, many professionals in the industry have begun buying into the Google search traffic limit theory.

In an episode of the SEO Office Hours, a person asked about the theory implicitly, wondering if it affects the server capacity. Specifically, they asked if a website can receive more traffic from Google Discover than what the server can handle.

Mueller gave a reply, but his answer was not limited to just Google Discover. Instead, he expanded his response to include search traffic as well. He clarified that neither search traffic nor Google Discover can limit how much daily traffic a site can receive.

For example, if a site receives 1,000 visitors from search, Google won’t stop showing the website on the search engine results pages just because it reached 1,000 visitors. The company’s goal is to continue showing the content of a website to its searchers because it is relevant to their search queries.

Google displays the site to everyone who comes across it because it is a quality website. Mueller added that it just does not make sense if they do not show a quality website to their search engine users. With Mueller’s explanation, it’s safe to say that the “Google Traffic Throttling” theory is just a myth.

There are a lot of reasons for fluctuating daily site traffic or traffic that comes in bursts, especially during specific parts of the day. Sometimes, these spikes in traffic happen when a website’s target audience is busy with work or school, doing research on the Internet. A small burst in traffic might also be due to people taking a break and casually surfing the Internet.

Search intent is not only limited to a searcher using a certain keyword when looking for answers online. This also includes its relevance to where the query was made and when. SEO tools like Google Trends, as well as affordable SEO services, can help webmasters and publishers understand the majority of queries that their users make in terms of location and time. By doing so, they can identify why their daily traffic tends to diminish gradually at certain parts of the day.

Google cannot turn off the search traffic, nor can it limit the amount of daily traffic that a website can receive. Therefore, it’s up to website owners to work with an affordable SEO consultant to analyse and monitor their daily site traffic using accurate SEO tools; from there, they can come up with effective SEO marketing strategies that will bring long-term benefits for their business.

Here at Position1SEO, we have a team of experts who can provide you with an in-depth SEO audit for free. We will look at all the key elements on each webpage and create a personalised SEO marketing strategy to fix problems that may be preventing your website from receiving higher site traffic.

If you need a free SEO audit and affordable SEO packages, you can give us a call on 0141 846 0114 or send an email to office@position1seo.co.uk. Work with us today!