We want to highlight an important warning from Google’s John Mueller about the impact of scaling web content. In a recent exchange, Muller pointed out that expanding the size of a website to ten times its original size can result in Google treating your website as an entirely new entity, which triggers a comprehensive reassessment process.
The specific question asked in the SEO Office Hours podcast was:
“What is the impact of expanding a product catalog from 10,000 products to 100,000 products on SEO performance?”
Mueller’s response sheds light on a risk that we emphasize should be kept in mind. According to Mueller, such a large-scale increase could change the way Google recognizes and evaluates your websites. As the size of the website increases exponentially, the old part of the website will only be a small percentage of the new part. This means that the website will have to be re-evaluated from scratch, similar to reviewing a completely new website.
We recommend that you prepare a thorough strategy when making major site-scale changes. This is not simply an SEO issue but requires attention to how new content is organized to match search engine standards. Make sure your new content meets high-quality criteria and provides real value to users.
In short, if you’re considering scaling your site significantly, be aware that this could lead to a complete re-evaluation from Google. This extensive implementation needs to be carefully managed to minimize negative impacts and ensure that your website maintains optimal SEO performance.
