Why the answer in SEO is almost always ‘it depends’

We joke every time we hear Google’s John Mueller answer a question with “it depends.” But actually, it’s true.

There are few definitive answers or universally established facts in SEO. Do meta titles matter? Yes. Is internal linking a good practice? Yes. Is duplicate content bad for SEO? Yes.

But if I tried to make a list of SEO questions with a single, clear, absolute answer, it wouldn’t be long.

That’s the real challenge: we operate in an industry where things almost always depend on context, intent, competition, your website’s situation, and the platform itself.

Yet over and over, we see questions framed as if there must be one right answer. SEO tips are often shared as universal truths — one-size-fits-all for websites, industries, and business models.

My purpose here is simple: to shift that mindset. Especially if you share SEO advice publicly, let’s move away from “this is the only way” and toward “this is one way, depending on your situation.”

Is schema important for SEO?

The idea for this article came to me when I saw Mueller respond to a Reddit thread about the importance of schema markup. He replied, “This question will stick with us for the next year and longer, and the short answer is yes, no, and it depends…”

And he’s absolutely right.

• Is schema important for rankings in Google? Not directly, in most cases.
• Is schema important for rich results eligibility? Yes.
• Is schema important if you’re running ecommerce and want product snippets, pricing visibility, and review stars? Very likely.
• Is schema important if you’re a news publisher trying to appear in Top Stories, Google Discover, and other news-specific areas? Highly recommended.
• Is schema important for LLMs to cite your website? Structured data can help certain large language models interpret content more clearly. For example, as confirmed by Fabrice Canel, principal product manager at Microsoft Bing, schema markup helps Microsoft’s LLMs better understand your content.

Schema isn’t a special case of “it depends.” It’s just a familiar one. The same logic applies across almost every debate in our industry, including arguably the biggest one right now.

GEO vs. SEO

This has become one of the most debated topics going into 2025 and 2026. Is SEO the same as generative engine optimization (GEO)?

Well, it depends. If we’re talking about core tactics — content quality, structured information, entity relationships, internal linking, bot accessibility, and content discoverability — then yes, there is significant overlap.

But if we’re talking about platforms and how they operate, then no. SEO traditionally optimizes for search engines like Google. GEO aims to influence visibility within generative systems like those developed by OpenAI and others.

The mechanics differ:

• Traditional search retrieves and ranks documents.
• Generative systems retrieve, synthesize, and generate responses.

That doesn’t mean one replaces the other. It means the context changes.

So, do you still think GEO is the same as SEO? (Yes, no, and it depends are all correct answers.)

Can a one-year-old website outrank older websites?

This was another Mueller moment on Reddit, where he responded with: “I think I’m trying to say ‘it depends’?”

Is domain age a ranking factor? Not directly.

Can a newer website outrank an older one? Generally yes. Specifically, it depends on a lot of factors:

• Is the newer site producing better content?
• Is it targeting underserved queries?
• Does it have a stronger brand presence on social channels?

There are too many moving parts to give a universal answer, and that’s exactly the point.

Are 404s hurting your SEO?

While it’s tempting to say yes, the standard answer is no. 404s don’t automatically hurt your website’s performance in search.

Fixing 404s is on every technical SEO checklist. It’s a good practice and definitely reduces your website’s technical debt. They don’t naturally hurt your performance in search because Google understands that pages are retired naturally.

Products go out of stock. Articles get removed. Content evolves. A 404 status code, by itself, is not a penalty trigger.

Unless your website creates a large number of 404s in a short period, which can happen during website migrations, for example. If a significant percentage of previously indexed URLs start returning 404s, that can absolutely impact your search visibility for the whole website. Especially if the number of 404s is a noticeable percentage of your website’s pages.

But imagine this: a website with tens of thousands of pages, or even millions of pages, and they have 10 404s. These are definitely not a high-priority fix. Right?

Yes, I would ignore them, especially if your dev team has higher-priority items in their queue. They’re just 10 links. They don’t matter…

Unless they have valuable backlinks linking to them.

Or unless those URLs are heavily linked internally, meaning users and crawlers repeatedly encounter them.

Or you’re running a news website and content is timely, and these 404 pages are ranking in search for time-sensitive keywords instead of your status 200 working content pages.

See what happened? The answer changed based on context. For every rule, there seems to be an exception.

To be a great SEO, you cannot simply operate off a checklist: 

You have to ask:

• How many?
• How fast did they appear?
• Are they receiving links?
• Are they indexed?
• Are they affecting users?
• What’s the opportunity cost of fixing them right now?

And once again, it depends.

The real skill in SEO

The real skill in SEO isn’t memorizing best practices or having the best, most comprehensive checklist.

It’s knowing when different things apply and understanding:

• Which factors matter in this situation.
• Which tactics are leverage points for this business model.
• Which platform you’re optimizing for.
• What your backend is.
• And many, many more.

Saying “it depends” means you understand the question well enough to know it has no single answer.

In an industry shaped by evolving algorithms, multiple platforms, and constantly shifting user behavior, knowing this is foundational.

So maybe instead of rolling our eyes every time we hear “it depends,” we should recognize it for what it is — the most honest answer in SEO.