If you know a bit about SEO, you know that it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
You know that if done right, it can propel your website to the top of search engine results. You know that it is an art as well as a science…One could go on and on.
However, with competition in SEO increasing by the day, you need to do a lot of things and hone your SEO marketing in order to drive low-cost, organic search traffic to your website and blog. There are also several SEO myths that abound. In this article, we’ll talk about and try to debunk the top 10 SEO myths.
- Just create great content and don’t worry about SEO: This is a myth. While quality content is the reason that a visitor will stay on your website, you still need leverage SEO tools and techniques for them to get there. When creating content, you should always think about your target audience and what terms they will likely be searching for. If you don’t use proper SEO techniques when creating content, fewer people will find your great content, because it’s not going to get sufficient exposure!
- More links are better than more content: This is a myth as well! Having more links will not necessarily help your website traffic, as links need to lead to highly quality content and content sources. Providing great content is essential to getting qualified visitors and leads to your website. If you have a great website and blog content, inbound links will build naturally and will help your website in the long run.
- You don’t need a social media strategy if you have SEO: Rubbish. Social media has everything to do with SEO. If you are posting social content and people are talking about your product or company on social media, this will help your ranking in search engine results. So do make sure that you do social media posting and have a social media strategy because the Social Media Marketing and SEO are related.
- Using keywords is all I need to rank higher: Again, this isn’t quite true. While using keywords is still important in that it tells search engines what type of content is contained on your website pages, it isn’t the only thing that will drive visitors to your website from search engines. In fact, a few years back, a practice called “keyword stuffing” was quite common. By stuffing the same keywords again and again, or just lots of keywords on their web pages, website owners used to rank higher in search engine results. However, search engines caught on, and now keyword stuffing on your website pages does more harm than good.
- Heading 1 (H1) is the most important on-page element: This does not matter. Whether you’re using H1, H2, or H3, does not matter for SEO. A H1 is only for styling purposes and you’re not necessarily going to rank higher if you have a heading in a larger font. What will matter is whether you have relevant content at the top of your page.
- SEO is done only once: Not true. SEO is an ongoing process and strategy, and cannot be done only once. This is because the Internet and search engine algorithms are constantly changing, so you need to change your SEO strategy and tactics along with it. As Search Engines change their algorithms, and as your competition changes, so will your marketing methods and your SEO. So, in order to keep up with these changes, your SEO marketing activities need to be reviewed and updated regularly to match with the latest Internet trends.
- Keywords are no longer relevant: Wrong. While you shouldn’t have an entire paragraph stuffed with keywords, it does not mean that they are not relevant. It is still important to put keywords throughout your website and content.
- A higher number of links is better: This is not necessarily the case. While it is true that it helps to have 3rd party links on and from your webpages, it is not true that more is necessarily better. It is all about the quality and not the quantity of your links. Inbound and outbound links to your content need to come from and go to high-quality sources with “Authority”. So an important part of SEO is making sure you’re including high-quality internal and outbound links to and from your content.
- You need to change your homepage often: Again, this is a myth. There is no need to change your webpage unless there is something wrong with it or something has changed. Also, a homepage with a lot of content is not the right answer either. While you want to post enough content to explain the company, you do not need to overwhelm your audience by making them read reams and reams of information. In fact, short, pointed messaging and images tend to be better on your home page.
- PageRank is the most important metric: This is not true. While this is an important metric, it is not necessarily the most important one. PageRank is used by Google to evaluate the quality and quantity of links to a webpage to determine a relative score of that page and the website’s importance and authority is to others. However, there are other metrics that are used to determine where your website will show up on a search engine.
These are just some of the common myths about SEO,
It’s also important to know that there are essentially two types of SEO: Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO. These are two approaches that are very different. Black Hat SEO uses aggressive, often outdated SEO strategies. It only focuses on search engine traffic but does not care about the audience. Black Hat SEO uses tactics such as keyword stuffing, and other dubious tactics, and can actually get your website/business in trouble with the search engines. Potentially putting your business/website into the “penalty box” by the search engines. So Black Hat is not the best way to do SEO, and is only used by shady marketers or marketers that don’t under the consequences of these outdated tactics.
White Hat SEO, on the other hand, is focused on getting longer lasting results and is user-friendly. Some methods of White Hat SEO include guest blogging, creating compelling content, and site optimization. White Hat SEO can bring valuable prospects to your website via ‘free’ organic traffic.
So, now you know a bit more about SEO. IntellaSphere specializes in working with you to come up with tailor-made SEO and integrated marketing strategies for your business. If you want to create an SEO strategy or a comprehensive plan, get in touch with IntellaSphere for a holistic digital marketing plan that includes SEO.
For more information on how you can effectively build an SEO strategy for your business, contact IntellaSphere at 425-283-9772 or at contact@intellasphere.com.
by Bruce Worrall, Sept-29-2017