For the uninitiated, search engine optimization often sounds like some kind of digital witchcraft.
With complex talk about algorithms and tactics and links and so on, it’s easy to get lost in the discussion. This makes it easy for the modern-day snake oil salesman to peddle outdated or inadvisable tactics to unsuspecting clients. It also leads to the spread of misinformation around SEO best practices and further clouds the understanding of business owners and marketers about what they should and shouldn’t be doing. Plus, it damages the reputation of the practice as a whole.
Let’s cut through the noise and snuff out some common misconceptions.
Myth 1: Meta keywords can help your search engine rankings.
2005 called, and it wants this SEO tactic back. That’s because Google hasn’t used the meta keywords tag in at least a decade. If someone tries to tell you otherwise, direct them to this blog post from Google themselves.
Myth 2: Spending on pay-per-click (PPC) will improve your organic search engine rankings, too.
There is no direct correlation between increased spending on paid search ads improving organic search rankings. Both are advisable for many organizations, and there is a small amount of overlap in the skill sets required to execute each effectively. However, these two disciplines are quite separate, and they should never be confused with one another.
Myth 3: You can improve your rankings by buying links.
It’s common knowledge in the SEO world that earning links from other sites improves your rankings. This is because it uses external “votes” to determine how important your website is. (After all, if other sites are linking to you, that must mean you have great content worth linking to.)
In fact, using links in its search engine algorithm is widely credited as the innovation that helped Google crush its competition with a more accurate search engine. However, this has lead to various schemes on behalf of shady SEO hucksters to try to earn links in ways that aren’t really earned.
If search results pages can be thought of as elections, then links can be thought of as votes showing your site is important. In this metaphorical scenario, buying links can then be considered like buying votes, which is clearly unethical.
Instead, the best way to earn links for your site is to create great content. Then generate excitement and attention around that content, so other sites want to link to it. Search engines are now quite sophisticated in snuffing out patterns that look manipulative, and they’re also keenly aware of link networks and sellers. The penalties for cheating here can be quite stiff, ranging from reduced rankings to having your site removed from its index completely.
In other words? Don’t try to buy the election. You won’t like the consequences.
Myth 4: You should just stuff all your keywords in your blog.
Creating low-quality blog content for no other purpose but to rank for desired keywords is a shortsighted strategy. Instead, create valuable blog posts that readers will want to consume and share. Then optimize that content so it can easily be found through organic search. Think about users first, and search engines second.
Myth 5: Keyword density matters.
Once upon a time, it was believed that you needed to have X number of instances of your primary keyword for every X number of words on your page. While it’s advisable to make sure you have an exact match of your primary keyword somewhere on your page, along with some common variations, it’s likely you’ll work those into your content naturally without thinking about it anyway.
Focusing on hitting keyword ratios or trying to account for every possible search term a potential customer could use tends to lead to keyword stuffing. This is the practice of cramming as many keywords into a page as possible to game search engine algorithms. Google, Bing and Yahoo all frown on this technique, and people don’t enjoy this tactic much either. For example, would you want to do business with a company if their website read like this?
“For Fargo marketing services, make sure you hire the best advertising and marketing agency firm in Fargo, ND. No one does advertising in North Dakota better than this digital marketing agency that will synergistically growth hack your Fargo advertising ROI with social media and SEO (search engine optimization).”
Believe it or not, some marketers used to write website copy like this to boost their keyword rankings. In the darkest corners of the Internet, some still do. Don’t follow their lead.
Myth 6: You need to submit your website to the search engines in order to rank.
This one goes back to the dark ages of SEO (the late 90s and early 2000s). Back in those days, search engines had submission forms where you could submit your URL, desired keywords and other relevant information about your site. This proved to be wildly inefficient and easy for spammers to abuse, and it ceased to be necessary around 2001.
Are there any search engine optimization myths or misconceptions we missed that you still hear floating around? Together, we can help the world beat bad SEO.
