Unfortunately, I often get calls from website owners who believe many SEO myths regarding how to grow their business online. When I mention Search Engine Optimisation, I usually get mixed reactions.
I’ve realised that individual website owners still hold on to certain SEO myths. But I’m on a mission to provide business owners like yourself with marketing and sales tips and industry knowledge to help you grow your business and be more successful.
Every day a new search engine optimization myth is born. But, unfortunately, not every day does an old myth die off.
Here are ten myths and common misconceptions about SEO you should stop believing. This list of SEO myths is not in any particular order.
SEO is a Quick Fix
When some people talk about SEO, they think of SEO as some quick fix to their website traffic issues. Nothing could be further from the truth.
SEO takes time and resources to yield positive results in organic search. As Google updates its algorithm regularly, professional SEOs need to be alert to make necessary tweaks.
Google challenges marketers to educate themselves about each update, adapting their SEO strategy and solving any organic traffic reduction.
Hiring an SEO professional is based on trust because there is a low bar to entry into digital marketing, including SEO. There are no actual certification processes (how would you certify something that changes daily?). Google never publishes their search algorithm, so there is no way to test an individual’s knowledge against what they contain.
So when you hire an SEO expert, you aren’t paying only for their time. You are paying for their knowledge and results. Prices are set accordingly.
There are no quick fixes or magic steps involved in SEO. Almost every SEO signal can be broken down into KPIs that can be explained.
SEO is a One-off Solution
Even if your website ranks as number one today on Google’s search engine result page (SERP), that doesn’t mean you should rest. Instead, it would help if you keep tweaking your website to maintain its ranking among competing domains.
SEO is not a checklist of tasks you mark as done as you complete each task in the list. If you perform an SEO audit, you will get a checklist of tasks you need to do to put things right. And if you are building a website, there is a list of best practices that you need to do to put your site on the path to success. But that doesn’t mean SEO is a one-time activity.
I’ve seen websites that have lost their impressive ranking within a few weeks because of changes in Google’s algorithm. And the website owners didn’t consider these changes to their websites.
The best practices of the past become outdated or downright obsolete. SEO is an ongoing effort with planned, periodic spurts of increased activity scheduled ahead of time to keep up with the competition, especially in the more lucrative niches. Some factors, such as snippet representation directly affecting user experience and signals, are continuously monitored and improved. The same applies to page performance, which is directly responsible for how users experience the website. Other factors, such as managing backlink liabilities, may only require spot checks and be part of an annual on- and off-page SEO audit.
Old Domains are Better than New
If you think you registered your domain in 1995, that’s all you need to rank high on search engines; then you are deceiving yourself.
These days a new website registered this year with valuable content attracting a lot of links will gain a lot of domain authority and rank higher than yours. So instead of focusing on domain age alone, you still need to produce helpful content consistently on your website.
Keyword Stuffing Helps
You make an enormous mistake if you’re still stuffing your blog posts with additional keywords. If you’re not careful, Google might even penalise your website! Then, you will lose whatever ranking you are striving to achieve.
If you start obsessing about your density of adverbs, Google perceives your site as a manipulative outlier, not a more relevant resource.
These tactics no longer work because of Google’s constant efforts at recognising natural language patterns.
Spend your precious time creating high quality content that answers your visitor’s search query and search intent. Let your content be based on a relevant keyword/longtail keyword rather than search volume alone. Use your Google Search Console to monitor the performance of your content and address things like a duplicate content penalty.
Guest Posting is No Longer Relevant
Nothing could be further from the truth. Guest posting, especially from influencers in your industry, is still relevant to your SEO.
There is no technical difference between guest-blogging content and other content. Guest blogging means that a guest contributes a piece of content to your blog.
It can help you gain much-needed backlinks. So strive to get as many guest posts as possible but make sure the guest post applies to your target audience.
All Links are Important
These days, outbound links, i.e., links to other websites from your website, are not as relevant as inbound links, i.e., links from other sites to your website.
So, get as many inbound links from authoritative websites as possible. The more inbound links you get from reliable sites like Wikipedia, the higher you rank on search engines.
Links are the key ranking factor of Google’s algorithm that’s difficult to game at scale. Do your best to provide your audience with genuine inbound and outbound links. Also, be strategic about your internal linking.
But this does not mean you should buy 20,000 backlinks for $10. Avoid spammy links! They will not work. It will get your website penalised and possibly banned on Google and other search engines.
You Don’t Need A Blog.
There is a famous saying in online marketing that content is king. Therefore, if your content is king, you need a blog because it’s one of the primary ways to produce relevant content.
If, in 2022, you still don’t have a blog, how are you providing content for your target audience?
What will happen if you don’t have a blog and produce content that lives only on social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)? What will happen if you lose it all?
Without a blog, you cannot have much content. Without content, you cannot have traffic. Without traffic, you cannot have backlinks.
Having a blog and blogging regularly ensures that you create content that will live on your website. It will be of more benefit to your brand from an SEO perspective.
Here are ten myths and common misconceptions about SEO you should stop believing in 2022. Click To TweetYour Website Doesn’t Need To Be Responsive.
These days many people access the internet via their mobile devices. Since you don’t know what device your website visitor will use to visit your website, the best bet is to have a responsive website.
Google has highlighted mobile-friendliness as a significant factor in their algorithm since the 2000s. The 2018 mobile-first update was one of the most impactful updates in years.
A responsive website caters to different devices and screen sizes. If your site is responsive, that’s a significant advantage for you from an SEO perspective.
According to this article, Google said a while back that page speed is only a tie-breaker when all other factors are equal. So I’ll argue that you cannot have a responsive website without addressing your website speed. It means (for instance) if your site has a 22-second site load time, you need to cut it down to 8 seconds.
Content Is All You Need
I will not downplay the role of relevant and authoritative content on your website for SEO.
But it would be a joke if you think SEO is only about content. A lot goes into SEO. I have not scratched the surface in this blog post.
Many articles make the statement content is king. This is not entirely untrue because your content needs links, design, and usability. According to this, they are like the conjoined twins of the SEO world. You must have both. One will not work without the other (at least not okay and not for the long term).
The same article mentioned earlier says that people regard in-depth content as valuable. But, in reality, most lengthy articles aren’t so helpful for the user and thus don’t provide the website with a good premise for content marketing. Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/17-seo-myths-that-you-should-never-follow/
SEO is Dead
From time to time, the industry is agog with sensational headlines about the demise of SEO. But to me, SEO is alive and well. But SEO is constantly developing. SEO is not static.
According to this article, search traffic converts 9% better than social media traffic. Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/17-seo-myths-that-you-should-never-follow/
If you’re still trying to use old-school SEO techniques to rank high in SERPs, your website will be the one to die off sooner than later. Remember that these days your brand needs to innovate or die.
Conclusion
These are the ten myths about SEO that I often come across. You need to stop if you’re one of those still believing these myths. Instead, it would help if you considered how you could also start using SEO to grow your business. Contact SEO experts in Nigeria to get started.
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