SEO Myth Buster

Navigating SEO by yourself can be a challenging task when there is so much advice online. While most of it is helpful, unfortunately, some of it can lead you down the wrong path.  Sometimes SEO myths can cause damage, negatively affecting your SEO efforts. However, distinguishing SEO myths and facts isn’t easy.

Therefore, to help clear this up, our SEO myth buster is here to knock out those misguided articles full of incorrect information and provide you with accurate facts. Learning these will enable you to find more success or provide peace of mind that all is on track if you have outsourced your SEO.

What is an SEO myth?

For years, myths have manipulated people into thinking that something will happen if they carry out a particular action. Think of the famous line that children are told: “carrots can help improve your vision.” There is no evidence that they can increase your visual acuity, and yet people still tell it to their children as a way of getting them to eat more vegetables.

Unfortunately, SEO myths work on the same principle. Despite having no evidence, they still misguide people into believing that what is being said is true because of regurgitated information tossed around the web.

This can happen as Google is so secretive with their algorithm, it makes it easy for these myths to form.

The Most Common SEO Myths

Whether it is a lack of testing, outdated information, or misunderstanding Google and its algorithm, myths form in all sorts of ways. These are the most common SEO myths debunked.

Link BuildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs. Doesn’t Matter

This is far from true. LinksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. and Google go hand in hand and are a crucial ranking factor. If you can get high-quality backlinks, this is showing Google that they can trust you. Think of it as a vote of confidence. The more links you can get, the more benefits you can get. Enjoy a higher placed ranking position, more click-throughs and conversions, and increased reputation.

If you are curious to know more about how this ranking factor can help you, check out our Intelligence Hub, full of in-depth guides on link building and more.

Not Building Enough Links

Even if you believe the link building matters, there is another myth that you can stumble across. Not knowing how many links you need can be a detriment to your entire campaign. You need to be analyzing how many links your competitors have that are currently ranking on page one. If your competitors have around 1500 links, and you were only doing one link a month, this is going to take an extremely long time to get anywhere near your competition. In the meantime, another might swoop in and take your spot. The reason so many people are hesitant to build lots of links is the concern that they will be penalized. However, this too is a myth. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you produce content that gains links naturally and quickly. In fact, achieving this could help you rank well.

SEO is a Temporary Fix or One Time Effort

Believing that SEO can temporarily fix your digital marketing can leave long-lasting impacts. However, SEO results are not instant. It can take a while for your SEO campaigns to come into effect simply because there are so many variables involved in the process. For instance, you may need to wait for Google to index your newly optimized homepage content, or your competition may be tough. Plus, you need to wait to see whether the changes you have implemented have a positive or negative impact. If it is the latter, then more changes will need to be done, and again this takes time as you must start the cycle all over again. Plus, algorithm updates could upend any work you have done, or competitors could slowly knock you back down the rankings by continually working on their campaigns. So, while some people may claim that SEO is a one-time job unfortunately, this is not the case.

This isn’t to say that it can’t happen quickly. Low competition targeting niche terms could find it easier to see the ranking changes, for instance. However, this will still need to be continually monitored and worked on to remain this way.

Domain Age is a Ranking Factor

It has become a common belief among many that domain age impacts where you can rank. If you have an older site, then you will generally rank better than newer ones. However, the age of a domain is not a ranking factor. This myth came about because people started to think that if a website had been around for a long time and was ranking well, then it must be because they have been doing the right SEO methods for longer. It is easy to see why people believed it. As you would expect, a website that has been around for five+ years compared to a website that has been around for less than six months is likely to have had more time to build backlinks, work on SEO optimized content, and develop a solid online reputation. SEO takes time, so older websites are likely to feature higher on the SERPs, but this is nothing to do with their age, just the fact that they have had longer to work on it. This myth was debunked by Google’s own trends analyst John Mueller, who tweeted that “domain age helps nothing.”

Keywords are Your Salvation

Yes, keywords are good. In fact, we do encourage you to use them! However, overloading your page with keywords will not benefit you. Although many people think that if you have the keywords in the content, you will rank well, keyword stuffingKeyword stuffing is a technique that attempts to give pages higher rankings in search engine result pages by inserting the same keywords over and over again. will make your content appear spammy and low-quality. Instead, you need to provide value to the reader by distributing your keywords naturally throughout the text and not overusing them. Think carefully about your content. Doing this ensures you keep both Google and your audience happy.

Meta TagsA meta tag is a structured data element that appears in the head section of a webpage. Don’t Matter

They may seem like a small part of the content process, but your meta tags do in factmatter. You need to be including a title tag, meta descriptionWebsite meta descriptions are used to inform web users on search engines about the content of webpages., and meta keywordsMeta keywordsare is an HTML tag that helps search engines categorize what your page is about.. The benefit of using meta tags is that on the SERP, it appears more attractive, which can result in more clicks, as users have faith that your content can provide them with what they want. Neglecting this element will result in less traffic and a lower ranking.

Longer Content is Better

Within SEO, quality over quantity is often a driving force, and this is the same when it concerns your content. Longer content will benefit you, but if it is not providing the reader with value or your audience isn’t interested in long-form, you will not take that top spot even if a competitor does precisely the same as you and is ranking on that first page. The key to content benefitting you is ensuring that you have the reader in mind throughout. If your piece can provide value with detailed information, but you can do so in 500 words, then do that.

All Backlinks are Great

Not all backlinks are equal, and some will do more harm than good. For example, if you have backlinks from spammy or untrustworthy, irrelevant websites, it will not offer credibility like a high DA site would. Instead, it impacts your credibility and leads Google to believe that you can’t be trusted.

PPC Helps Rankings

PPC and SEO can work great together, but if you are looking to get organic rankings, PPC, unfortunately, won’t be able to help you with this directly. There is no correlation between the two – they are two separate areas of digital marketing. However, while PPC won’t help with your organic rankings, it can help attract more traffic and strengthen your brand.

Your SEO Agency Will Handle Everything

If you outsource your SEO to an agency, naturally, you do expect them to take all the work off your hands, but not having any involvement at all could put you at a disadvantage. Working with an SEO agency must be considered a partnership. By discussing your goals and objects with the agency, the team can then form strategies based on this. When results start to come back in, you should also still be actively involved.

Once Content is Posted, You can Leave It and Move onto the Next Piece

Optimizing and posting content is a great feeling. However, you shouldn’t just forget about this. There is the belief that producing tons of content will benefit you but forgetting about the content that is already on your website could be more damaging. For example, users might start typing in different keywords, or the information in your content could be wrong. If your competitors catch wind of this before you, your ranking could slip. So don’t be afraid to go back and optimize your content again to reflect the changing times.

These are just a few of the common myths that have been circulating the web and so before you fall victim to one of these, make sure to familiarize yourself with them.