10 SEO myths | Weboptim
There have always been and always will be people who think they are good at search engine optimization because they have a friend/relative who works in the marketing world.
Most of them think that SEO is just an urban legend.
What are the most common misconceptions about SEO?
1. Search engine optimisation is a scam
Consistent application of SEO as a marketing strategy can achieve spectacular results for website traffic growth. Unfortunately, many contractors promise various professional SEO services, but then don't actually do anything.
We all know that there is no quick and easy win with little effort.
But of course there are special cases where the site meets all SEO criteria and there are only technical problems.
In other cases, SEO requires real effort and commitment, which can bring additional results in addition to increased traffic.
2. Google will figure it out
Many webmasters expect that the search engines will perform SEO for them. Many webmasters and developers fall under the misconception that if they generate as many URLs as possible for Google's search bots, the algorithm will magically drive valuable visitors to those pages.
In fact, sites with few subpages expect Google to optimise for them just as much.
Google is smart. Search engines are trying to emulate the human behaviourt when evaluating content (and people don't like to see millions of duplicate pages) and human signals (links, likes, etc.) are used in the ranking. Therefore, each page must be unique and valuable.
3. The SEO one-off
Sometimes you may notice that organic traffic decreases over time. If we don't make the effort sometimes, this is what we expect to happen. A ongoing search engine optimization is essential because:
- links are lost
- new content is uploaded to the web
- algorithms are evolving
- competitors are strengthened
- content becomes obsolete
For small sites, there is no need for continuous search engine optimisation, but it is worth doing "something" 2-3 times a year.
4. Link building is dead
In February 2015, news emerged that link building is something to be wary of - it does much more harm than good. Many people misinterpreted the news and thought that all forms of link building were bad, against the rules and would be penalised by Google.
But in fact nothing has changed in the way link quality and link text is evaluated by the search algorithm. A white-hat link buildings legitimate and proven marketing practice.
A manipulative link building is something to beware of. Links on non-relative pages, scaled display, paid links, are the methods that Google penalises.
5. I want to be first on my keyword
A specific, generic keyword will not bring significant traffic to the website, but it will not be nearly as effective as one with focused content long tail keywords.
By focusing content around a specific topic, long tail keywords can drive many more visitors overall. The magic happens when users come to a website because the content matches their needs, but their search may not match our relevant keywords.
6. Google hates search engine optimisation
The relationship between the two is much more nuanced.
- According to Google, SEO has the potential to improve a website and SEO agencies provide useful services.
- Google has published its own SEO guide.
- a Google Analytics supports the preparation of a wide range of SEO reports.
So it seems that the Google encourages SEObut almost certainly does not support manipulative search engine optimisation. Those who use such methods try to trick search engines by using false popularity and erroneous relevance signals in order to achieve better rankings.
7. SEO is dead because of Google Answers
It's scary that sometimes, when you type a question into Google, you can see the answer without having to click on a link. Google has completely taken over searches on topics such as the weather, mortgage calculators and lyrics.
It is worth bearing in mind that the the number of searches on the internet continues to grow, especially in the mobile sector. However, only around 5% of search results are delivered to the answer box.
People are looking for answers, but for now they want to read them on the website.
8. SEO is just a trick
The trick traditionally refers to something bad. The problem is that all most developers and marketing managers hear about SEO is that it's something about putting more keywords in the title tag. If that was all there was, it could really be called a trick.
- create content that meets user needs
- make content known to both humans and search engines
- improving accessibility through structure and user experience
- structuring the data
- optimisation according to social rules
- improve search presence
- use technical standards to reach the right audience
- improve website performance through optimisation
- sharing content with your target audience, through links and mentions
Each of these is valuable in its own right. In the optimisation process, we often don't even realise that we are actually doing SEO.
9. Page Rank
Page Rank allows Google to measure the the popularity of websites. Page Rank has always been and will always be part of Google's algorithm - although its importance has declined.
Why is it a bad myth?
- Toolbar PageRank - will probably never be updated again
- Only weakly correlated with google rankings
- Easy to manipulate
10. Social activity has no impact on SEO
Google claims that it does not use the number of Facebook likes or Tweets when ranking websites. Therefore, social activity does not count as SEO. It is true that Facebook shares or Twitter followers have no direct effectto the search ranking.
But on the other hand, successful social action strong secondary effectIt can help with 2 things:
- detection and indexing
- content distribution, leading to links and shares
A effective social activity drive content to people, increase traffic, engagement, brand signals. Eventually, people will visit the content in increasing numbers, which can lead to links and further shares, and the cycle continues. Any secondary effects will improve SEO results.
In addition, of course, there are many myths about search engine optimisation.
Source:moz.com