5 big SEO lies | Weboptim
In 2016, we face more and more SEO risks. It's easy to lose rankings if algorithm changes mean that a strategy that was once good suddenly becomes unusable. Or worst of all, our competitors can overtake us with trillions of link connections.
Every week we hear SEO horror stories, so we are afraid to test even promising ideas in case we do more harm than good. And indeed, there is a lot at stake..
We have collected the 5 biggest SEO misconceptions that are proven to be false.
1. Don't build links for the sake of SEO
The myth
We have heard it time and time again: Google does not reward link building for search engine optimisation. The search giant is against unnatural links, says the Quality guidelines for webmaster tools:
"Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines."
The idea of letting your link profile grow naturally is a good one, because if you have useful content, everyone will be willing to link to it. But how do we survive in an industry where everyone is linking? Is link building really the dark side?
The truth
Despite what Google says, links are one of the strongest ranking factors.
The lesson
Whether Google admits it or not, link building remains an important part of your SEO strategy. If you choose not to build links, you will probably be lagging behind your competitors, who are certainly building links.
It is true that ideally the aim is to get quality links from a trusted source, but the definition of quality varies from industry to industry. Most importantly, you need to look carefully at the link networks of your top-ranked competitors to get ideas about which links work well in your industry.
2. Clicks do not affect rankings
The myth
Whether or not it is Google's official position, the claim that search click-through rates affect rankings is inconsistent.
When asked, they deny this claim, leading SEO experts to believe that click-through data can be easily used to manipulate rankings.
The truth
There is a lot of evidence against this myth. First of all, Google has some patents on the use of clicks as a ranking factor:
"The general assumption [...] is that searching users are often the best judges of relevance, so that if they select a particular search result, it is likely to be relevant, or at least more relevant than the presented alternatives."
Interestingly, these patents also include the fact that Google does not use organic clicks for ranking because of spam. But of course, just because there is such a rule, doesn't mean it is always used correctly..
The lesson
Experiments have clearly shown that the more people click on a page in organic search in a given position, the more likely it is to improve its ranking. So yes, this is another reason to optimise your snippets.
3. Keywords are no longer important
The myth
In 2013, the Google Hummingbird update it seemed to invalidate everything we thought about keywords or on page SEO. It seemed that keywords were being replaced by concepts and topics, and thus keyword targeting was no longer meaningful.
And it's not just the Hummingbird's contribution. A Knowledge Graph and the RankBrain also aims to understand the intent of search queries in as human-centric a way as possible.
To be fair, Google has never openly stated that keywords are no longer important. Rather, the myth was spread by SEO experts, expanding on what Google actually said about its purpose.
The truth
There are several high-tech solutions behind Google's efforts to interpret users' queries, but there's also a bit of magic. If we're honest: characters are just characters, there's no such thing as computer language processing - and there never will be.
Of course, this does not undermine Google's progress in this area.
Hummingbird and others are undoubtedly transforming the search engine into a more understanding "thing" to link queries entered into the search engine with related content. While this changes keyword research in a big way, it does not make it any less important.
The lesson
In the age of semantic search, keyword research is less obvious, but no less important.
4. Social signals have no SEO power
The myth
As with click-through rates, social signals are also a controversial factor. In 2010 Matt Cuts openly said that engagement indicators from social media are ranking factors. But Google later denied this fact.
The truth
In fact, Google once made a statement that it does not use social media signals for ranking. But things are changing, and if you follow Google's position on the issue, you'll notice that it no longer denies the impact of social signals on rankings.
The lesson
There is a strong link between social signals and ranking, we cannot afford to ignore this in our strategy.
5. Keyword-optimised link text is bad for SEO
The myth
Since the first Penguin update published in 2012 (focusing on over-optimised link text, link relevance and spam links), we hear a lot about the dangers of keyword link text. A According to Google guidelines optimised link text can do more harm than good:
"Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites are examples of unnatural links."
The truth
The Penguin is no joke, it is a hard thing to recover from. Link diversity is one of the biggest concerns in link building.
But this doesn't mean that the link text can't be optimised for the main keywords. In most cases, Penguin will only penalize you for too much optimized link text.
The lesson
Link texts containing exact match keywords are highly correlated with rankings, and non-optimised link texts can also get you into trouble, as the latter lacks diversity.
There is no universal data on what percentage of link text is keyword-rich. The best way is to look at the main competitors, their link texts and their distribution, i.e. what is already working in the industry.
None of these myths are actually the fault of the searchers. They are often created and perpetuated by SEO professionals, thanks to fears and our lack of knowledge about the Google algorithm.
Source: link-assistant.com