From the start of SEO, there have been myths and misnomers about the industry as some unscrupulous companies tried to take shortcuts and manipulate Search Engine rankings. But as consumers increase reliance on searching the internet for products, SEO continues to play an essential part in the online marketing mix to improve visibility and boost revenue. Here are seven of the most common SEO myths that raise their ugly head every so often.
SEO myth #1: Rankings Can Be Guaranteed
Rankings are determined by over 200 signals in Google’s algorithms, what your competitors are doing and countless other factors. For a new website or web pages, it will usually take months not weeks to become visible and rank for competitive keywords. The focus should be on the relevance of your content and the user experience your site offers. Be mindful of companies that guarantee results. They may be offering to optimize your site for low competition key words, that may provide high traffic numbers but a low conversion rate.
SEO myth #2: SEO Doesn’t Work
Although some would like you to think that you can learn SEO with the just help of YouTube, without a proper ongoing strategy, your SEO efforts may in fact not be working for you. It’s important to assess your ROI, and if you are serious about increasing your online visibility then talk to the experts who live and breathe this each and every day.
SEO myth #3: Link Building Is Dead, Again
It’s really not. Links are still important ranking factors. In the past few years, activities for offsite efforts have evolved, as it’s no longer a numbers game. A well-planned and thought out strategy is key to creating links that will assist with increasing online visibility through relevance and moving away from tactics that are clearly against the search engines best practice methods.
SEO myth #4: Content Is All I Need
Most people have heard of the saying ‘content is king’ and while content is paramount to SEO in optimizing landing pages and nudging customers on the path through to conversion, there are other important factors that contribute to improved rankings such as your on-page and off page optimization. Good content doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it needs to co-exist with a well-optimized website and cleverly thought out off-page strategies.
SEO myth #5: SEO Requires No Ongoing Maintenance
Some believe that they can optimize their site on launch and that SEO requires no ongoing maintenance. However, as all search professionals know, it’s not a ‘set it and forget it’ marketing tool.
Also, SEO is not just the cherry on top or ‘a nice to have’ that you can remove after a short period of time. To be most effective, an online strategy needs to be long term and integrated with your additional marketing activities to maximize efforts and exposure.
SEO myth #6: SEO Equals Ranking #1:
Ranking number one is a goal that many businesses have, but should never be looked at in isolation. The overall objective is to increase qualified traffic so that users will engage with your site and convert into customers. Sometimes you are best to focus your efforts on long-tail keywords, which provide a higher ROI for your business.
SEO myth #7: SEO is dead
SEO has had more lives than a cat – the myth that SEO is dead and no longer needed is trotted out every few months. SEO is not a static discipline – when Search Engines change their algorithms, strategies need to reflect these changes. SEO has certainly evolved from just focusing on page one rankings to now include integrated online strategies and search placements such as local search, mobile search, video SEO and social media marketing.
These are just some of the common myths and fallacies perpetuated in the online marketing industry by companies who do not use ethical techniques (black hat SEO). seoWorks is a white hat SEO agency with a team of marketing consultants whose role is to debunk the myths, set realistic expectations about campaigns and educate and empower their clients about new developments in search – contact an SEO consultant today.
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