SEO is a fickle subject. Everyone has thoughts or opinions as to what makes SEO work. With a lot of different takes on SEO, it tends to lead to many myths about SEO. Below are my top 5 SEO myths.
SEO Myth #1: SEO is a One Time Thing
One of the biggest myths is that SEO is a one time thing. That you just optimize your site once and everything is good to go. Unfortunately SEO isn’t something you do once and forget about it. SEO is a constant thing from Google algorithm updates to rewriting copy and everything in between.
You can optimize your site once and forget about it. Of course Google and other search engines will forget about your site as well.
There is a reason why SEO consultants and digital agencies charge so much for their SEO services. It’s because it’s a never ending job. They have to analyze and evaluate what it working and what it not and tweak accordingly. They have to see if the new algorithm updates affect website traffic and they have to make sure that your site is getting quality links.
SEO Myth #2: There is Only One Right Way to do SEO
Aside from thinking SEO is a one time thing, the next biggest myth is that there is only one way to do SEO correctly. Every website is different in what it needs SEO wise so it doesn’t make sense that there is only one right way.
Some websites need content updates, others need quality backlinks. Perhaps your Local SEO is lacking. There is no one size fits all when it comes to SEO strategy.
A good SEO strategist will tailor your SEO strategy to improve your weaknesses SEO wise while reinforcing what is working for you SEO-wise.
SEO Myth #3: Link Building is Not Important
I’ve heard and read from other SEO strategists that link building is dead and not important for SEO strategies. I couldn’t disagree more and Google agrees with me. Link building is important because it is a major factor in how Google ranks web pages. It didn’t say that Google thought it wasn’t important but said it’s a major factor.
Backlinks that are relevant and trustworthy ones from high-quality websites tell Google, “Hey, this content is useful for people that other websites want to share it with others so they can follow it as well.”
Now gaining those backlinks that help build your reputation with Google is another story. Backlinking is not some easy strategy. There are a lot of people out there who sell a lot of links, but with Google quantity doesn’t equal quality.
You should only be interested in quality backlinks not quantity.
SEO Myth #4: The More Keywords the Better
Back in the infancy of SEO people would stuff keywords in their web pages to rank higher. They even used white text to add keywords so that people wouldn’t see that the keywords were on the page.
While Google got wise to the black hat tactics for SEO ranking that doesn’t mean people still don’t try to find ways to stuff keywords so they can rank higher.
Keyword density is important within an SEO strategy. You don’t want to have a paragraph with 100 words and 20 of those words be the keyword you want to rank for. Google and other search engines can sniff out that you’re trying to stuff keywords and penalize you for it.
Keywords are definitely important in helping users find your website; however, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about implementing keywords into your content. Just make sure that every other word isn’t your keyword and you should be ok.
SEO Myth #5: Page Speed Isn’t Important
Dominic Torretto lives his life one quarter mile at a time and knows that speed is important for him in winning street races. Like Dominic your website needs to be fast or you can find yourself not ranking well within search engines.
The faster your page loads the better chance you have of retaining users. No ones, especially people using mobile browsers, are going to wait 3 seconds or more for your page to load. They’ll move on and you’ll miss out on potential sales if you’re an e-commerce website.
These are my top 5 SEO myths. Feel free to share yours down in the comments below or with my on my Twitter page!
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