The last few years have seen some pretty major developments in the SEO industry. Think hummingbird, responsive/mobile friendly sites and deep learning. Yet through all the exciting developments we’ve been hearing some pretty outrageous stuff.
In this post we’re going to take a look at some of our favourite SEO myths. And for good measure, we’ll throw in some of the SEO madness we’ve been hearing too. So let’s get started…
SEO Myths
#1 – Inbound links more, more, more…
One of our favourite SEO myths is the illusion of link building. The idea that every incoming link to your website has a positive impact is just fiction. Search engines do not like spammy referral links. In fact, with more and more emphasis being placed on quality, defined by user signals and relevance, spam referral links can actually harm your rankings.
Here are a few ways to build quality inbound links to your website:
- Create meaningful business relationships with industry influencers
- Reference quality resources on your site
- Produce content that people will find beneficial
- Guest post on reputable thought leader blogs
- Use social media
Ultimately if you provide consistent reliable information inbound links will happen organically and isn’t that the best way?
#2 – Keyword repetition
There used to be a time when keyword density played a big part in SEO best practice. Thankfully these days are over. No more awkward keyword focused headlines, random subheads or misleading page titles… or so we thought.
It seems many of us are struggling to let go of this one. However, just as search engines changed and developed their algorithms we as digital marketers need to change our approach to keywords. Are they still important? Yes, absolutely but the focus is more on the content and its relevance, rather than the exact keyword.
The golden rule is to be sure you’re developing information for your readers, not for search engines.
#3 – Bigger equals better
Here’s a direct quote from a client who shall remain nameless “We created 350 new pages in the last three months and still haven’t moved up in Google, what’s going on?“.
As we had to explain, bigger does not necessarily mean better. Simply creating numerous pages for your site in hope that it will get indexed more often isn’t going to work. As a measure for stopping production of unnecessary pages search engines will not index every page on your site. Google will also remove superfluous pages from their existing index to prevent them from being crawled. So the idea of quality over quantity is key when it comes to the size of your site.
Additionally, if you’re concentrating on adding a large number of new pages to your site purely for SEO ranking purposes, you’re probably not dedicating enough time to your content strategy and ensuring that each page provides quality content that is important and relevant to your target audience.
SEO Madness
#1 – It’s all about quality!
Right I’m going to play devil’s advocate here, hold on to your hats!
I read in a recent tweet that “SEO is dead, all you need to do is produce quality content.” After reading this I instantly deleted my dashboards and wiped everything SEO related from my brain… obviously! But then the thought occurred to me that perhaps SEO isn’t completely dead and maybe producing quality content isn’t ALL you need to do. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two.
The more I looked into this radical idea the more I thought “Hey, I’ve got something here!”. With my tail between my legs I rebuilt my dashboards, picked up the SEO guide for dummies and began to explore.
The truth is that quality content is important but in order for it to reach your target market it needs to be optimised. SEO isn’t about tricking users into visiting your site, it’s about helping search engines to discover your quality content and in turn allowing them to present it to your target audience.
#2 – We did some SEO once…
Sweet man, how did it go?
Sad but true. There are still some organisations that consider SEO as a one-off campaign. They invest a little at the start and maybe even see some results but over time it gets pushed to the back of the cupboard and left in quiet isolation. The fact is, SEO is for life and not just for Christmas and here are a few reasons why:
- Link degradation (a.k.a. link rot)
- To maintain your rankings
- Because search engines change algorithms
- To stay competitive
- Because the online marketplace is continuously evolving
- Developing good content is a continuous process
- Because establishing authority takes time
- Changes in user behaviour
#3 – SEO, it’s just smoke and mirrors right?
Whilst I’m oddly fond of the idea of the SEO professional being the magician of the marketing world. Turning up at offices in capes and top hats with doves and white rabbits hidden about their person. Unfortunately, this smoke and mirrors concept is just madness.
Real SEO isn’t a trick. There’s nothing deceptive about it. It’s probably one of the most honest forms of marketing. But real SEO is seldom understood by those looking into the digital marketing universe. The problem are the lingering influences from out-dated notions such as keyword stuffing, spam links and duplicate content still hanging-over the SEO industry like a dark cloud.
Real SEO is the process of optimising your website and it’s content for the benefit of your target users. It’s about delivering more value to your user and presenting a clean and friendly experience. The process of helping search engines to find and index your best content isn’t a trick, it’s a continuous digital conversation with both parties learning and evolving to meet the ever changing needs of the user. And there isn’t a white rabbit in sight.
We hope you enjoyed this post. Don’t forget to shout out some of your favourite SEO myths in the comments section below.