SEO or Search Engine Optimization can be pretty tricky at times. With the growing use and many new players coming into the business, some false notions end up being called facts. These myths and misconceptions make a fool out of the newbies and some veteran players alike! So let us have a look at and bust 10 really common SEO myths that you should totally ignore.
Meta tag keywords help to rank a website
Instead of brainstorming for 10 minutes over what to put as meta keywords tag, invest those 10 minutes in thinking of better content, as the content is the king! Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing even have explicitly mentioned that they do not use keyword meta-tag in the ranking.
It is, in fact, now most of the time implied that using meta keywords tag the wrong way could actually go against you as it is rather seen as a spam signal instead of a ranking signal what you intend for it to be.
SEO is useful only for rankings
What is the point of a higher ranking if your website doesn’t get the clicks? Let me put it this way. What do you think is better, 1000 monthly visitors and 10 conversions or 500 monthly visitors and 100 conversions? You know it!
So, to say that SEO is useful only for rankings is actually a myth because it cannot be said as a blanket statement. There’s so much more to SEO than mere rankings. SEO actually lets a search engine understand what your content is actually about and why should it be ranked higher against loads of other options. It helps drive more traffic to your website.
Website optimization is not necessary
Put on the shoes of the user you intend to reach out to and think! How would you like a smooth website which is simple, user-friendly, has just the right content that you are looking for, is properly structured, talks to the point, leads you towards further relevant stuff, and doesn’t waste your time? You would love it, right! And that is what SEO and website optimization are all about.
Paid ads improve SEO ranking
Paid ads work on PPC or Pay per click mechanism. But they are not related to SEO directly. PPC does not improve your SEO ranking; however, it may help you reach a wider audience. There are two major differences between the two. Firstly, the paid ads always appear on the top of the page, above the organic listings influenced by SEO. Secondly, the user traffic to organic listings from SEO is for free, but the user traffic from PPC or paid ads has a cost associated with each click, which calls for a fixed overhead expense from you.
Duplicate content on the website doesn’t affect SEO
You have to decide for yourself whether you are in it for a marathon or a sprint, as they say. Duplicate content doesn’t just mean the content which is copied word to word, the search engines are smart enough to catch the content which is slightly tweaked or rewritten on similar lines to other content. Google’s or any other search engine’s algorithms, for that matter, look for distinct information. Also, ensure that various URLs of your website redirect to a common page so as to reduce redundancy.
A website health check is needed only once
Just like body health check-ups are recommended for perfectly monitored health after regular intervals, likewise, your website also needs regular health checks. It is needed to maintain an updated website that lures the audiences and gives them great experiences at all times. So keep a frequent check on how long it takes for your website to load, the relevance of your content, the functioning of various features, and the overall outlook of your website.
Pushing too many backlinks can rank a website earlier
Quality always wins over quantity in pushing back-links, as it goes for most other things. Generating too many backlinks can lead you to accidentally generating them from spammy websites. Too many of the backlinks make them less valuable. They might get you very high traffic, but it will be a low commitment, whereas, focusing on the quality of backlinks will get you may be less but high-quality traffic.
Only blogs can give you traffic from search engines
Blogs are undoubtedly important to drive traffic from search engines, but ‘only’ blogs are not. There are several other options that you should try. Engaging comments or discussion under the blog, Q and A sessions, Google plus, all the social media platforms like Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our old school emails and newsletters.
Website speed doesn’t matter in bounce rate
Oh, do you really love that buffer symbol? How do you like it when any page takes ages to load? You don’t spend even 10 seconds waiting for a page before you jump to the next best. No matter how good content you have, but you lose a visitor and prospective conversion with slow website speed.
Use keywords randomly
As important it is for a seller to know their audience, it is equally important for the audience or traffic to know what is ahead of them. And who does the job for them? SEO! So, keep it crisp and smart; do not confuse SEO algorithms by putting useless keywords that you don’t wish to promote. You might actually end up ruining great content by poor usage of keywords.
So with these, we hope we were able to bust the 10 most common SEO myths that you should totally ignore from now onwards.