Most website owners know a little about SEO, but separating the myths from the facts can be tricky. With so much information about there, finding genuine techniques to increase your SEO rankings isn’t always easy. If you want to improve your rankings and avoid the misconceptions surrounding search engine optimisation, take a look at our top 10 SEO myths now…
1. You need to submit your site
It’s a common misconception that you need to submit your URL in order to be featured on their SERPs. In fact, Google can pick up domains and websites within minutes of them being registered or going live.
Whilst it can be advantageous to submit a URL to Google if you’ve recently updated your site with great content, this isn’t usually necessary. Generally, search engines will pick up new content quickly, so it won’t take long for changes to take effect.
2. SEO is optional
You don’t have to engage in SEO, but your website won’t get many visitors without it. Studies show that users visit websites by searching for keywords or site names via search engines. Even if a user is actively looking for your site and knows your URL, they won’t necessarily use it. Research confirms that users are more likely to search for you via Google, even if they’ve visited your site before.
If your SEO isn’t up to scratch, you’ll miss out on the top spot in the rankings. As a result, your competitors will take your place. When you’ve already persuaded someone to find you online, don’t waste your efforts by sending them directly to a competitor.
As many users will look for your services or products by searching for relevant key terms, you’ll need to ensure you rank more highly than your competitors in order to attract more users. SEO is the only way to achieve this, so ignore it at your peril.
3. Content is more important than SEO
Content is certainly important when it comes to increasing your rankings and engaging users, but that doesn’t mean it’s more critical than your SEO. You can fill your website with original, insightful and powerful content, but it won’t have an impact if no-one knows about it. Similarly, you can get high-quality backlinks and enhance your SEO rankings, but users won’t engage with your site or spend long visiting if it doesn’t feature fresh, original content.
You’ll hear the expression, ‘content is king’ thrown around, but, in reality, it’s the combination of great content and effective SEO that truly pushes your site to the top of the rankings and keeps users coming back.
4. Social media has replaced SEO
Although social media can be a great way to promote your brand, it definitely hasn’t replaced SEO. In fact, the relationship between the two is evolving all the time. When you promote content via social media, it can lead to people linking to your site, which can be beneficial for your rankings. However, for most website owners, the impact from social media-inspired links simply won’t be enough to make a significant different to your position on SERPS.
Furthermore, Google doesn’t look at how many likes, tweets or posts your social media content gets, so a Facebook post which is liked by 150,000 users won’t directly enhance your rankings either. Despite this, social signals are starting to have more of an impact on SEO. Your collective shares, likes and retweets, as well as your overall social media presence, make up your social signals, and Google does take this into account when indexing your site.
Social media can increase the number of links to your site, which is advantagous. Furthermore, a powerful social media presence can have a positive, if minimal, impact on your rankings. Whilst this is beneficial, neither of these factors is enough to replace search engine optimisation. As a way to promote your company, showcase your corporate personality and engage with users, social media is fantastic tool. To feature highly on SERPs, however, you’ll still need to work on your SEO.
5. The more keywords, the better
Keyword stuffing used to be a common way of trying to improve SEO rankings, but it’s likely to do more harm than good. Using relevant keywords and key terms can be beneficial, as it helps to show that your website content is relevant to the user. However, using the same keywords or terms too many times will result in SEO penalties.
Simply repeating the same keyword over and over again tells Google that you’re only focused on getting users to your site. Instead, you want Google to know that you’re delivering useful and relevant content. Keyword stuffing often leads to nonsensical and hard to decipher content, which is exactly what search engines want to avoid.
Whilst keywords and key terms should be at the forefront of your mind when you’re planning your content marketing strategy, don’t let them detract from your content. With an emphasis on quality and relevance, Google values original and useful content, far more than the same words being used repetitively.
6. SEO is a one-time task
If you think SEO is only for new websites or relaunches, think again. Effective SEO requires regular, if not constant, effort. From creating innovative strategies, employing a range of methodologies and monitoring quantifiable results, SEO is a full-time endeavour.
It doesn’t take long for content to become outdated, links to fail and algorithms to change. This means you need to be updating your SEO frequently. If you don’t add new content, replace broken links and respond to new indexing methods, your SEO rankings will plummet.
For on-going success and online visibility, search engine needs to be an on-going part of your business. Getting on the first SERPs for relevant keywords doesn’t guarantee you’ll stay there. Instead of wasting the effort you’ve put in, maintain your ranking with on-going optimisation. However, maintaining your rankings can be just as tough as reaching the top. You’ll need new strategies, fresh content, updated links and algorithm-friendly updates to ensure you’re getting the most from your SEO strategies, and we can help.
To find out more, contact us on 020 3287 3638 or say hello@clickslice.co.uk
