Search engine optimization practices are the best way to enhance website rankings. There is no doubt about it. In digital marketing, especially with search engine optimization, there is a myriad of information flow. A lot of information among them, lose context, and become SEO myths.
When you work on an SEO strategy, you start with creating in-depth content, backed up by stats and data, include keywords, work on SEO optimization strategies, and promote the content. That is what is you do to win at SEO.
It is true that search engine traffic converts 9% more traffic than social media traffic. In order to achieve that, it is imperative to stop believing in some myths. A lot of people even consider SEO to be dead. SEO is not at all dead, it is evolving with times.
In this blog, we are going to bust the top 5 SEO myths that prevent hardworking content creators from improving website rankings and search traffic.
Myth 1: Content marketing is Everything
Yes, it is true that creating relevant and useful content for the end-users is extremely important. However, content marketing is not the only element for SEO. There are other important elements that help us in attaining higher rankings in the search engine results page (SERP).
Here is where the factors like the number of external links, quality of links, keyword research, image optimization, usability, loading speed, meta descriptions, alt-taggings come in. All these concepts should be in sync with content marketing. That is when you reap the long term benefits of SEO.
Myth 2: Linkbuilding is absolutely irrelevant
Well, this concept became popular when John Muller, a Google Webmaster trends analyst mentioned that “linkbuilding needs to be avoided”. The statement was misinterpreted. Links are an important aspect of website ranking.
What John Muller wanted to convey is that link building needs to be natural and built over time. This is what creates a natural relationship between Google and quality links. The focus should not be on link building only but do not ignore it.
The concept of link-building and content marketing go hand in hand. So that the links can refer to the relevant context of the content. This ensures a balanced approach.
Myth 3: Keyword research is unimportant
This myth arose with the launch of Google Hummingbird. It was a new version of the Google algorithm launched in 2013. The myth was, there is no need to research keywords for search engine optimization.
However, this is not true at all because Google never stated anything like this. Keyword research remains one of the most important elements of search engine optimization tactics. The primary focus of the Google Hummingbird algorithm was to increase the understanding of semantics in searches.
The negative impact of SEO myths is, they are perceived to be true by a lot of marketers. Thus, the important elements of SEO are left out. This leads to leading business opportunities being wasted.
There could be a decrease in online traffic, conversions, and interactions. These are some of the few things that a company might feel if it fails to invest in relevant SEO factors.
Myth 4: Loading speed doesn’t influence SEO
With fast-paced internet services, we all want the webpages to load quickly. The chance of visitors leaving a webpage with loading speed 1-3 seconds is 32%. On the other hand, if the loading speed is more than 4 seconds, the probability of leaving the webpage increased to 90%.
Not only users like fast websites, but Google also values them. As we are all aware that Google has already announced for the “mobile-first index”. The loading speed of a website matters when it comes to search engine optimization.
It is important for companies to focus on the optimization of search engines based on user-experience. It applies both for mobile and desktop versions. The best way to do this is with an SEO audit.
Myth 5: Sitemap is irrelevant
Sitemaps are the files that offer information regarding the pages and other parts of the website. Google reads these files to track the website in a better way. Thus, when Google is not able to crawl a part of the website, the sitemap guides Google to find the pages easily.
This is why it is important to add sitemaps on a website. Although the pages on the website can be linked easily and web crawlers detect most of the website. The sitemap helps in contributing to a more effective crawl.
This is specifically true with the websites with a higher number of pages and few external links. Also, sitemaps are important if the pages are not linked to each other.
Myth 6: SEO is a one-time thing
This is not true at all. You would probably hear from a lot of marketers that it is important to “get it right” to “get it ranked”. This is true to some extent, but not completely. The reason is, such a mindset works when you are planning to launch a website.
While launching, you consider certain elements of SEO and launch it. Once that is done, you have to keep working on the search engine optimization practices. With time, SEO strategies are getting updates. There are hundreds of things that you can do as a part of the SEO strategy.
There is no limit to SEO tactics. You can consider it as an investment to your website. With time and time again, you don’t kee;p investing your time and money on the same things, right? You update the website with time and the SEO practices as well.
Always consider SEO to be ab ongoing effort. There are certain factors like snippet representation that impacts the user experience. The signals need to be continuously monitored and improved. This is also applicable to page performance.
Other factors like managing backlinks also require spot checks and updates as apart of the on-page and off-page SEO audits.
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