Six SEO Myths That Are Ruining Your Internet Marketing Efforts

SEO is confusing. One expert will tell you to employ one strategy, while another says, “Don’t do that!”  This agency tells you that keywords are critical while that one says they don’t. Perhaps you’ve followed the advice of an SEO guru only to find your website penalized during one of Google’s mood swings.  With all of the SEO myths and supposed SEO golden rules, it’s nearly impossible to keep up.

But in the vast expanse of information floating around about SEO, there are some very common misconceptions that you should abandon if you have a website to market.

SEO Myth # 1 – Keywords Should Be Used Often

Keywords are still important. They need to appear in your page title, in your page headings, and they should also appear in the web content text. But there is no magic number when it comes to “keyword density.”  The words need to be there, but there isn’t a magic formula that will tell you how many times to use them.

The most important thing to remember is not to overuse keywords. Do you like reading web content that repeat the same phrase (awkwardly) over and over? No. Neither do your visitors. And Google really doesn’t like it. There was a time when keyword density mattered. But now, if you use a phrase over and over again, you’re engaging in keyword stuffing and you will be penalized.

SEO Myth #2 – You Must Rank #1 Or You’ve Wasted Your Money

Ranking number one is ideal, but it’s also unlikely that you’re going to rank number one for every single one of your ideal keywords. Often times, the keywords you think you should rank number one for aren’t even worth chasing. If you sell shoes in Pittsburgh, it does you no good to rank for “shoes.” First of all, barely anyone searches for just the word “shoes” when looking for a shoe store. There are, however, many other keyword combinations you could spend time optimizing for that will get you the exact customer you’re looking for. But even if you chase those keywords and don’t reach number one, you haven’t failed.

Web search results now show rich snippets and even author profiles. So if you’re putting thought into your snippets and giving searchers a compelling reason to click through, they will.

SEO Myth #3 – You’re Only Optimizing for Search Engines

Ok, ok. SEO does, in fact, stand for “Search Engine Optimization.” But SEO no longer means what it did five years ago. Yes, you are setting your site up to be easily indexed by Google, Bing, and Yahoo. But just because you rank well doesn’t mean anyone is going to click through to you. You really need to be optimizing for your users.

So if you’re the same shoe store from the previous SEO myth, and you end up ranking number one for “women’s shoe stores in Pittsburgh,” you may think you’ve done a successful SEO campaign. You may see an increase in visitors to your websites. But what are those visitors doing when they find you? Are they staying on your site? Browsing your inventory? Or do they click right back to their results to find something better?

If you rank well, but it’s not translating into sales, you haven’t optimized your website for users. You have to give them a relevant and easy to navigate website that will compel them to stick around, shop around, and come back again.

SEO Myth #4 – You Need Thousands of Backlinks

There was an era when SEOs lived and died by backlinks.  The mantra of the industry was, “Build more links!” In those days, links were like votes for your website. The more links you had, the more popular you must be, according to search engines. During this era, backlinks were a huge ranking factor.

But then things changed.

People began buying links and creating elaborate link schemes to trick Google into thinking a site was more popular than it really was.  Google became obsessed with cracking these link schemes and penalizing anyone who participated in trying to get one over on them.

Backlinks still matter. But it’s the quality of the backlinks you need to worry about, not the quantity.

Creating amazing video, image, and text content will help you get links from sites with authority. One link from Forbes will go a lot farther for your site than ten thousand links from garbage directory sites with names like freeseobacklilnks4u2day.com. If you focus on the quality of the content you are producing, you’ll attract shares and links from quality websites.

SEO Myths #5  & 6 – SEO is Dead, I Don’t Need SEO

A current and popular SEO myth is that optimization is dead. People have taken Google’s constant updates to mean that SEO isn’t worth the time or energy. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Google won’t find your website on its own. It won’t rank your website on its own. And you won’t generate new visitors by twiddling your thumbs and wishing them to come.

In order to increase your traffic you have to be proactive. You must code your website properly so that Google can see it. You must structure your content so that Google knows what your website is about. And you must promote yourself online, or nobody will ever find you.

Yes, the old way of keyword stuffing, link building, and general trickery is dead. But SEO isn’t dead, and ignoring the structure and content of your website is a terrible mistake.

Have you heard any agencies promoting some of these SEO myths recently?  What questions do you have bout these common misconceptions? Let us know below.