A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. When it comes to SEO, many people believe it is either magic or a scam. These SEO myths are born out of ignorance and expectations for quick results. Eventually, it stops business owners from doing SEO for their websites. Don’t ignore the underdog of Digital Marketing.
Does SEO matter?
Well, it does. When it comes to closing higher sales, SEO leads have a 16% conversion rate as compared to other channels. According to MarketingSherpa, professional services (e.g. financial and legal) have a 14% conversion from organic traffic (i.e. traffic or visits from search engines like Google).
SEO Myth #1 – SEO works differently in 2020.
Every marketing functions has a set of myths, so does SEO. In this article, we debunk the top 10 SEO myths and explain what they mean:
The answer is no. Why?
SEO is all about putting in constant effort, and we all know persistence is the key. Therefore, keep experimenting with different SEO strategies to beat the cut-throat competition.
If you think that you have a well-designed website which has been SEO-optimised only once, then Google won’t rank it on the first page. SEO won’t fetch you results instantly. You have to keep working on it continuously.
SEO Myth #2 – My competitors are doing this, so it must work for my website!
First of all, we want you to know that your website is unique, and a unique SEO approach is a stepping stone for its success. Instead, you should know what is working for your competitors and where they have failed.
At the end of the day, the goal is to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Convince your target customers to purchase from you over them! Build your brand name in a way that is unique to you and the world.
SEO Myth #3 – I only need Dofollow backlinks for my website.
This is the pitch you must majorly get from various SEO agencies that promise they can build high DA dofollow links for your website.
Here’s an interesting fact to know:
Dofollow tag is an SEO tag used for hyperlinks that give signals to the search engine bots to follow that hyperlink and pass the link juice it from the source website.
Both dofollow and nofollow links contribute to ranking high on search engines. According to Moz, Google may ignore the direction but it will give importance to the nofollow links to assign ranks. Before we explain this in detail, check out the image below:
Let’s think about it practically: a link from The Guardian or Wikipedia is far better than a link from any low authority website. High authority backlinks send trust signals to Google for your website. Hence, Google considers your website more relevant and genuine, and so its ranking gets improved.
SEO Myth #4 – I can build all sorts of backlinks for my website.
Many of our clients ask us about the number of backlinks we can generate for them every month. They often are under the impression that building backlink is good enough for their website, irrespective of any relevance with their niche.
Let us give you an example:
Simon is an accountant. His business website has many backlinks from fashion, travel and other non-accounting-related websites. Do you think Google will consider them genuine? Instead, it will tag them as spammy links, and Simon’s website will end up getting penalised.
No one can deny the importance of backlinks. Smart backlink building from relevant websites can skyrocket your website and boost your business growth. So focus on quality, not quantity.
SEO Myth #5 – My content is strong. I don’t need SEO!
You must have heard of the adage, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” Marketing is no different. Only posting content on the website is not enough. Your SEO campaign should include different exercises such as link building, internal linking, and optimising meta tags, among others.
But content is king!
There is no doubt about it. But what is the value of your content if your targeted audience can’t find it at the right time.
SEO Myth #6 – My website will get penalised for duplicate content,
Until some time ago, too much duplicate content on the website could affect its ranking because of the Panda algorithm. Now, such is not the case. Today, it is all about site quality rather than manual actions.
Google has become smarter because of its powerful machine learning technology. It filters out the duplicate content automatically, which means Google will rank only one content piece irrespective of its source.
For example, if ‘Website A’s content’ is posted on ‘Website B’, then there is no guarantee that both websites will rank. In this case, either A can rank or B. The source doesn’t matter.
Bonus point: If you want to republish your content on other websites, then wait for 60 to 90 days before doing so. This way, Google identifies your content as the source because it will get ample time to crawl your website and index it.
SEO Myth #7 – Social media doesn’t help in ranking.
In 2014, Google’s Matt Cutts mentioned in his video that Google does not consider social signals as a ranking factor. Social media is all about visibility and exposure of your brand. That exposure can get you trust, authority and eventually, better rankings.
However, that does not mean that social media postings are helpful indirectly getting your website ranked on search engines. Social media doesn’t give you backlinks, but it encourages others to trust your brand and boosts traffic by providing a link to your site.
SEO Myth #8 – Only my website’s ranking matters in SEO.
SEO is all about increasing the visibility of your website on the search engines. Getting on the first page is every website owner’s dream.
Getting ranked for less opportunistic keywords is the most dangerous thing. If your website is ranking for user intent-based keywords, then consider yourself on the cloud nine.
SEO Myth #9 – SEO is a one-time project.
Most people don’t see SEO as a profitable marketing investment as it gives you results only after 3 to 6 months. Well, consider it as a Mutual Fund. You don’t receive any overnight result, but the return is high with the smallest risk.
SEO is a continuous process. As mentioned above, SEO is not magic. It’s a step-by-step process that gives your website the visibility it deserves if it is done right.
SEO Myth #10 – I don’t need an SEO specialist. Anyone can do that job for me!
As information is widely available, authenticity has lost its value and made everyone a specialist now. Remember SEO can be learnt in one week but to do it correctly can take years of experience. The DIY method doesn’t work in digital marketing: you need an expert.
is happy to help you with its excellent SEO services which are not limited to only accounting firms or financial advisors. We help businesses, from all domains, to rank better. Please don’t hesitate and reach out to us for a no-obligation consultation
today.
SEO related useful article: What is Google Analytics bounce rate and how to improve it?
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or send an email to contact@thinklittlebig.com.
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