SEO this…SEO that…SEO, please stop!
Have you ever come across content related to SEO that spreads false information? Have you ever been bombarded by so many SEO blogs that at best provide mediocre insight and, at worst, confuse the readers? Are you suspicious of SEO agencies? The reality is that with the invention of the internet and blogging and the dawn of the information age, there came many “informative” websites that masked their intent of generating traffic with the false promise of “educating” the viewers. It’s not just about SEO; they’ve been doing this about every subject that ever existed. “So, what should I do then? Should I stop reading everything on the internet?”. Well, yes, but actually no.
The correct way of obtaining useful insight about SEO (or any subject for that matter) is reading as much as possible, then coming up with your conclusion. Therefore, if you want to know the truth about common SEO myths, let this blog be your stepping stone towards doing your research. So, with that being said, let’s get started, shall we?
Myth #1: “Keywords don’t matter anymore.”
Ok, but why? How? Did the Google algorithm suddenly develop the ability to read the people’s minds who search for stuff (that isn’t that far off, and it’s scary)? Of course not. Although some might argue that meta tag keywords have been obsolete since 2009 and don’t increase Google rankings or any SEO factors anymore, stuffing keywords is not something that Google appreciates. While both of these statements are true, the conclusion that comes with them isn’t. We shouldn’t stop caring about meta tag descriptions and keywords because it doesn’t increase Google rankings. It’s imperative to know more usages to a meta tag description. If written well with the right keywords, it can attract viewers looking for the content on your site. Even Google has mentioned on their guidelines that anything you do on your site should be for the viewers and not search engines. And about keyword stuffing, don’t do it. It’s rarely worth it.
Myth #2: “JUST.GET.LINKS”
No one says this aloud literally. It isn’t exactly a myth per se, but more of persisting and unhealthy business practice. Unfortunately, it is engraved in many people’s minds in the SEO business. Backlinks have always been a crucial part of SEO, and they are not going anywhere soon. But the fact that many SEO specialists think that the only purpose of writing a guest post for a blogging site is inserting a link is disturbing. Ok, before I get called a hypocrite, I must say that as a blogger, my intention has always been to write exciting blogs first before I even think about links. Yes, guest posting has always been a thing in the SEO game, and yes, there have always been some who abuse link insertions to the point of spamming and god-awful promotional content. But before doing all of that, one must first worry about making good content. Isn’t that the point? To make the readers interested and then present them with a link? Organic traffic is always more important than Google’s ranking.
Myth #3: “Mobile optimization is a waste of time.”
I want to debunk this myth with an example. Let’s get into local SEO for a second. Imagine you own a business in Sydney (good luck with that). You are in a neighborhood with a lot of competition, and the chances of you succeeding with word of mouth only are close to zero. You build a website to gain more customers, but your site isn’t optimized enough. So you decide to look for a company in Sydney that helps your site’s SEO. You google local SEO company in Sydney Australia. You get in contact. They present all the options for their services. You look through all of them and see “mobile optimization.” You think to yourself, “I don’t need this; I have more important things to spend my budget on.” So you cross that item off the list. Congratulations, you just lost more than half of the online consumer base. I hope you are happy.
Myth #4: “We can improve your SEO like crazy in only 3 months!”
Oh boy. Where do I start with this?
There have always been businesspeople with shady business tactics and weirdly alluring slogans. “Come buy our product, and you will be happy forever,” “Come buy our product and your wife will not cheat on you anymore,” and my least favorite: “Come buy our services, and we will do the thing in a crazy short amount of time while it usually takes a long time for our competitors to do!”. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in SEO, too. If I wanted to count the number of SEO “experts” who told me the same thing many years ago, I couldn’t because I’m bad at counting when the number passes 100.
If you are a startup business owner with the hopes of increasing your domain authority to 30 in 3 months, I’m sorry to break it to you. It’s impossible. Although, that isn’t a bad thing. You have to know that SEO is long term game, and if you want to stand a chance against any of your competitors in the future, you have to be patient. Or if you don’t have enough patience, you can always go and buy a domain (don’t do that, though. I’ll explain why in another blog).
In the end…
It would be best if you did your research. Unfortunately, in a world where everyone is fighting for a smidgen of your attention, some revert to black hat tactics (more on this one in another blog, too), and that includes spreading false information. Don’t ever consider this blog 100% factual and correct for that exact reason. I’m only human. After all, I might have made mistakes. Who knows?
The only takeaway you should have from this blog is:
- People might be lying to you, intentionally or unintentionally.
- So always be vigilant on the internet.
That’s it. Good luck out there!
