500 SEO Tips: Essential Strategies To Bulldoze Through Google's Rankings, Increase Traffic and Go Viral
Chapter 12: Common SEO Myths
There's a lot of information out there, and practically anyone can make up information. A lot of it has changed, and a lot of it is complete garbage.
This is the very section where you get to learn of what is just not working SEO. Listen carefully. I've included some myths myself, and I've also asked a lot of SEO experts and digital marketing consultants to chip their thoughts in also.
A lot of these myths have been uttered by SEO experts and clients who go to SEO agencies. You'd be surprised. The heading of each myth is a myth and not a tip. Keep that in mind.
Here we go!
423. Domain Age Still Matters
It used to be important, back in the days when you still found websites that looked like they were built in the 90s. Today though, the age of your domain doesn't matter at all.
Provided you have a solid website with solid content, you have just as good a chance as any websites built ten years ago. Don't pay attention to domain age, it's a worthless metric these days.
424. The More Pages You Have, The More Authority Your Site Has
The common myth is that the more pages you have, the more authority your site gets and the more Google will trust you.
However, it's certainly true that the more quality pages you have, the more traffic you get. But without backlinks, you won't build any authority. In short, quality pages and backlinks build authority, and not only one without the other. Having just thin pages with backlinks is spam, and having pages with no backlinks is only going to lead to a stale website.
There's no need to go building up hundreds of blog posts and sales pages about your company, because you won't build your authority at all. The only way to build authority is through receiving links from highly trusted and reputable websites and blogs.
Take Backlinko for example, which is an SEO blog and ranks first, second and third for highly competitive keywords such as "linkbuilding", "keyword research" and "seo tips". Brian Dean, the founder, has only written 21 blog posts.
Not 200 or 2000.
Just 21.
The reason why he is ranking so well for those keywords is because he aced his linkbuilding, and got backlinks from high PR websites and blogs. His 21 blog posts are also "monster posts", ie: posts that are well over 8000 words long and are filled with screenshots, case studies and insanely useful tips.
Google recognised this, and that's why his website turned from a blank Wordpress installation to a hugely successful websites in a highly competitive space.
The lesson learned here is that you should create evergreen, insanely helpful content which you can get people to link to in the years ahead, rather than hundreds of pages that offer little value.
425. Google Don't Like .NET or .INFO Websites
The myth is that Google favors the ".com" domain extension, and thinks that the .net and .info domain extensions are spammy, thus, they should rank lower. Even though ".com" websites are more common not just on the web but in search results, Google doesn't discriminate websites just because their domain extensions are ".net", ".co", ".io" or ".info". If you own a website with one of the lesser known domain extensions, don’t give in to the myth that you will be ranked lower.
426. Get The Website Launched First, Then Start Your SEO
The common scenario that agencies get:
Client approaches an SEO agency and says, "Please SEO this page" or "Add some SEO pizazz to our homepage".
SEO used to work like that, where you could just build links through blog networks, Fiverr and link farms. Add some keyword stuffing and you'd rank in a couple of weeks!
Not today though.
For the last few years, SEO has become a plan or a strategy before a website is even built. That means planning what keywords to target, what domain name to choose, what content to write, what influencers to target, where to get backlinks in a Google-friendly way. All this has to then be integrated with the website, and has to become seamless with the overall website design.
So, don't ever start a website in the future without planning your SEO strategy.
427. Build A New Website, If You Haven't Planned Your SEO
If you have started a website, and you only realize lately that you should have planned an SEO strategy before you built your website – don't feel too bad.
You can still work on your SEO, but it may require rewriting a few pages for optimal keyword targeting and a bit of chopping and changing. However, don't get too disheartened. Just use the tips in this book, and your rankings will start improving very soon!
428. Everyone Gets Different Search Results, So A Solid Ranking Doesn't Exist Anymore
This is partly true but is still a myth.
Because of personalization, everyone sees different results pages because of their interests, previous search history and location. For me a search of "pink" results in "pink floyd" ranking second because
I've searched them before and Google knows I have an interest in them. If you were a fan of Pink, the pop singer, the results would be completely different.
However, that's not to mean that every single set of search results is different. This mainly applies to results which can be personalized such as location based queries and head keywords (dog, pink, broad keywords). For long tail keywords, there can be a results page which is the same for everyone. Sure, there might be a few tweaks but overall, the search results will stay solid enough.
429. Spending Money On Paid Search Raises Your Organic Rankings – This myth is still being popularized all over the web. It's believed that if you worship Google by paying for advertising, they might give you a heads up on the organic rankings too.
It's a nice idea, but is nothing more than a fantasy.
430. Social Media Signals Have An Effect On Your SEO
Yes, social media can impact your SEO indirectly by bringing more links and traffic to your website, resulting in more backlinks in the long term or even, getting a feature by a journalist.
But Google have officially announced that social media signals are not a part of their ranking algorithm.
There's been a lot of speculation on whether these signals really matter. Some say that because of Hummingbird algorithm change, social media signals have become more important whilst others dismiss the idea entirely. I, for one, have to take Google's final say on this – social media signals are not taken into consideration when ranking a website.
Expect this to change though, in the coming years.
So if your post goes viral on social media, and you get a boost in the rankings, it's probably because other websites have linked to your website or you got a mention by other bloggers – not because it got 20,000 shares on social media.
You may have noticed me talking a lot about going viral on social media, and optimizing content for social media shares. This is not because of a direct impact on SEO, but more a way of getting more backlinks and mentions to your website. When niche influencers see that you have written popular content, they will allow you to write guest posts or will link to your posts.
431. Your Homepage Needs A Lot of Content
The myth is that you need pages of content on your homepage, just because you might get penalized for "poor quality content".
The truth is that homepages are "looked at" differently to a blog post or sales page. Homepages need some content but not a huge amount. Take a look at some killer homepages and you'll see that they contain at most, a couple of sentences or paragraphs.
Include all the necessary content you need, but don't expand your page with worthless content that could be placed somewhere else just because Google might "rank you higher".
432. If You Link To Other Sites, Your Page Loses PageRank
This myth is a little complicated to demystify, but here's basically why your site doesn't lose PageRank when it links to other sites.
Let's say your homepage has a PR of 4. It links to a page on Wikipedia, thus giving some of its PageRank to the Wikipedia page. But it still retains the PageRank that it had before it gave a link to Wikipedia.
In short, the PageRank on your page will stay the same even if you link to a bunch of other sites, because the PageRank flows through the links, but you will still retain the same amount.
What The Experts Say
Krystian Szastok, Digital Marketing Manager At Rocketmill (www.rocketmill.co.uk)
433. Linkbuilding is dead
The myth I hate the most is that 'link building is dead'.
SO many say SEO is dead and link building is dead, yet the most successful ranking sites do SEO and link building.
They are however doing it in a modern way that's in line with Google's guidelines, by creating great content and attracting natural links that come as ang effect.
Dylan Kissane, Content Manager at DOZ (www.doz.com)
434. Social media will improve your rankings
One SEO myth that drives me crazy is a focus on social media to the detriment of strong site content. Whether social media sites take over good old fashioned content marketing as the most important aspect of true SEO remains to be seen, but for the time being it should just be considered another cog in a bigger SEO machine. Social media remains a means of backing up and delivering visitors to interesting content on your site - it is not a ‘magic SEO bullet’ that will lift your Google rankings all by itself.
James Rice, Head of Digital Marketing at Wikijob (www.wikijob.co.uk)
434. Meta keywords are useful
My pet hate is the idea that meta keywords are useful. Meta keywords are a
type of HTML tag where you can specify particular keyword phrases the page
is targeted for. Years ago, these were a fundamental part of on-page
optimization (the idea being you could flag keywords not actually on the
page, to help search engines to classify the page's content). But then it
all got very spammy, very quickly.
Google, Bing and most other search engines now completely disregards these
keywords. In fact, there are two reasons why having no meta keywords is
better than having any:
1. They indicate to search engines what keywords to penalize the page for
if manipulation is observed;
2. Your competitors can easily see what keywords you are targeting.
Michael Davies, Founder of Owltutors.com (www.owltutors.co.uk)
434. Create meta data for every single page on your website
An SEO myth I hate is that you need to provide meta-data for every page on
your website. I’ve met many people who believe they should be creating meta
descriptions, SEF URLs and enticing title tags for EVERY page on their
site. Whilst this is a great idea for content you want to be found for, it
isn’t necessary for any nuts and bolts pages on your site that don’t need
to be found though organic search: contact forms, terms and conditions
pages etc.
Dan Smith, SEO Specialist at Leighton (www.leighton.com)
435. Ranking for certain keywords is a measure of success
The most notable myth for me (assuming we're ignoring the common backlinks no longer work-type myths) has got to be the belief that ranking for keywords is a primary metric for SEO success.
Monitoring keyword rankings was once a great indication your SEO strategy was successful, but today, it's much more beneficial - and valuable - to look at organic traffic and conversions. After all, increasing these is what the true end goal is.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz, Community and Blog Wrangler at Photocrati Media (www.photocrati.com)
436. Blogging by itself will get you ranking better
One myth that I too often hear photographers conversing about is the idea that blogging will get them to rank better. In a way that myth is true, but it's not as simple as that. The simple act of blogging, on its own, will not do much for search engine rankings. However, blogging with strategic optimization in the metadata, schema markup, the actual content and of course the images as well is what will go into helping a website rank
better.
Jacky Chou, Founder of Indexy (www.indexy.com)
437. You don't need links
The myth that you don't need links, ticks me off. Large sites have teams of outreach people that contact bloggers and editors daily looking to drop links, and links win. They are the biggest signal Google takes into consideration. Don’t believe anything else. Smart link building is where it’s at. You want to be able to look at your links and be confident that if a Google employee saw the link they wouldn’t look twice because it appears as natural as it gets.
You need links. You will always need links to rank. Content and onsite optimization are all important parts of SEO but nothing will ever replace the importance of links. You have to be very smart when building links or if you hire a SEO company you want to make sure they know what they are doing and aren’t building links just for the sake of building a link to throw it into a report!
Bas van den Beld, 'State of Digital' Founder (www.stateofdigital.com)
438. SEO is all about optimizing for search engines
I hate the myth that SEO is about optimizing for search engines, it's not,
it's optimizing for humans. The people that are doing the search queries
are the most important. Answer their questions and you will not just be
able to rank better, it will convert better. In the end SEO is about the
audience you are trying to reach, not the search engine.
Keith Browning, SEO Specialist At Ireland Hotels (www.irelandhotels.com)
439. Domain names are no longer important
The SEO myth I hate, which I'm constantly being told, is that domain names are no longer important.
I can tell from firsthand experience that this is not true! Domain name makes a very significant difference. Not only are we ranked number 1 on Google for "Ireland Hotels" in almost all geographic locations but we immediately rank number 1 or very high for any terms that contain Ireland and hotels. This can happen even when we don't really follow a lot of the other basic SEO rules.
Jacob Stempniewicz: Vice President, Marketing at Andovar (www.andovar.com)
440. Do SEO once and you're done
The SEO myth I hate the most is that you only need to do SEO once and you’re done. Truth is - you’ll only see sustained results if you invest on-going effort into SEO on a long-term basis.
This means two things:
1. Every time you update or publish something, you should make sure it is SEO-optimized
2. Stay on top of latest tips and tricks and search engine updates, which may require you to tweak your old content.
Teodora Vingan, SEO Analyst at Squirrly (www.squirrly.co)
441. If you produce content, you don't need links
The one SEO myth that I'm quite sick of is the fact that you don't need
link building for a website that produces content. This is a myth that was
recently busted (even if people were still debating around this topic) by
Neil Patel in an article where he showed the fact that your articles are
nothing if you don't build links to your website.
The takeaway is that a good title, with keywords, and an awesome article will
not skyrocket in Google search results, nor will your website be on the
first page of Google. Link build your way to get the best results.
Matthew Jonas, President of TopFire Media (www.topfiremedia.com)
442. A newly launched website will start ranking in a day
The SEO myth that really gets under my skin is the fallacy that a newly launched website will appear on the first page of Google search the next day.
This is simply unrealistic. New websites have to be indexed by the search engine (Google), and while you can help the process through strong website structure, a high amount of inbound links, and optimizing your site with SEO rich keywords, there isn't a set time for your website to be indexed.
It can take up to 30 days for Google to index new websites. While it may be shorter, don't expect your new website to appear on page one of a Google search after 24 hours.
Ron Perry, CEO of egniteBIZ (www.egnite.biz)
443. Submitting your site to a search engine will increase your rankings
The myth surrounding search engine submission is a popular one. Basically,
the idea is that submitting your site or pages to the search engines will
increase your rankings. However, this is not true. The fact of the matter
is that all it will do is simply notify the search engines to look at
content/pages they would have found on their own assuming that your site is
built correctly.
Submitting your site to search engines may nominally reduce the time it take for your page to get indexed but it will not help your rankings.
Ashley Orndorff, Director of Marketing at Paradox Labs (www.paradoxlabs.com)
444. Getting the number one spot is all that matters
The SEO myth that ticks me off the most is that getting the #1 spot in
Google is all that matters (and that SEO alone will get you there, cheaply).
Being able to say you're #1 in Google for X can be great for your
business, but it's not the end-all, be-all for you.
The search algorithms are always adjusting and always changing - your rankings will fluctuate, no
matter what you do. Plus, once you focus so much on where you're ranking for
one keyword or query, you lose sight of all the other opportunities
available to you. What about that long-tail keyword on the second or third
page that will drive more conversions for you? Why not focus on improving
your visibility around that subject?
I've seen it time and time again. Some site owners become so focused on
being #1 for X that they don't realize the query they're chasing is purely
vanity and doesn't even drive the majority of their revenue; let alone that
it's so competitive, they won't even be able to break into the top 5 without
a massive amount of time and investment.
Sorry, not sorry, you're not going
to be able to beat out Amazon and Wal-Mart with minimal effort and no
budget.
If you want to have higher visibility over established brands much more
authoritative and trusted than you, it's going to take a lot of effort, a
lot of time, and, most importantly, a lot of very intelligent strategy. If
you want to outrank them on realistic, relevant topics, you're going to have
to outmaneuver them - and with a strong, multichannel, integrated approach.
Brittany Berger, Digital Content Supervisor at eZanga (www.brittanyberger.com)
445. Meta descriptions don't matter
The SEO myth I hate is that meta descriptions don't matter. Just because they're not a ranking factor, doesn't mean they don't matter. Search engine optimization should cover the entire process involved in earning search traffic, not just appearing on the results page. Once your listing shows up, you still need to get the searcher to click. That's where meta descriptions come in. It's your chance to draw them in and stand out from the other results on the page.
Roxel Gestiada, Junior Specialist in Business Development at Infinit Outsourcing (www.infinit-o.com)
446. Linkbuilding is dead
One SEO myth that I really hate is about link building being dead. This is actually not the case. Link building will always be a part of SEO. The only thing that changed about it is the whole process. Google aims to make link building as natural as possible.
Hence, the combination of Panda and Penguin updates. White-hat link building is still effective. However, Google is now particular when it comes to exact match keywords. The bottom line is, natural link building should be observed.
John Jones, Digital Marketing & Communications Manager at USA Financial
447. SEO can be done quickly, and if you pay the money – you'll get to the top
One of the SEO myths or misconceptions that always frustrates me often comes from high level executives of companies that want to better search results for their name or product. The question is frequently, "How much do we have to pay Google to get 'good' search results?". The reality, that takes a long while for them to understand, is that SEO requires time and persistence. It's not something that can be fixed in 20 minutes with one solution like a leaky faucet.
Andrew Akesson, Senior Technical SEO at VennDigital (www.venndigital.co.uk)
448. Get only one link per domain
When SEO's are link prospecting and see that they already have a link from their target domain, so they don't proceed any further, as they feel they should get a link on a new/different domain, just so they can have more referring domains pointing to their site. Two things that really annoy me about this are:
· Pages have their own authority (which speaks for itself really) get a link on a page of a high performing domain and that authority can be passed through to yours.
· Referral traffic is (in my mind) a great indicator of a good link. If you have a link on bbc.co.uk and it brought through 10,000 referral visits to your site, why wouldn't you approach that site again with a new outreach idea and get another set of high number referrals to your site?
William Bauer, Managing Director at Royce Leather Gifts (www.royceleathergifts.com)
449. Keyword stuff your content, it still works
Keywords do help, but you have to use them wisely. You have to be careful not to overuse them. Otherwise, you could be penalized for keyword stuffing.
Also - focus on longer keywords in your writing. People today search by phrases and not single words. Instead of just searching for "luggage store" they search for "best luggage store in Manhattan". By using longer keyword phrases, you make it easier for people to find you by having less competition for the same phrase. You also help yourself by attracting more of your target customers and less generic traffic.
Jasmine Davis, Client Engagement Manager at Community Elf (www.communityelf.com)
450. Use keywords exactly as written
You definitely don't have to use keywords exactly as written. Even today,
I'll get clients who insist that their keywords or phrases must be included
exactly as written.
While it was a fun challenge, it also restricted what
you could write and occasionally, you'd get a keyword with literally no
natural use. Fortunately, you can use keywords today in modified forms,
with punctuation, and even broken up by other words - it's more about the
overall theme of a page.
Keywords still matter, don't get me wrong - but
a specific keyword is not the end-all, be-all of SEO strategy.
Leigh Wendinger, Lead Inbound Marketing Specialist at FUN.com
451. If you create great content, the rest will all fall into place
Sure, if you create great content you have a leg up on the competition. However, content won't benefit you unless you share it or have a following like the Huffington Post. The SEO world has shifted from link building to link earning with increasing amounts of content, but you still need successful outreach campaigns to bridge that gap and make your efforts successful.
Stephen Murphy, CMO of Red Bamboo Marketing (www.redbamboomarketing.com)
452. Search traffic volume equals success
At the end of the day, we have to measure SEO traffic based on intent and conversions. Ignore broad based keywords that may send boat loads of traffic, but may not be qualified traffic that is looking to buy your products or services.
For example, a company that sells analytics dashboards may want to focus on a term like “big data software tools” (a keyword with purchase intent) vs. a broad term like “big data”, a keyword that might be more research driven.
My advice: Measure your success by SEO traffic that hits qualified pages (pricing, products, etc.) and/or converts into leads. Focusing on this traffic will give you a greater bang for your buck with your SEO strategy and lead to more meaningful results.
Graham Onak, Marketing Specialist at GainTap (www.gaintap.com)
453. The Yoast Wordpress Plug-in Will Do All Your SEO For You
The myth I hate is that Yoast's SEO plugin for WordPress is like an SEO
specialist in a box. I've had clients mention that they don't need SEO help
because they have the plugin installed and enter an SEO Keyword to
optimize for their pages.
But the plugin doesn't help unless you know how
it functions. For example the SEO Keyword simply checks the number of
times the keyword is used on the webpage. It isn't really optimizing for
it. Great plugin, but not an SEO specialist replacement. There's a lot more
that goes into SEO than that.
Peter Moeller, Marketing Director at Scarinci Hollenbeck (www.scarincihollenbeck.com)
454. You can do SEO in a certain time frame
Companies that put time frames on their SEO as a selling point. I'll get you to the first page of google in three months. THAT IS NOT SEO! And if you are sold by this crap, do yourself a favor and use the free tools provided by Google to see how many people actually search for the term you are now ranking for in Google. I guarantee you it's not worth your money.
I also hate when people say Google is moving away from keywords. Listen, no matter how much we want to believe keywords are dead, I and everyone else with an internet connection uses Google for our search queries; and we always put the KEY words we are looking for. I don't search frog when I want to know Ben & Jerry's newest ice-cream flavor. I search what is Ben and Jerry's newest ice cream flavors.
Brandon Seymour, Beymour Consulting (www.beymour.com)
455. EMDs are not valuable anymore
One thing I hear all the time from SEOs and online marketers is that
exact-match domains (EMDs) no longer have any influence on search rankings.
I've worked with clients in several highly competitive industries, and I
can tell you from personal experience that EMDs still work for SEO.
Back in September of 2012, Google released their EMD Update which aimed to
prevent poor quality sites from ranking well simply because they use a
keyword-rich domain name. Although some sites may have been hit, I still
see plenty of low quality sites ranking in the top 3 positions for highly
competitive terms.
Many of these sites have weak back-link profiles, thin
or duplicate content and a relatively low domain authority (when compared
to sites ranked lower for the same terms). The only possible reason that
they're currently ranking is because of their domain.
Liz Mazzei, Marketing Consultant (www.lizmazzei.com)
456. Guest blogging is dead
I hate when people say that guest blogging isn't good for SEO. Wrong! The
more REAL and NATURAL links to your site from other pages the better.
Sean Malseed, Founder of CircleRank and Frequent Speaker at SMX (www.circlerank.com)
457. Get the right traffic, by focusing on specific keywords that'll convert more
My beloved new client says "Our primary goal is to rank for X keyword ASAP". Well client, I like you a lot and I care about your business, so let me tell you a story. I had a client selling gaming computers, who really wanted to rank number one for gaming computers with 40,500 monthly searches.
I bluntly, and with the offering of a nice cold beer, told them that this is waste all of your time and money. The goal of your site is not get all traffic - it's conversions, money, and profit.
Are people searching gaming computers really looking to buy right now?
Who knows... maybe they're looking for a definition. Or reviews. Or a how-to guide to build their own. Or Best Buy's computer department phone number. Everything has a purchase funnel, and you want to be represented when people are ready to BUY. Spread those keywords out.
Want proof? Here's proof. I did a quick search on gaming computer related keywords. It literally took me two seconds to find 798 related keywords that also include the word buy in it. The combined search volume for these keywords is 70,680 - almost twice that of the single keyword you
were coveting.
So you tell me - would you rather have 40,500 tire-kickers and "should , shouldn't I" people see your site, or would you rather be seen by 70,680 who are looking to buy a computer right now?
The moral of the story: Keyword research takes research. Keep an open mind, and dig in.
Matthew Sommer, Chief Strategic Officer at Brolik (www.brolik.com)
458. You can beat Google, you just need to do it right
The #1 worst, most destructive myth I have heard repeatedly is "I beat Google". This is just ridiculous. It shows that you are thinking about SEO in absolutely the wrong way. At the beginning search engines were very rudimentary, you could increase your ranking for a search term just by
placing it more often on the page than your competitor.
This led to people making text the same color as the background that just says the term over and over again. Then it was stuffing meta tags. Then link building networks. These were all attempts to game the system. They worked for a time, until engines like Google got wise to the technique and changed their algorithms to counteract.
This is a continual game of cat and mouse. With the considerable brain trust and resources that Google has at this point, I can confidently tell you that you will never win. Maybe for a few weeks or months, but they will catch up, and will very likely penalize your site for these activities. Instead, you have to work with search engines to help them accomplish their goal - To provide the best, most relevant results for users' queries.
This idea won't bring you the immediate boosts of rank or traffic that some black hat techniques will, but it will help to provide a genuine, lasting presence on search engines that will do far more good for your business than trying to game the system.
Casandra Campbell, Minimalist Marketing (www.casandracampbell.com)
459. Nofollow links have no value, and anchor text doesn't matter
1. I hate the myth that nofollow links have no value! Just because they're not passing link juice' doesn't mean they're not helping you. Nofollow links are an important part of a well-rounded (read: trustworthy) link profile. I know plenty of people who have ranked websites with nothing more than blog comments and Wikipedia citations.
2. Another myth which annoys me is that anchor text doesn't matter. Just Google "click here" and see what comes up. Huge authority websites like Paypal and Adobe are ranking for the term click here not because they're targeting it, but because they have tons of links pointing at them with that very anchor text.
Ryan Freman, Founder of Strider SEO (www.striderseo.com)
460. "A Number 1 Ranking Is The Key To Riches & Success"
While ranking highly for any search term is a worthwhile goal, more than
rank needs to be considered:
1. Am I ranking for the right terms? A flood of irrelevant traffic to
your site will hurt more than help. Some more specific terms will drive
many more conversions than short generic terms. Do the research before
targeting search phrases.
2. Ranking is relative. Search results reflect various degrees of
personalization, so while you may see yourself ranking in a certain
position for your searches customers in different areas, with different
search histories, can be seeing remarkably different results.
3. Focus on goals, not rank: Ranking is a means to an end. If your site
experience is lousy, your bottom line won't improve by moving from #8 to #3
in the search results. Set goals like relevant traffic, increasing
measurable engagement, micro conversions page to page, and tangible
conversions like sales or subscriptions.
Ron Johnson, Marketing Director at CyberOptik (www.cyberoptik.net)
461. The more links you've got, the higher you'll rank
This is the myth I hate the most: "The more links pointing to your website the better, no matter what the links are."
Link quality is important, one quality link is much more valuable than a bunch of garbage links.
Mary Bowling, Ignitor Digital (www.ignitordigital.com)
462. Local SEO is easy
Many people think that local SEO is easy. It used to be back in the day, but now it is even more complex. To be successful in ranking in the local packs and localized organic results, one must now master both organic SEO and local SEO.
Sherry Holub, Creative Director at JV Media Design (www.jvmediadesign.com)
463. "We already did SEO"
I hate it when a client says, "We already did SEO" - DID being the operative word here. A lot of people are under the impression that if they pay an SEO company to optimize their website, they're done and they don't have to worry about it anymore.
This myth is so totally wrong. SEO is not something you do once and forget about. It's actually an on-going process with a million and one variables that need to be adjusted and finessed on an on-going basis. Just the fact that Google is continually changing their metrics should put the fear into anyone who thinks they can just do it once.
Erin Cunningham, Assistant Account Executive at Lotus823 (www.lotus823.com)
464. SEO is dead
SEO is not dead. If you’re still using SEO the way you were five, ten years ago it’s not going to be as effective today. SEO has changed and you need to change the tactics you’re using as well. There is so much more to SEO than keywords in 2015. While keywords still matter, content marketing, social media and public relations should all be integrated with your SEO strategy.
Jason White, VP of SEO and SEM at Dragon Search Marketing (www.dragonsearchmarketing.com)
465. "Please SEO this"
When someone says "please SEO this".
You can't just SEO something. Optimization has many considerations and
spans many types of communications. SEO itself is a myth; often an educated
best guess. SEO's have a unique ability to increase the reach and
findability of many different communications and platforms. Actions are
often small but they accumulate and cannot be confined to a single action.
Bria Burk, Digital Marketing Manager at Androvett (www.androvett.com)
466. SEO is about the latest technical methods to game the system
The goal of a search engine is to understand what the user needs and to provide the right search results to answer their questions. While it is true that search engines look at hundreds of factors when ranking a site, the best long-term strategy to generating business through search is to create great content that users want to read.
Compared to AltaVista in the '90s, search engines are now far better at interpreting the intent of search queries and filtering out the online spam. Search engine optimization is shifting to become more about building online relationships through content, and less about technical strategies to game the system.
To put it simply, if you want business from users via search results, find out what users want to know, and spend the time creating content that will answer their questions.
Kent Lewis, Founder of Anvil Media (www.anvilmedia.com)
467. SEO is all about embedding keywords and building links
Here is my most hated SEO myth:
"SEO is all about embedding keywords into copy and code and building a few inbound links. It's relatively simple to get into Google's good graces."
I've told my clients that Google is not about cracking their monumental technology or algorithms, but about doing good marketing. If you build a site that people enjoy surfing and fill it with useful content, visitors will talk about it and Google will reward you.