Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is easily the most searched for, and talked and read about topic for business owners or entrepreneurs. Of course, this is natural, considering how crucial SEO is for businesses.
SEO keeps changing a lot every now and then, with more than one update released in a year by popular search engines. Hence, business owners and marketing professionals are required to constantly keep themselves updated about the changes, making sure their SEO strategy complies with the new updates, and taking steps to prevent any decline in organic traffic.
Due to these constant changes made to SEO, it has become hard for business owners and marketers what works and what is outdated. To help you with the same, the following sections will cover the common SEO myths and facts, so you know what to focus on in 2019.
SEO is Bygone
X One of the biggest and never-ending myths about SEO is that it is a bygone process. In fact, there is every chance that you’ve heard or read the phrase “SEO is dead”.
✓ The truth is that SEO is alive and active, and continues to be a practical and effective marketing approach. It is changing constantly and being updated on a regular basis, and you will certainly notice a lot of changes in the current SEO methods when you compare the same with the older ones. Yes, having to change your SEO strategy frequently can and will be frustrating, especially when you don’t see the results you expect. You just need to remember that staying updated is the key to be successful with your SEO marketing efforts.
Content is Everything
X Content is king! Now, how many times have you come across this phrase? Yes, one too many times. If this statement is completely true, then why aren’t the websites of those people who just spin articles and post the same on their sites are ranked higher in search engines? Because it just doesn’t work that way.
✓ For your website to be on top of the search rankings list, you need relevant content, of course, but also a proper SEO strategy. Luckily, there are several tools available out there, like the Google XML Sitemap Generator, which are exclusively designed to help improve your website’s SEO, enabling search engines to better identify your site.
SEO Requires Only One-Time Setup
X Let’s say you initiated an SEO campaign for your website and ended up being successful with it as it generated the outcomes you expected. Many marketers or business owners tend to give up proceeding further with the campaign after seeing such positive results. The same happens on the contrary as well; your SEO campaign didn’t go as planned and the results were poor, leading to you quitting on the campaign. If this is something you’ve done, then you probably thought SEO requires only one-time setup.
✓ Understand that SEO is an interminable process that is inclusive of a lot of hard work, planning, different approaches, updated knowledge, and time. When we say time, it is vital for marketers to understand that it takes time for your SEO strategies to work and produce your desired results. Even if the results aren’t as desired, you should work on analyzing the reasons behind the same and do the right things to make the campaign successful in the future.
Links are No Longer Necessary
X Another strong myth surrounding SEO is that links are bad, could be dangerous, and are no longer needed. This could be because some people do not want to get penalized by Google and therefore refrain from the whole concept of link building. But, the fact is that, if your links are legit and not from some vicious source or method, you have nothing to worry about.
✓ The truth here is that, in any SEO strategy, link building plays a crucial role. All you need to do is create links that are relevant to your website and provide value as well. It gets dangerous only when you create links that are of low quality. Therefore, always focus on creating excellent quality content that is informative for your users and provides them with some sort of value, and establish a proper network for link building.
Website Must be Submitted to Google
X This is something you must have heard from many around you; submitting your website, regardless of whether it is brand new or old, to Google is mandatory. In fact, there are some companies that claim themselves to be SEO site submission companies and ask for money to submit your website to search engines. This is utter nonsense.
✓ Yes, you have the option to submit the URL of your new website to Google; however, even if you don’t, the search engine (with the Googlebot), or any other search engine for that matter, will be able to find your website. Also, submitting your website doesn’t guarantee you anything.
Search the web and you will come across a lot more SEO myths, which are followed by many till date. It is up to you to do your research and decide which of those is true and following or ignoring which will benefit your business.