Debunking the Most Common SEO Myths That Exist Today

Have you heard the myth that SEO is dead? Some people believe that Google’s changes have made it difficult to get organic traffic to your website using SEO. They claim the digital marketing game is pay to win, and if you want traffic to your website, you’ll have to fork over the money for pay-per-click ads.

Yet, about 70 to 80 percent of search engine users ignore sponsored results and click on the pages Google provides organically. But, ranking high so you can take advantage of this organic website traffic can be tricky.

Google is constantly changing its algorithm, leaving a lot of confusion in the SEO community. So here is the truth behind five SEO myths to help you develop a better SEO game plan.

You Need to Use Your Keywords a Ton

Keywords are how you tell Google what your content is about. But, Google will penalize you for overstuffing your article with keywords. You can incorporate plenty of keywords into your content and not get punished by using them naturally and helpfully.

Keyword Research Isn’t Necessary

Google’s algorithm doesn’t use any keyword ratio. Instead, it focuses on the user’s intent when searching for something.

For example, if you are doing SEO for charities, your audience might be searching for local charities, volunteer opportunities, or your services. Understanding their intent will help you incorporate relevant content and keywords on your site, making it more likely Google will rank you higher.

Keyword research with a tool like Google Keyword Planner will help you find relevant keywords that get traffic. You can also see the competition for those keywords to find opportunities your competitors are missing.

Links Are More Important Than Content

At one point, Google ranked sites with more links higher. But marketers began taking advantage of this and linking to pages that were not relevant. Now, Google rewards the quality of links rather than quantity.

You can incorporate links into your site with keyword-based anchor text. The anchor text has an embedded link that sends users to another page. The pages you link to in your content should feel natural and be to authoritative and trustworthy websites.

Google wants to provide users with the best content. Although links can help boost your ranking, those links have to provide relevant content to have an impact.

Longer Content Will Get You a Higher Ranking

Long-form content allows you to go in-depth on a topic and illustrate your expertise. As a result, it can rank high on Google because it is helpful and relevant. But, if your long-form content doesn’t provide value to your audience in comparison to similar content, you will end up wasting your time.

Don’t create long content for the sake of it. Focus on creating more valuable and relevant content rather than on the length.

Meta Tags Don’t Matter

Google doesn’t use meta tags like your meta description and meta keywords into account when ranking your website. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore them.

Your meta description tells Google what your web page is about and appears in the search results. Your audience will use it to help determine whether they should click on your site or not. So, take the time to incorporate helpful meta tags on your pages.

Don’t Fall For These SEO Myths

There is a lot of SEO advice in the marketing industry, but with the landscape constantly changing, it can be challenging to determine which direction will help your marketing efforts. So take your time to sort through the SEO facts and the SEO myths. Incorporating SEO strategies based on how Google actually ranks websites will help you rank higher.

SEO is only one part of having a good marketing strategy for your business. Check out more ways to optimize your marketing strategy on our website.