1. SEO is a One and Done Project
It’s not a matter of installing Yoast SEO plugin, writing a few meta tags. (more on this later). Your competition is competing for the same keywords and position. If you stop your SEO efforts as soon as you get to position one on Google, your competition will get ahead. Since so many other businesses and websites are competing for the top position on Google, it takes long-term maintenance and effort in order to boost your ranking (or maintain it).
2. You Don’t Need to Do Keyword Research
Keyword research should be the very first step before building your website or writing any content. A common mistake that businesses make is guessing what their keywords should be. Usually, their expectations are very different from the actual search volume and analytics.
Guessing as a marketing strategy is one we won’t ever get behind. It’s vital to have numbers and research behind your keyword list so that you know they are, in fact, good keywords to target and will drive traffic to your website.
3. SEO is Dead
There are over 70,000 Google searches each second and 4.45 billion web pages indexed. It’s clear that users rely on search engines more than ever now and Google is the tech giant that rules them all. Without SEO, how would Google understand which website results are most likely to give users the information that they need? That is the most basic explanation of SEO there is—helping Google answer people’s search queries.
So to address this myth, no, SEO is not dead. It, just like all other digital marketing channels, is changing. And companies who want to succeed with their SEO are required to adapt, too.
Search engine optimization is just not what it used to be. Google’s algorithm grows more sophisticated and more intuitive. Now, there’s optimization for visual and voice searches, FAQ snippets so the user doesn’t have to click through to a website for their answer, dynamic results based on user intent, and artificial intelligence.
As long as the internet is around, SEO won’t die. It’s just important for you (or your marketing partner) to stay up to date and be prepared to adapt to new challenges as well as new opportunities.
4. SEO is All Technical
People overcomplicate SEO. Search engines like Google and Bing aim to provide an awesome experience for the user so they can get answers to their queries quickly. This means the more you create relevant and meaningful content on a site that is easy to navigate and user friendly, the higher you will rank.
SEO is focusing on your visitors’ experience and making it straightforward for them to get the information that they need.
5. SEO Strategy is Just Filling Out Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
The best SEO strategies are holistic and compelling. Like I said in the previous point, SEO is all about providing a great experience for the user that efficiently delivers relevant information. This goes past filling out headlines and meta descriptions. Site speed, links, and quality of content all play a role in ranking.
6. The More You Use Keywords, the Higher You’ll Rank
It’s important to do your keyword research and use those keywords throughout your site content. This helps Google understand what your page is about so it can place your site in front of the people who are searching for what you offer.
But integrating keywords needs to flow naturally. It’s not just a matter of including as many keywords as possible. This is known as keyword stuffing and can really hurt your ranking.
Back in the day, “hidden text” used to be a viable strategy. People would add in as many keywords as possible and set the text color as the same color as the website background so that valuable keywords were added but hidden from the user. These days are long gone due to Google’s algorithms growing more complex.
