Common SEO Myths and Facts
25th November 22
As 2022 is coming to an end, those of you who are navigating through the Google-driven world may have come across many dos and don'ts when it comes to SEO and how Google ranks a website. SEO myths are plentiful in the digital marketing world, which isn't surprising given the speed at which things change. Therefore, we want to ensure with our blog that you are up to date with the latest SEO myths and facts! With Google's ever-changing algorithm, SEO changes a lot so it is important to keep up to date with the latest and accurate SEO information. This blog will also give you an insight into how SEO works and how it can help improve your online rankings..
Expensive is a relative term, it really depends on the size of your company and what assets you may have. A small business may have a small budget for their business, whereas a larger business will have a bigger budget, but there is still a cost-effective way to achieve the right level of SEO for everyone. SEO is an investment that one should consider. Compared to other forms of marketing like PPC, SEO is by far the most cost-effective marketing strategy for your business. Today's marketing experts can tailor an SEO package to suit your needs, budget, and what you wish to achieve. In the long run, if you are only willing to invest a small amount of money then you will see minimal results. SEO is a business investment that can get you guaranteed results. SEO requires work and maintenance. It will not seem expensive once you realise the huge potential it can bring to your business.
There are 3 elements to meta tags, these include the title tag, meta description, and meta keywords or phrases. The HTML tags appear in between the opening and closing
tags. While Google doesn't use the keyword meta tag for ranking purposes, it is still relevant to show Google what your content is about. Meta tags can make your search results more appealing attracting more clicks from search users.It is right to assume that the more your content is shared and liked on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter the more it will rank. While social media doesn't directly impact your rankings via a like or comment, it will have a positive impact on engagement and shares. Engagement and shares create social signals which can have significant SEO value. By sharing on social media platforms, it has been shown to increase organic click through rate and social impressions.
In 2013, Google's hummingbird algorithm update changed the future of search. The aim of the update was to make Google's core algorithm faster and more precise. Keyword targeting still plays a very important part in any SEO strategy. Keyword targeting and research are so much easier since the hummingbird update, you don't have to worry too much about the keyword ratio instead focus on the user's search intent.
Page speed is the measurement of how fast content on your page loads. Slow page speed will lower your chances of the visitor staying on your site. If your pages are taking too long to load, that visitor will leave for another competitor's site. Page speed is not only crucial to visitors to your website, but it is crucial to your online ranking factors. In 2010, Google announced that website speed is used as a ranking factor for desktop searches. In 2018, Google also announced page speed would also be a ranking factor for mobile phone searches. Having a faster loading website will in turn help improve the users' experience and increase your odds of attracting new users to your site. Here are some ways you can improve page speed:
Many SEO experts are always asking themselves do they have too many keywords and will Google penalize a website for overoptimizing. This is untrue, once your keywords are used naturally and you have helpful content, the number of keywords you have doesn't matter. Instead of counting keywords, focus on creating helpful and natural content. If you want to avoid over optimising you must make sure to include a variety of keywords in your content these can include:
There is a lot of confusion surrounding how Google deals with duplicate content. According to Matt Cutts, 25 to 30% of the web is duplicate content. Google knows that the user wants a mixed bag in search results and not the same blog or article repeatedly, so that is why Google chooses to consolidate and show only one version. Google designed its algorithm specifically to prevent duplicate content from affecting webmasters. The algorithm displays only the best URLs in the cluster to consolidate various signals such as links from pages within the cluster to the one being shown. Google will not have grounds to act unless it's intentional and trying to manipulate search results.
SEO has changed a lot over the years and many marketers are becoming confused about what's important and what isn't important. With the rise of landing pages and reduced home pages, having too much content on the homepage will not produce the desired outcomes and will likely result in a greater bounce rate as visitors may not react to your site. Your home page content should be long enough to say who you are, what your business is, and where you are located. Your visitors to the site will be satisfied with this. Your homepage doesn't need to be overloaded with content, it should be minimal and visually pleasing to the eye. Your approach should ensure that the reader can see relevant material about your business straight away in turn leading to a lot more conversions. It also comes down to how unique and relevant your content is.
Having a large amount of content on your website will not appeal to your visitors and it will not improve your search engine rankings. Many businesses fail to see the real goal is to develop content that will appeal to the target audience. Many people have a shorter attention span so it would have a negative effect on your website. Instead of focusing on longer content, focus on creating precise and targeted content. Creating more precise and targeted content will help improve user experience and increase conversions overall.
Google algorithms are complicated. They take a huge amount into account when determining site rankings. Google's search engine will not reward you for seeing how many times you can include keywords in your content. Using the same keywords over and over on your webpages is overcrowding and is known as keyword stuffing. This can lead to Google search console penalties and manual actions. SEO experts generally aim for a 1 to 3% keyword density for optimal search performance. Well-researched and optimally placed keywords are key. Search engines will find them easier to find. It is important to focus on creating an engaging and helpful user experience with effective keywords to drive more traffic to your site.
In past times, SEO professionals took advantage of link building by sending links to a website just to improve the rankings but over time Google caught on to this and focused on providing better content to its users. It is important to have trustworthy, relevant, and authoritative links sent to your site in order to improve your rankings online. If you have improper links pointing to your site, this may cause the search engine to fail to crawl or index the site properly, which in turn could affect your site rankings or cause a Google penalty. Focus on quality internal links and links to other relevant websites. Understanding the value of link building is important to a successful SEO campaign today.
While having a large number of links to your site was once true, it is now not the case and is a myth. Today it matters less how many links you have but the quality and relevance of those links is what matters the most. Having too many low-quality links will make your site less trustworthy to Google. Link building today is like a vote of confidence, so it is important to make sure these links are to and from reputable websites with relevant content, rather than having too many links with low quality.
A common misconception that many business owners have around SEO is they think it's a one-time thing and that's the end of it. That is far from the truth. The digital marketing world is very competitive. There is a lot of competition, and the skills are in high demand. SEO is like going to the gym, you won't get ripped up by going for just one day, it requires consistency and hard work for a business to succeed. SEO must be monitored and changed as you go along. SEO must be tweaked for it to fit your needs and reach your customers in a continuous process. Here are some reasons why SEO isn't a one-time job:
The SEO industry is ever evolving and changing. There are 2 main reasons for this:
Google search engine is becoming better at understanding user intent and marketing companies are trying to solve the system and in turn, forcing Google to change things regularly.
SEO and content are completely different, but they work hand in hand. They finely balance each other out. Content is the creative aspect and SEO is the technical aspect. All SEO technical aspects must be covered along with great content written by experts.
Competition is at its highest, with many businesses online looking to conduct their own SEO campaigns with reputable SEO companies. If you are not involved in the SEO industry, then your business will struggle online, and your competition will be many steps ahead of you.
SEO is a continual process. Your goal should be to see improvement consistently. Your SEO campaign is about reaching short- and long-term goals. Knowing what the myths are and what works can take you a long way to improving your website rankings. If in doubt, contact a reputable SEO company such as us at SEO solutions to help you achieve a successful SEO campaign.
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