Introduction to SEO Myths
Search Engine Optimization should be a top priority for your website. SEO is an evolving science. The Internet is full of SEO tips and hints, but SEO is always challenging. It keeps on changing. And even now, some SEO analysts continue to understand some basic concepts wrong. An organization should have a dedicated SEO person to work with day-to-day activities and keep abreast of the changes in the world of SEO. Only then can an organization succeed in its SEO.
Over recent years, a lot of have become prominent SEO. And these misconceptions will mislead beginners of SEO. Every day new Content is born and gradually adds to the existing old Content. The final result is high growth in SEO requirements.
This article will help you to know the common SEO Content and assumptions about SEO and will also help you to overcome the same.
Common SEO Content Myths
These are some of the following common SEO content myths.
I must Submit My site to Google
Submitting your site to Google does not have anything to do with SEO. Search engines will find your site even if it is not submitted to Google and other search engines.
Even if you submit your site to Google, the crawlers will come to your site only if it is apt to the search. So submitting your website to Google does not give you any guarantee.
Having a Large number of links is the best SEO practice
Links are still important in SEO. Building links are even now considered an important ranking factor. But it does not carry the value that it did before.
In the past, SEO analysts did link-building without researching the linking domain. But now a day’s, link-building should be done in a unique way. The provided links should be of high quality. So in today’s world, quality is given more importance than quantity. If you know to build proper quality links, then less number of a link will even work wonders for you.
Many SEO persons will question whether to focus on link building or content generation. Link building is a crucial part of a website. You should have highly relevant and diverse sources that can be linked to your site. Link building is not about numbers anymore. Some companies also hire a specialist to do link-building.
A secure website is not important for SEO
You can notice two types of URLs appearing in your browser when you search for something. One starts with “HTTP://” and the other starts with “https://. The one with “https://” gives you sensitive information, which needs to be very safe and secure.
That extra ‘s’ in the URL means the website is safe from hackers and all your information is stored safely. That ‘s’ is called Secure Sockets Layer.
Google and other search engines have started ranking ‘https’ sites higher than the normal ‘HTTP’. So if your website still follows the traditional ‘HTTP’, your ranking will definitely be affected.
SEO is all about Ranking
There is a big misconception that a higher site ranking means more traffic to the site. But it is wrong. Yes, of course, there is a correlation between the search result placement and the click-through rates, but the ultimate goal is not the ranking.
The click-through rates and user behavior appear to be different. Recently a study has proved that the click-through rates of the first three search results on the first page are equal to that of the first three search results on the subsequent pages.
Your website may rank high but cannot guarantee more click-through rates. This is mainly because of two reasons
- You would not have chosen the correct keyword strategy and would have ended up with keywords that are not relevant to your subject.
- Your meta descriptions are not that attractive to the visitors
To solve this issue, you can use tools like Google Adwords to help you create a good keyword strategy.
Meta Description matters a lot
The previous year’s meta tags and descriptions were important to SEO. Meta descriptions are contents that explain the contents of the web pages in brief. It will appear in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Meta description includes the keywords for which you want to rank your site. This process was spammed to death and has no bearing on search engines. But on the other hand, Meta descriptions expose your site as best to the visitors through its content. It is a compelling factor that makes the visitor click on your site. Thus, it increases the click-through rate, which is considered the number 1 ranking factor by Google.
Keyword Optimization is the key to SEO
SEO, help us in managing keyword optimization so we can get enough traffic. The text is used to communicate the message to visitors or users. This text usually includes keywords in order to make search engines understand that the website or webpage is related to the search query entered by the browser. But nowadays, Google uses the latent semantic indexing method for search.
This method allows the search engines to crawl to the webpage with more common terms or phrases related to the search query. This method also takes the meanings of the keyword into consideration.
You don’t need to write your keyword more frequently in your content. Over-optimization of the keyword is also a big disadvantage of SEO.
So it is important to note that Google no longer considers matching the keywords typed in the search query box to those in your webpage content.
Always write SEO Content targeting your users and not the search engines. Only such content can give the users a good experience. Then your content becomes high quality and more relevant.
Keywords need to be an exact match
Keywords are more important for SEO content. But keywords need not be repeated verbatim throughout the content. If you want to use a keyword as a headline, then your objective is to write a prompt headline that clearly explains your content. This applies to the main content of your page, also.
Keyword stuffing should be avoided on WebPages. Google keeps updating its algorithm to eliminate the poor content on the site. Keyword stuffing is very dangerous to your site, and you will be penalized.
H1 is the most important element
H1 is important but not very important. It is the title tag of your content. It is used mainly for styling purposes, and it does not greatly impact SEO. H1 is a part of CSS that decides the font styling and size for the entire content. So it does not matter what heading tags you use. It should convey a clear message about what the content is all about.
Homepage needs a lot of content
Have you come across a page that looks spammy?
The home page is the first impression you create for your visitors. It conveys your business and what they can expect from you. It does not mean that you should load your home page with content. Keyword density is a persistent myth in SEO but has been disapproved of many times. Your home page should detail who you are, what you do, your location, your business advantages, and how they can contact you. The visitors should leave your site with full satisfaction and not with confusion.
Number of pages matter
There are common SEO myths that more pages drive more traffic to your site. But that does not help your SEO in any way. Website is all about quality content. So how many pages do you have, and if the content is not good, then you would not have a better ranking in search engines. The number of pages does not matter because of the following reasons
- Whatever you publish does not get indexed
- Even if the pages get indexed, they don’t remain on the index
- Pages that are indexed do not mean they will drive more traffic to your site
Good user experience is just an added bonus
Website owners should always write content focussing on their users instead of search engines. Users’ experience and website engagement are recently added to Google’s top-ranking algorithm. If Google wants to crawl to your site more often, then your site should offer a good user experience. To improve the user experience of the site then, you need to focus on a few factors like
- Page loading time
- Bounce rate
- Time on page
- Pageviews per visit
- Navigation through the pages
If you satisfy the users with content they can easily understand, you will automatically satisfy the search engine’s top-ranking algorithm.
Local SEO is not important anymore
This SEO Myth is wrong. Concentrating on Local SEO will help your business be found out by people who are very close to your business and are more likely to purchase your product. Thus local SEO increases your conversion rate.
Google has set up its algorithm to find out the best local content. This algorithm considers local search rankings like the other traditional search rankings. One of Google’s algorithms is Pigeon which considers the local listings more for ranking the site. Thus local SEO matters a lot more these days than it was before.
Google will not identify low-quality links
This is again another greatest misconception about SEO. Google tracks everything that happens on your site. It is impossible to fool them. If you try to fool them, you will be in danger of getting penalized by the search engines, and your Page rank score will be removed or reduced.
If you have any bad sites linking to you or low-quality links on your site, it’s not too late. Just remove them from your site.
If you have low-quality links on your site that you cannot remove, then request Google not to consider such links when accessing your site.
Images need not be optimized
In the past, it was okay to neglect the images, and you could be without using alt attributes and image file names. But now, page SEO is given more importance. So avoiding the images on your site will not boost your site performance.
Search engines cannot read images on your site, so you need to use an alt attribute and give the images a file name. If you don’t do this, your opportunity to be visible on the SERPs will decrease. Here are a few tips to include images properly on your site
- Always try to include information about your images in the text that you include on the page using keywords similar to the alt text or file name
- Provide descriptive titles and captions for the images
- Try to include images only in the following format – BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG.
- The file name of your image should be related to the image itself
A mobile optimization strategy is not needed
Recently the use of mobile-friendly websites has been added to the ranking factors by Google. They have also introduced an algorithm update called “Mobilegedddon”. This update will consider mobile-friendly websites and rank them higher in search engines. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, now it’s time to move to a modern website that can deliver a responsive experience to the users. Responsive website design will adapt the page according to the visitor’s needs. A responsive website will give the users the best experience. This best user experience will rank your site higher and will bring more traffic to your site.
Conclusion
In this article, we have mentioned the most common SEO Content. But still, SEO Content is an ever-changing and challenging process. Keep testing and experimenting. Ensure you stay abreast of all the changes and that your site stays at the top of the search engine result page (SERPs). Understanding the SEO Content truths will help you to draw a more effective and efficient SEO strategy.
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