A myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. In many cases, believing a myth can be helpful. For instance, it’s probably in your best interest to wait 30 minutes after eating to go for a swim. It gives your stomach time to settle but it’s not likely to harm you if you don’t wait. And some myths, at worst, won’t hurt or help. For example, no your eyes won’t get stuck like that if you cross them too much.
But when it comes to Search Engine Optimization, believing a myth can be harmful to business. Not only can it cause growth to stall and waste precious resources. But crafting your SEO strategy around SEO myths can actually tank your ratings and decrease your website traffic. Unfortunately, the SEO world is full of believable myths that either carry some sliver of truth to make them seem legit or that are simply wrong.
Because SEO is an ever-evolving landscape, it can be tricky to keep up with the changes and to know what is true and what is false. While it is true that changes are constantly happening that may cause you to need to tweak your SEO strategy, there are a few SEO myths that are straight-up untrue. You can count on these SEO myths always being simply that: myths.
Below we have debunked 6 of these SEO strategy myths.
SEO is Too Expensive
Search Engine Optimization focuses on crafting your web pages to drive traffic to your products and services. It doesn’t have to be extremely complicated or expensive. Sure, it is possible for you to find a quote for an extremely expensive SEO package with an SEO strategist on a costly monthly retainer. But your company may not need that.
The market for SEO strategists has increased greatly over the years and thus, you should be able to find experts at any price point. There are many different packages available for all levels of business where you can tailor your SEO technique to the needs of your business and your budget. SEO does not have to be expensive to be worthwhile.
SEO is a One Time Thing
Sometimes, business owners understand that SEO is an important piece of running an online business so they hire an expert to design their website and then check SEO off their to-do list. Unfortunately, these business owners took the right first step but didn’t understand that SEO is an ongoing endeavor. All new content needs to be optimized, link building needs to be professional and checked for errors periodically, and loading times need to be watched carefully.
To account for these necessities, many companies opt to hire a marketing firm that specializes in SEO to ensure that their SEO is working for them and staying fresh while they focus on running the business.
It’s All About Links
Have you ever been on a web page that is overrun with links? It looks disorganized and sketchy. When it comes to page links, quality is better than quantity. Placing links in your written content helps to establish your reputation. If you use outside links to quality and informative content, users understand that you have done your research and are not going to lead them astray. Likewise, using internal links to lead customers to relevant information through blog posts or service pages establishes you as an authority in your field and gives organization to your site lending to user-friendliness. When using links in your SEO strategy, the focus should be on quality content with the mantra that less is more.
Only Fresh Content Matters
It’s becoming common knowledge in the online business world that written content on your page matters greatly for your search engine rankings. Therefore many companies hire writers, designers, and optimizers to ensure that their site stays fresh and up-to-date. Unfortunately, though, this leads some business owners to assume that all changes are good changes and only new content matters. As a result, they are constantly revamping their site and wiping old content from their landing pages, and archiving blogs. This is not a response that increases page rank. Of course, outdated content needs to be refreshed and edited, and page tweaks can be made to increase user-friendliness. But the longevity of your content matters. For instance, domain age is a ranking factor because the longer your site and content have been around, the more opportunity you have had to return in a search query, establish yourself as a trustworthy authority, and also to gather high-quality backlinks through sites and social media. Keeping older but accurate content leads to higher rankings when optimized well.
Ranking First Matters Most
The main goal of SEO is to rank high in a search engine query. But ranking first is not always the end-all-be-all goal. When conducting research, SEO experts find that ranking first for one query is not as profitable as ranking second, third, or fourth, for multiple queries. The math says that high rankings across many search terms will guarantee a higher click-through rate than focusing your energy on ranking in the number one spot for a specific target keyword. Ranking first is great, but ranking more is better.
It’s Okay to Wing Keyword Research
Keyword research is a science. Anyone can learn how to conduct proper keyword research but not just anyone can sit down and decide what keywords matter. There are programs and algorithms that do that work for you, you need only to learn how to let them work for you. For instance, are there generic keywords you’re using in your content that aren’t helpful to your rankings? Is there a specific long tail keyword phrase that is associated closely with your product you can use instead to target niche demographics? Hiring an expert in keyword research is the most foolproof way to ensure that your keyword research and efforts are driving traffic to your site.
Don’t Fall for SEO Myths
Establishing a long-term SEO strategy does not have to be complicated or overly expensive. But it can be tricky to master and time-consuming, especially if you want to get it right. One surefire way to avoid falling for SEO myths resulting in wasted efforts and funds is to hire experts in SEO strategy.
At Sting Marketing, our team has a proven track record of consistently delivering high-quality organic traffic and leads. Our experts can tailor an SEO strategy to your business needs and budget that works for you.
Book a time to talk with a Sting team member today.
