Like any responsible business owner, you’re probably well aware of the massive potential in SEO, and how it’s helped relatively unknown brands beat their big, bad competitors. Despite the massive prevalence of SEO, there are still a lot of harmful myths about it. Here are a few of the big ones you need forget in 2017…
It’s All About the Keywords
If anyone tells you that they’re an expert in SEO, but all they seem to know about is keyword optimisation, then I recommend taking everything else you hear from them with a pinch of salt! To someone with a very basic understanding of SEO, the concept can seem pretty simple. Attach a blog to your company website, do some keyword research, get the density right and let the customers flood in. I wish I could tell you things were still that easy! Despite what many people seem to believe, SEO goes way past the kind of keywords you include in your online content. These days, a successful SEO campaign requires a multi-faceted approach, and a keen understanding of everything that goes into Google’s search algorithm. This is one of the main driving factors behind companies like Nu Studio springing up faster than anyone can keep track of!
The Top Spot is the Best
You’re probably aware that SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation”, and focuses on manipulating the rules of search engines to get your business seen by as many people as possible. A lot of modern SEO experts will offer to get your business the number one spot on Google’s SERPs. Sounds pretty good, right? What a lot of entrepreneurs don’t realise is that good SEO isn’t all about getting a high rank on results pages. Getting in Google’s featured snippets, for example, (what the engine perceives as a summarised answer to a question) can lead to a massive increase in traffic compared to strategies that only focus on getting to the first page. Yes, getting a high SERP rank is a good thing, but don’t let it get in the way of the other important facets of SEO!
The More Webpages You Have, the Better
Sure, there may have been a time where having more published webpages indefinitely meant a healthier ranking on SERPs. However, Google has been adjusting its algorithm for some time to emphasise quality over quantity, and this is something you need to bear in mind when you’re running your own SEO campaign. Okay, if the page is going to offer your visitors some genuinely valuable information, or serve a practical purpose for your business, then go ahead and publish it. However, if you’re drafting new pages just because you think that more pages means more traffic, then you’re just wasting time! These days, it really doesn’t matter how many pages you have making up your site nearly as much as the quality of what’s on your pages. In fact, if Google’s increasingly sophisticated crawlers see that you’re posting lots of low-quality content, you could even get penalised for it!
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