There is a lot of people publishing stuff on the internet that would love to be on the first page of Google, unfortunately, people are too attached to SEO myths.
On this article, I am going to talk about some myths you should be aware of in order to have Google traffic and hence make money.
Anything different than organic traffic will just cost you money and convert way less. So let’s get started with the list of the most common SEO myths.
15 Most Common SEO Myths To Be Debunked
Myth #1. SEO Is Dead
In the last few years, all the hype is on #YouTube and #Instagram. Share on X
And among many bloggers, you can hear, that “SEO is dead”.
But, in fact, Search Engine Optimization still has the highest ROI among all the inbound channels.
And content marketing in 2019 works still well.
Actually, the golden age of SEO is right now.
Bottom line: SEO is harder, but it’s not dead, yet.
Myth #2. SEO Is A Fraud
Another popular myth is that SEO is some sort of scammy stuff, which you should avoid no matter what.
In fact, Google officially recognizes, that SEO can “potentially improve your site and save time“.
Of course, it is true that there are many “scam artists” in the SEO world and you need to be very careful when choosing the right SEO agency or SEO specialist for your business.
Do it yourself and you’ll be better off this way!
Myth #3. Google Is At War With SEO
You might think, that Google only recognizes its advertising program called Google Ads and discomfort everything else.
Following this logic, if you do SEO, it is against Google guidelines and the Search Engine will punish your site.
It is time to remove this myth!
Google officially states that SEO agencies “can provide useful services” or “if you’re thinking about hiring an SEO person, the earlier you do it the better it will be.”
Myth #4. You Don’t Need Backlinks
One of the most damaging SEO myths is that “you don’t need backlinks”. Just publish your content and Google will figure it out.
I run several websites, in different niches. While of course, it’s possible to get traffic to your site without backlinks, it’s almost impossible to receive Google traffic, if other sites don’t link to yours.
And if you don’t execute some link building strategy, it will take ages for your site to rank.
Myth #5. Link Building Is Spam
Another modification of the previous myth is that
“backlinks are important, but they will appear by themselves somehow” #seobullshit Share on X
They won’t.
Of course, you shouldn’t apply BlackHat SEO techniques, which will ruin your online presence.
But, if you are doing outreach, quality guest posting, “skyscraper technique”, amplification, it will massively boost your SEO presence.
Myth #6. Just Buy Backlinks…
Some bloggers are very suspicious about link building and some others are thinking about backlinks in terms of just buying a package of 1000+ links on Fiverr for $5.
In fact, these kinds of backlinks will do nothing in the best case scenario, and most likely they will damage your site.
Link building became a very expensive and difficult process, which requires a lot of outreach and efforts.
In my experience, quality totally trumps quantity in link building.
200-300 high quality referring domains can easily outweigh thousands of poor quality PBN links.
Myth #7. Just Send Press-Releases
While high-quality press releases still can bring some SEO value, from recent times it’s more and more limited.
Instead of sending poor quality press-releases, it’s more beneficial to focus on creating backlinks from sources with authority.
Remember, links are valuable when people actually “use them”, i.e. click on them.
Myth #8. Paid Ads Help SEO
One of the most common myths about Search Engine Optimization is that paid ads will help your SEO campaigns.
It is now time to demolish this myth: there is absolutely zero correlation between your Google Ads campaigns and ranking factors in Google.
However, if you have some great piece of content, infographics, amazing landing pages or a blog, spend some money to promote them via Ads and these pages can earn some links!
And of course, good PPC campaigns generate more interest and branded searches for your company, which is an important ranking factor.
Myth #9. 300 Word Content Is Enough
There is a rather simplified view of SEO, and one element of it is that 300 word content is totally enough to build your search engine presence.
Or that you can just buy some random quality articles on Fiverr or Upwork, and it will work fine.
In fact, if you want to have a lot of organic traffic, you should aim at least at 1500-2000 words of quality content.
Myth #10. Keyword Research? Waste Of Time…
Before Google’s Hummingbird Algorithm in 2013, the internet was filled with spammy, keyword filled blogs.
PBN (private blogging networks) ruled the world. But, it all changed in one day. Share on X
So, now, as the SEO myth goes, keywords don’t matter anymore. Google has become so advanced, it uses complex AI, semantic code to recognize phrases and concepts, instead of keywords.
While this is true, it is much harder (almost impossible) to trick Google with stuffed keywords today and also the fact, that Google removed “meta keywords” can prove that.
But, in reality, Google never officially stated that keywords are no longer important.
It is just after Hummingbird and RankBrain, you should more focus on search intent and “answering the search query”, rather than putting as many keywords as possible in your copy.
Bottom line: keywords research is still vital if you want to grow your organic traffic.
In my experience, blogs, where I created keywords-based posts have grown much faster, compared with blogs, based on intuition.
Myth #11. Social Media Doesn’t Matter In SEO
This is one of the most controversial topics.
This video from Matt Cutts from Google clearly states that Google doesn’t consider social signals a ranking factor.
But, especially in recent times, there is a huge shift in this area.
If you have a page with thousands of shares, either Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin and so on, it will be on the first page, if not the first result.
And I can confirm that with one of the pages on my site, which received more than 100.000 shares on Pinterest, it became the first result on Google image search, without any backlinks.
So, social signals do influence rankings, we just don’t know exactly how.
Myth #12. One-Time SEO Effort Will Do The Job
A lot of website owners take SEO quite seriously. But, they think of it as a one-time investment.
For example, they think that paying someone to write 1000 articles in one shot for $10.000 is a good investment.
But in fact…
SEO takes a lot of time and many campaigns before it will bring any results.
If you just leave your site aside, all your competitors will take this opportunity to outrank you.
Myth #13. You Can Get SEO “Up And Running” In 1 Month
This is another misunderstanding among bloggers when they create content! In a few weeks, they expect Google to bring thousands of visitors to their sites.
Here is the truth.
In recent years, SEO has become much more competitive, it takes much more time and effort to start ranking on Google.
You can start seeing the first results of your work, with great content and effective link building strategy, in at least 6-12 months.
SEO is essentially a long-term game.
The good part about SEO is when you finally start getting traction with Google!
Your organic keywords start to rank and you start receiving traffic even from older blogs posts. And then you will see that shares and traffic will grow massively.
Myth #14. I Don’t Care, I Will Just Share My Posts On Facebook
Every medium has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Of course, Facebook can provide a much more targeted and younger audience.
But, Google search has one big strength, evergreen traffic. #google #search #traffic #seo Share on X
See, every time you post content on Facebook, it can get viral for a few hours or maybe days, but then it disappears forever.
While on Google (and other search engines), people will be able to find your content for a much longer time.
It is a concept of evergreen content, old content, which still brings traffic to your site. Evergreen content is one of the secret ingredients for making revenue online by blogging.
Myth #15. The More Content The Better
There is a view that the more indexed pages you have, the more traffic you will get.
Therefore, a lot of SEO gurus create thousands of fake indexed pages, hoping for an “organic search avalanche”.
I must confess, I tried that as well. And it didn’t work.
In fact, sites with less but high-quality content tend to rank better, than ones with thousands of low quality or duplicate pages.
Also, if you have tons of pages they might not be indexed at all.
Or if they are indexed, but don’t rank or have a high bounce rate or pogo sticking, it is a bad sign for Google, as it will rank lower all your future posts.
Always focus on quality. Share on X
Conclusions
Of course, there are many more SEO myths, I just outlined the most common ones.
The bottom line is, you should always look at the data.
If SEO helps your business and you have great ROI, fantastic! If it is not the case (SEO doesn’t work in all areas, niches, etc.), recognize it ASAP and move on.
Just don’t go after instincts or startup hype, SEO myths can easily ruin your business or online career.
Written By Andrii Gorokh: SEO enthusiast, who also likes to code and travel, visit his SEO blog Online Hikes and a travel platform Museuly.
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