Do your SEO efforts feel like guesswork? Since most SEO stems from a secret algorithm, it’s not difficult to understand why you feel that way.
We want to expose some of the myths about SEO. As a digital marketing agency, we know that there are ways to succeed with SEO and want you to feel confident in your chosen strategies.
Here are five SEO myths that you should pay careful attention to.
Myth 1: If Your Website Rankings Fluctuate After a Search Engine Algorithm Update, You Need to React Immediately by Making Changes to Your Website
Google and the other search engines are always looking for ways to improve their user’s search experience. Since a 100 percent optimized algorithm is a moving target, search engines will conduct tests, which may cause slight changes in your ranking. Nevertheless, this does not mean you need to change your website.
John Mueller of Google
Your SEO team or agency can monitor your site to determine how your competitor’s rankings fluctuate over a few weeks which can help you understand which element is being tested. Tracking your rankings and your competitor’s rankings can give you some insight into possible changes which can help you react when you need to if the modification becomes permanent. Google will confirm all significant changes, eventually, and you can find out which changes have occurred by checking out https://webmasters.googleblog.com or by following John Mueller on Twitter.
Myth 2: Link-Building Is A Black Hat Tactic
In 2011, JCPenney’s SEO agency gained media attention when if fell off the organic search grid, losing business. It had been reported to Google that the company had been using content farming to rank for competitive keywords, a black hat tactic, which violated the terms of the webmaster guidelines. The publicity became an SEO lesson for other businesses, particularly those with an established reputation, making them leery of any link-building strategies.
Although many link-building tactics should be avoided, backlinks are still an important factor that Google uses to determine your site’s authority which makes it an important component of your SEO plan. At Coronation Internet Marketing – Phoenix SEO Consultants, we assist our clients by using link building techniques that work. These white-hat strategies include the three ways that link-building is considered acceptable.
1. User Experience
If your product is listed in a blog post for the top 10 products in your industry, linking back to your site would enhance the user experience. It would help the user get to their destination faster, which is why this receives a thumbs up from the search engines.
2. Content Distribution
Press releases, native newsletters, sponsored recommendations, sponsored articles, and sponsored social updates are all white-hat SEO tactics.
3. Press Releases
Press release articles that link back to your site send a signal to the search engines that let them know your brand authority.
The rule of thumb is that white-hat link building techniques should come from organic efforts. They should be used to attract users or visitors to your site, not for the purpose of building a link. Press releases are natural for a company that has good authority because people already know and trust their brand and are more likely to promote its products. However, there is a downside. Many reputable companies are at risk of getting bad links that harm their ranking. That’s why it’s important to monitor the backlinks to your site, using the Google Webmaster Tools.
Myth 3: Keyword Stuffing is Keyword Optimization
The search engines use keywords to know what your web page topic. However, there is a difference between keywords stuffing and keyword optimization. Keyword optimization is an SEO strategy used to help rank a website. On the other hand, keyword stuffing as a tactic used to attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking by loading a webpage with keywords or phrases.
As a use, you can tell the difference between a page using keyword optimization and one using keyword stuffing, because keyword stuffing often reads poorly and appears unnatural. Google uses natural language recognition which has made things better. However, if your page does not mention your product, a synonym of your product or other relevant keywords, it can be difficult for a search engine to determine what the page is about.
Myth 4: You Only Need to Optimize for Google
At one time, SEOs solely directed their efforts on ranking with Google. And while Google does hold the majority of the search market, at 64 percent, Bing’s market share has remained steady. That’s why we recommend optimizing for both algorithms so that you don’t miss out on any of the search market shares.
While there are similar factors in the Bing and Google algorithms, they each weigh these factors differently, which can result in contrasting search results. Bing tends to place more emphasis on click-through rates, keyword domains, user engagement, social signals and page authority. Bing places less emphasis on backlinks than Google does.
Myth 5: Content Is the Only King
“Google’s goal is to provide users with the most relevant results and a great user experience.” That statement was pulled directly from the Google webmaster guidelines.
When it comes to SEO, you’ll often hear that content is king. It is, but it shares the throne with user experience, on and off site. So, sites need to get it all right. Users expect more from the web; they are savvier than they were in the past. They want quick access to well-structured, high-quality, relevant content. But they also a beautiful design to connect them to site and brand.
That’s why usability factors are used by search engines to determine whether or not your site is meeting the needs of your users. These factors include site speed, load time and the time the user spends on the site. If a website is challenging to navigate or the content is not well-structured or relevant to the user, they will bounce off the site quickly. Your site also needs to be recognized by other sites as an authority through linking. Users are better served when they can navigate to a useful site through a relevant link.
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