When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), there are a lot of misconceptions floating around the Internet. Some see SEO as a mysterious and secret process rather than the often-straightforward practice of improving a web site’s visibility in search results based on relevant content. Unfortunately, many listen to this false information and end up harming their own site’s rankings in the process. Below are some of the common SEO myths.
Believing That SEO Involves Something Secret
Many are under the impression that there is something secret about the process of improving a site’s organic search rankings. This could not be further from the truth. Most often, it is simply a matter of common sense, such as ensuring that a site has content relevant to a particular search query, using appropriate keywords, and updating frequently. What is true is that the exact formulas used by search engines to rank sites are secret. This is to prevent the unscrupulous using these formulas to artificially manipulate a site’s visibility in search results even though it might not be the most relevant. Nevertheless, a solidly built site full of useful content is likely to always rank higher than one that is poorly built with little content or crammed with lists of keywords.
Listings In Thousands Of Directories Will Not Help SEO
One often receives emails from spammers promising to get a website to the top of search results simply by submitting it to directories and creating links to the page. While it is true that linking is one of the mechanisms used by search engines to determine a site’s overall relevance, the quality of those links matters. Many people spend hundreds or thousands of dollars trying to get listed in every directory they can find regardless of whether the directory is of any quality, has any authority, or is topically relevant to that person’s website. Doing so may actually harm SEO because search engines may consider sites that do this to be less relevant given the dilution of the content across irrelevant directories. Then the site may be flagged as improperly trying to gain rank. A better approach is targeted directory listings with well-established websites relevant to the topic area of your site. Better yet, listings on sites such as educational websites, Wikipedia, or other authoritative sources which are much higher quality and will give much more significant boosts to a site’s rankings and relevance.
SEO And Too Many Keywords
In the early days of the Internet, sites could stuff their pages with keywords to trick search engines into ranking them higher. This would often result to misleading search returns. As a result, search engines have learned that while keywords are important, pages should not be ranked simply by how many keywords appear. Instead, modern search algorithms determine quality of content. For example, writing an article about “criminal trespassing” where some variation of the word “trespass” appears in almost every sentence is not likely to rank particularly high compared to a similar article where the word “trespass” is used a normal amount but the content is much clearer and more useful. Similarly, trying to cram every possible keyword on a page is likely to be both hard to read and damaging to SEO as compared to a site that spreads relevant keywords throughout its content on multiple pages and posts.
SEO Is A One Time Investment
Unfortunately, while the results of SEO can be long lasting, the world of search engines is ever changing. A website cannot remain static and hope to rank highly for very long. Instead, one must constantly produce new, relevant content for the site that complies with SEO best practices. Moreover, one must ensure that a site keeps up with what those best practices are because they change frequently. As search engines become more sophisticated, understanding what they will use to rank a site will become more challenging. In the past, sites were ranked purely on the content found in its pages. Now, other factors like links to the site, social media discussions about its content, and other factors can greatly influence a site’s SEO performance. SEO is a long-term commitment, not simply a one-time event.
Understanding SEO Myths With The Friedman Group
If the world of SEO is confusing to you, you are not alone. Many of The Friedman Group’s customers have a hard time knowing which information to believe and what has already changed. We are here to help! Contact us today to find out what your site needs to improve it’s ranking and reach the customers you want.
