Common SEO myths that are damaging your business

SEO can serve as a very powerful and effective marketing tool in the right hands but often loses the credit it deserves thanks to misinformation and ill-advised marketing ‘specialists’. There is a lot to learn about managing an effective SEO strategy and with changing algorithms, your work is never done. However, it is possible to have a good grasp of the basics. To that end, read on to make sure you’re not guilty of falling for (or worse, actually carrying out) any of these common SEO myths.

The truth is there’s no quick trick that can get you to the top of Google. There are plenty of offers from companies promising higher rankings for a small fee but they do more harm than good. They spam websites with inefficient and unnecessary backlinks which result in penalties from Google that can drastically impair the website or company’s online presence. You can’t buy a position one rating. It takes time, patience and more than a little skill.

Often you will hear SEO ‘experts’ mention the fact that they have a friend who works at Google who can help with optimisation. Don’t fall for it. While there are plenty of employees at Google, the company does not hire people to deal with business SEO requirements. With constant algorithm updates, the only way to keep your SEO strategy in line is by following best practice and focusing on offering a superior user experience. Whether you’re an app development business or a local restaurant, the search engine wants to know that if it sends you its users, they’ll find the answer to their questions.

Many people in the marketing world still hold the outdated belief that cramming a website full of keywords can bump you up to the top of search results. Unfortunately, things aren’t so easy and Google can pick up on spammy domain names and keyword-stuffed content in a nanosecond. Keywords are important because they tell Google what your page is about but, they should be used naturally.

Despite what many people believe, not all backlinks are created equal. Think about it. The things worth having often take the most time or are the most expensive. The most effective backlinks are authoritative, natural and relevant. Buying dozens of cheap links is a waste of money because they won’t make any worthwhile contribution to your SEO (and can do more harm than good in some instances).

Many companies and websites fall into the trap of thinking they will experience higher traffic figures and climb search engine rankings simply by churning out more content. When it comes to SEO, quality always trumps quantity. No matter how many web pages you have, they will never be noticed if they don’t contain high quality, relevant content. Focus on informing, educating or entertaining your visitors by providing them with useful, unique and in-depth content that serves a purpose, answers a question or is otherwise useful.