The Top 10 SEO Myths and Misconceptions Busted!

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, has dramatically changed over the years.

It is going to continue to change, and it is important that you are doing SEO the right way to get the most relevant traffic to your site.

Like Jamie and Adam from MythBusters, we have the reasons to prove to you that what you thought were facts, are actually myths.

Before you start submitting your company to more local directories and start believing that SEO is a one time thing, here are 10 search engine optimization myths busted to ensure that you continue on the right track by implementing white hat search engine optimization strategies.

10 Myths of SEO

Unfortunately, over the last couple of years, a number of misconceptions and myths have surfaced about what search engine optimization strategies work. If you are a beginner to SEO, this can be confusing. Let us debunk these 10 myths and misconceptions to ensure that you're effectively utilizing search engine optimization.

1. More Links are Better Than More Content

Having more links will not help your site if they aren't linking to quality content. Providing quality content is essential to getting qualified visitors and leads to your site. Links will begin to build naturally if you have remarkable content, and it will help your website in the long run.

Types of Content you can create:

• Blogs

• Webpages

• Offers

If you are creating content that is educational and remarkable, your readers will want to share it with their coworkers, clients, and people in their network.

2. Content Beats SEO

While quality content is going to be the reason a visitor stays on your site, you still need to use SEO to bring them there. Always be thinking about your target audience and what words they are going to be searching for.

3. Social Media Has Nothing to Do With SEO

Social media absolutely has everything to do with SEO, that's why there is a specific name for the two called "social search". If people are talking about your product or your company on social media, then this will show up in a Google search. This definitely affects SEO, so make sure you have a social media strategy because the two are definitely related.

4. On-Page SEO is All I Need to Rank

On-page SEO such as using keywords is important, but it is not the only thing that's going to drive visitors to your website. Off page SEO is a huge way to drive traffic to your site as well. This also relates to Myth #10, because this is another factor for your rank.

Elements of on-page SEO:

• Search friendly URLs

• Page title

• Meta description

• Headings

• Images (remember to include alt tags)

• Copy

5. H1 is the Most Important On-Page Element

The fact that you are using a H1 over a H2 or H3 does not matter for SEO. A H1 is only for styling purposes, and it is not going to help you rank any better on a search engine just because your keyword is in a larger font. What does matter is that you have your important information towards the top of your page for your visitor to see.

6. SEO is a One Time Thing

SEO cannot be done only one time. This is because the internet is constantly changing, and you need to change your SEO strategy with it. Search engines change as well as your competition and methods of marketing. Your SEO always needs to be looked at and updated to match with the rest of the internet. Especially with updates to Google's search algorithms.

7. Keywords Are Not Relevant Anymore

Just because you shouldn't have a whole paragraph filled with your keywords, doesn't mean they aren't relevant. It is still important to put keywords throughout your content. You want to show up on search results right? You won't reach that number one spot if the search engines don't trust your site. Using SEO best practices will help you rank higher.

8. SEO is Based On the Quantity Of Links

No one likes paid links or  link farms. Unfortunately people still do it. While it is true that you need links on your webpages, it is not true that you need to include one in every sentence. It is all about the quality of the links. Make sure you're including internal and outbound links. You also want to have some backlinks. If you have a backlink to a credible source, it is going to increase the quality of your site.

9. Your Homepage Needs a Lot of Content and Should Be Changed Often

There is no reason to change a homepage unless there is something wrong with it, or something has changed. Also, a homepage with a lot of content is not the right answer either. You need enough content to explain the company, but you do not want to overwhelm the visitor by making them read a ton.

10. PageRank is the Most Important Metric

PageRank is used by Google to determine how useful your website is to others. Although this is a helpful metric, it is certainly not the most important one. There are plenty of other metrics that are used to determine where your website will show up on their search engine.

Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO

Black hat and white hat are two SEO strategies that are very different. Although they are not myths, it's important to know which strategy will help you improve the effectiveness of your search engine optimization.

Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO uses agressive SEO strategies. It only focuses on search engines and doesn't care about the audience.

This method uses strategies such as link farms and paid links. Link farms is when a group of sites all link back to each other. Paid links is when you purchase links to increase your link popularity and ranking. They also use keyword stuffing which is putting a paragraph of keywords on the page to drive traffic there, which is considered unethical.

There are a few other tactics that are considered Black Hat SEO, but it is easy to see that these tactics are not doing SEO the right way.

White Hat SEO

White Hat SEO is focused on getting longer lasting results, and is user friendly.

Some methods of White Hat SEO include guest blogging, creating good content, and site optimization. Guest blogging is when you write a blog for someone, but it is beneficial to you because you can put in backlinks to your site. Creating good content is going to appear valuable to search engines and your real visitors while site optimization is making your content so that your site appears in a high position on search engines.

White Hat SEO is going to bring you valuable prospects to your site. Those that are interested in your information.

SEO is a very important tool and we hope that by busting these myths and telling you the best way to do SEO, you can use it to your benefit to bring great people to your website.