Do you want to rank your business website on the first page of Google and wondering what’s the first step? Well, the answer is SEO! With the right SEO strategy, not only will your website rank but you could achieve higher conversion rates, better user experience, brand awareness & credibility and long-term benefits.

But what exactly is SEO Myth? 

SEO is the process of improving your site to increase its visibility for relevant searches.

On the business front, studies suggest that search traffic converts 9% better than social media traffic and over 25% of people click the first google search result. This isn’t shocking, because if we put ourselves in the customer shoes- would you not rush to Google while searching for the “best packers and movers” or the top two-three organic results?

Google’s results are organic, trustworthy, secure and contain relevant information. All thanks to Google’s algorithms! Google algorithms are a complex system used to retrieve user data from its search index and instantly deliver the best possible results for your query. 

While the search engine uses a combination of algorithms and numerous ranking factors to deliver relevant web pages on their search results, Google claims that 10,000 factors influence the results. That’s quite a number! And, above that, Google makes changes to its algorithm roughly 500 times per year.

With such an enormous chunk of information, the concept of SEO gets misinterpreted and leads to SEO myths by bloggers in the industry, SEO myths and facts get confusing with so many offering only their opinion rather than facts and real experience. This leads to misinformation which can cost you time and money in the long run. The many myths about SEO can even make Google say “Wait, what?”

And to help you with the right information, we’re debunking 9 SEO myths in 2021 that you may have actually believed:

SEO is dead

Ever wondered in spite of paying for the right keywords and getting the relevant backlinks why is your website not ranking on Google? It is because of SEO! From getting engagement, quality traffic, best results and optimization. SEO could be like the knight the shining armour for your website. So we don’t think SEO would die anytime soon. This myth about SEO is mainly because nowadays Google directly gives results for searched queries. For instance, if you search for “How old is Barak Obama?” You will get the answer right there, you won’t have to click any link to find it. This algorithm keeps users from clicking the links hence the myth! But you can still get clicks from other keywords.

So the truth is as long as search engines exist, are being used, and showing results, SEO won’t be dead. Better SEO on websites helps Google show users the best results.

Google hates SEO

If you try to make a cat look like a batman on the website then Google isn’t going to like it. In simple words, if you stuff in a lot of keywords and over-optimize it with an aim to show Google that look ‘I’ve SEO’ed my website’ then there’s going to be bad news and eventually you’ll think Google hates SEO. But honestly, Google’s first love is SEO. Google has its own SEO Starter Guide and Google Analytics offers a series of SEO Reports. The truth is Google hates manipulative SEO. The type of SEO that tricks search engines into believing fake popularity and relevance factors in order to rank higher. If it figures out that you’re using such black hat SEO practices, your website might get penalized for life.

One-time SEO is enough to rank #1

SEO is not like you do it once and you’re done. It is a continuous process that needs to be done by keeping an eagle eye on Google’s algorithm updates. And also consider that competitors for the keywords you’re targeting might also be implementing search engine optimization to rank higher on the search results.  You have to consistently optimize your website for lasting SEO results. 

So, don’t stop your SEO practices if you want to reap profitable results for your website.

Google doesn’t want you building links

The fact is ‘Google doesn’t want you building spammy links.’ You have all the liberty to farm for those high-quality links from reputable sites. Links from irrelevant websites that serve no purpose to the visitor are considered poor by search engines. So aim for the blogs and sites that are trustworthy and relevant to your website’s content. 

Good CTR (click-through rate) doesn’t help your rankings anymore

Click-through rate measures the number of people who click a link against the total number of people who landed on the same page. Ranking #1 is much better than ranking #7 or #10. Why? Because people tend to click more on the first five results of the search query than the others. That’s why click-through-rate matters for organic rankings. If a page is ranking #3 on the first page of the search results and getting a higher CTR than the pages in the #1 or #2 position, Google may decide to rank that page higher because people are finding it more relevant and clicking on it. It’s good to note here that how long a visitor stays on your website after finding you on the search results is an important ranking factor that ties in with CTR as well.

Keyword Research is a waste of time

Well,  researched keywords are what drives your website content. And, ignoring that step could adversely affect your search rankings. Instead avoid over-optimization, keyword stuffing or excessive use of keyword-rich anchor texts. If you target incorrect keywords, then you won’t rank and even if you do, you won’t have the desired conversions. And if you use highly competitive and broad keywords, you’ll likely never rank for them or take years trying. Focus on the low hanging fruit, keywords that fewer people are targeting but still have good search volume and are highly relevant to your industry. Long-tail keywords will help. 

Separate pages for each keyword will get you the best results

One of the most common SEO myths in 2021 is you should integrate keywords on separate pages to improve rankings. Many people believe that this is true but the reality is that integrating your keywords too often on the same page leads to keyword stuffing, which alternatively is a negative ranking factor. Google views this practice as a black hat SEO technique and could penalize your website for using it. So ensure that the keyword density stays below 3% and the keywords go with the flow of the content. Sometimes that can mean 5 – 10 keywords per page.

Backlinks don’t work

Backlinks are a critical part of SEO. Backlinks are links from other sites that direct people to your website. They help you improve your site’s ranking. People think that backlinks don’t work but only credible and relevant backlinks are taken into consideration by Google. If your site gets backlinks from untrustworthy sites that don’t have credibility, then your site will become less credible for Google and that will damage your rankings. So get links from credible sites or from industry authorities and remove the bad links by disavowing them in Google Search Console.

SEO is only about good content

The last one in SEO myths and facts- SEO is only about good content! No, it’s about relevant content. You don’t have to write like Shakespeare to rank your website. Just write simple articles, optimize them according to the relevant keywords and you’ll be good to go! Even if you don’t create new articles every day it’s fine. Update the existing content with small tweaks here and there to earn the benefits of posting fresh content.

In the end, always remember right SEO will give you the right results! SEO myths or misinformation can affect your website’s rankings or in the worst case get it penalized. So keep a close eye on the constantly changing SEO updates.

That’s all we had on the plate for SEO 2021 so far, what SEO myths have you come across lately? Share them with us in the comments below: