SEO changes so quickly knowing what’s still accurate is difficult. Photo credit: Apple Crate Marketing

Last year, Google released its Panda, Penguin, Pirate and Pigeon search algorithm updates, plus numerous smaller tweaks. Keeping up with SEO changes is a time-consuming job. The misinformed continue to perpetuate erroneous SEO techniques, experts lament.  

Search engine optimization has changed so much in recent years, many marketers can’t figure out what’s outdated, useless or just a waste of time. Myths in the sector seem so prevalent it’s worthwhile to examine what SEO experts believe are the most common and dangerous.

Book of SEO Myths

HubSpot lists 17 SEO myths in its new ebook, “7 SEO Myths You Should Leave Behind in 2015.”

One myth is that creating a Google Authorship can increase search visibility and click through rate. Actually, Google announced that it has dropped its authorship program, though some experts contend Google still gives weight to authorship.

A few of the other most common myths are:

• More links are better than more content.
• SEO is all about ranking.
• Keyword optimization is THE key to SEO.
• Owned microsites and other domains that link or redirect back to my site will help my SEO.
• SEO and inbound marketing don’t mix.

SEO veteran Kristine Schachinger lists five SEO myths for Search Engine Watch.

SEO is voodoo. Search engine results are based on algorithms, another word for math. Math means you can test against it and see what works and what doesn’t, which would not be possible for Voodoo. SEO pros would only be guessing at what they do and could never replicate results. But they replicate results every day.

SEO is cheap. SEO may require serious investment because the industry continually changes and practitioners must keep up with changes in algorithms and tools, and must regularly test and adapt. The days are long gone when a few title tag changes, additional links and some tweets improved search engine rankings.

Audits are cheap. You can run a few tools and write a few paragraphs on the results and call it an audit, but it won’t help. Tools often get it wrong, and human eyes often prove more effective than software tools. Thorough audits take more than a day or two.

A bad audit can be worse than none at all, especially if the actions it suggests are based on bad data. Audits need to be done by someone who understands SEO algorithms together with penalty signatures and penalty recovery. Those skills don’t come without expense.

Build it and they will come. You cannot just build a website, create content and expect traffic to come. You need quality content and you need to do the hard work necessary to secure incoming links to your content. One myth that persists: link-building is bad. Link building is vital to a well-positioned and highly trafficked site. Linking building is not cheap. Finding and promoting a single a good link from a highly-ranked site to your site can take hours.

So, all links are good, right? Not true. Buying links is bad. For legitimate businesses, purchased links from bogus sites can incur Google penalties that make a website virtually invisible to potential readers. Better to disavow the links before Google penalizes your site.

Ranking position does not matter. Ranking in search results often depends on personalization and geo-location. A given page will rank differently depending on the search history of the individual conducting the search. There are no longer absolute, fixed rankings for a given keyword.

But position still matters. Most searchers have their web browsers set to show 10 results; most searchers ignore websites that fall off page one. You will never know exactly where your site ranks for every visitor, but your Google Analytics results will tell you pretty quickly if your traffic slip is due to losing Page 1 ranking for your primary key words.

SEO is dead. The “SEO is Dead” headline is overused click bait typically written by people not in the SEO industry. Organic search is still the number one way people get to your site, even on mobile. SEO will never be dead as long as search engines use algorithms to position sites. Organizations that ignore organic search forfeit crucial visibility.

Bottom Line: Myths abound in SEO. Some can be hazardous to your website’s search engine rankings and traffic.

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William Comcowich

William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.