7 SEO Myths to Avoid in 2016

7 SEO Myths to Avoid in 2016

In an effort to ace it in search engine optimization, inexperienced online marketers tend to listen to everyone and try everything. Although this is a good way of learning what works and what doesn’t, it will surely cost you a lot of time and money. Understanding the common myths that prevail today can keep you from making costly mistakes when promoting your content. Below are the common myths you need to pay attention to.

1. Keyword targeting died after Google Hummingbird

This is a common myth that people still believe. Although Hummingbird transformed search, it did not replace the need for keywords. This point is affirmed by the fact that you can still see keywords appearing on the first pages of Google. What Hummingbird changed is that you can no longer just optimize your content for search and forget about people. The improved search algorithm focuses on how people think rather than how computers interact. This means that long-tail keywords that make sense get more priority.

2. Links are more important than content

It is true that the more quality links you have on your website the more valuable your website is considered to be by the search engines. However, this does not mean that links are more important than content.

Most of the Google algorithm changes have been aimed towards understanding the quality of the content on a website. Today, simply getting more links to your website is not enough to help you rank high on search engine results. Links are important but quality content is more important. The search engine algorithm updates (Penguin, Hummingbird and Panda) are designed to care more about the quality of links and not the quantity. Taking more time to create great content and only add quality backlinks is the key to getting better SEO results.

3. Link building no longer works

Since more focus is on the quality of content and quality of backlinks, some people believe that link building die a long time ago. This is not true. What is dead is spammy link building. To succeed in search engine optimization, you still have to get quality links from relevant and reputable websites. Links from directories that have no purpose will not benefit your ranking in any way. You want to get links where you are mentioned in other quality blog posts and be shared widely on social media. In your search for quality links, you need to go after websites and links that are of high quality and the most relevant to your niche.

4. SEO is for geeks

Although working with an SEO agency is important if you are seriously thinking about succeeding in online marketing, SEO is not something only for the IT experts. You don’t need too much technical expertise to optimize your website for search. All you need to know is what needs to be done and how it should be done. If you have the time and the know-how, you can handle your own SEO. All in all, never hesitate to get expert help if you are new to search engine optimization or if you lack the time and resources.

5. All that is needed is on-page SEO

On-page SEO is not enough. You may have the best content with optimized titles, body, and Meta tags, but that is not all that you need. There are several other areas you have to optimize in order to hit your goals. You need to optimize the user-experience, engage in off-page optimizations and also optimize conversions. Simply put, search engine optimization is not a one-time thing. It is a continuous process.

6. SSL is not important

Google takes website security very seriously. Your website not only needs to be lightweight, but must also be secure for you to rank well. As a matter of fact, websites with the SSL certificate (HTTPS) get better ranking than those that don’t. While this has not had significant impact on ranking, it is only a matter of time before it becomes a determining factor. It is better to be safe than sorry.

7. How user-friendly a website is does not matter in SEO

This might have been true a few years ago, but not anymore. Today, for you to achieve a good ranking, you have to make sure that your website is user-friendly in that it has a clear site map, loads fast and has a mobile-friendly version. As a matter of fact, websites with responsive designs tend to rank better than those that don’t. Additionally, how easy your website is to navigate will determine how fast it is indexed.

These are just some of the myths you should avoid from now onwards when it comes to search engine optimization. There are many more myths out there that you need to familiarize yourself with. The key is to get the facts before making any conclusions on what is true about SEO.

Author Bio

Selina Jenkins is a renowned and experienced IT expert in the field of using different social media platforms for marketing. She has been involved with SEO agency and is therefore better placed to advice on matters marketing on any online platform.