Most myths are harmless. However, when it comes to most SEO myths, they’re slightly misleading. At worst, they lead you to waste time, money, and resources on things that will never improve SEO. SEO is as fatal as it is beneficial if you don’t do it right. Any wrong optimization can penalize your website. Below, we will go into the most common SEO myths that you should ignore.
SEO is dead
This myth amplifies every time search engines launch an algorithm update. After an update, your SEO strategy will need to change. You need to upgrade it according to the new update so that you can continue having results. Sometimes, algorithm updates diminish your results. This is why you need to keep an eye out for any updates and optimize your SEO to have maximum results. SEO is not dead and won’t be anytime soon.
SEO is a one time thing
This is not something that you do once and have results for life. You have to maintain consistent SEO optimization to have sustainable results. It’s a continuous refinement process that keeps your online business up to the mark to gain maximum results. Just like we stated above, any algorithm changes means you will need to change your SEO. If you want to keep getting results, you’ll have to keep updating it.
Duplicate content causes penalties
This is the most popular SEO myth that most people believe. There’s no penalty for duplicate content. However, it can harm your organic rankings. If you have duplicate content on your website, search engines divide the authority between copies and ultimately dilute your rankings. Along with this, your backlinks will also drop.
Social media channels improve rankings
Social media channels are a great way to help spread brand awareness and generate huge engagement, but it doesn’t help you with rankings. While they don’t have a direct impact on organic rankings, you can double up your website traffic from social media channels. You can also get free referrals from your social media platforms if you have great credibility with your followers.
PPC has no SEO benefits
PPC helps you get non-organic results. While there isn’t any direct SEO benefit, if you implement the right PPC approach you can have some results from SEO. You can promote your content for backlink generations and that will help improve your rankings. Along with this, Google AdWords is a great research tool. You can get valuable data for your SEO optimization and have profitable results. You can use it for keyword research, user intent analysis, and to upgrade your SEO strategy.
SEO is for rankings only
The number one ranking is something that all online business owners desire. People believe that SEO can help you gain the top ranking. This is true, but also incomplete. There are many other aspects as well. You can’t have the most traffic even if you rank at number 1. People are more likely to click on the result that appears in top positions for related keywords. Single keyword rankings won’t always deliver you what you expect. You have to work on the SEO for the entire website to build authority and brand awareness. This way people will click on you even when you don’t rank for the top position.
The more backlinks the better
Backlinks are a vote for your popularity or credibility. It’s almost as if someone is referring you for quality service, products, or information. They play a huge role in your organic rankings and are a significant ranking factor. However, Google considers the authority of the websites you are getting links from. Having hundreds of backlinks from low authority sites won’t give you the value that a single backlink from a high authority website can.