As times moves forward, pretty much everything we’ve ever come to know about SEO is being dubbed both the Holy Grail of the process and the Antichrist at the same time.
If we were to believe every single thing we read about SEO, there would be absolutely no moves left to make and at the same time all moves would be positive ones.
It’s little wonder there’s such confusion as to what a business should really be doing to benefit its SEO strategies, so in the spirit of common sense and general education, here are a few of the longest standing myths to chew over:
More is Better.
Once perhaps, but these days anyone that favours quantity over quality will end up on the losing end of things in no time at all. It’s been made painfully clear as time has moved forward that all Google and Co. are interested in these days is the quality of everything you and your SEO services produce. From backlinks to content to keywords and everything else between, one authoritative and high quality element is these days worth more than a thousand spammy alternatives.
Bots Are the Business.
There are so many SEO services and professionals the world over that make it their life’s goal to work out precisely what it is that Google’s bots are looking for. The theory basically suggests that if you please the bots you get the better scores in the rankings, but sadly it’s not that simple. The bots are only in place to look for evidence of sites that are in fact produced solely for the use and the benefit of the readers, not the bots that are simply crawling them. And they can spot these kinds of tactics from a mile away too.
It’s Best to Focus on Google.
This is something of a half-truth, though in most instances is followed a little too literally. There’s a hell of a lot to be said for pleasing Google and making it up the rankings as this is of course where the majority of the world’s Internet users head for answers. Win big here as a business and you’re in for rich rewards, but what about if you don’t win? Or maybe you win, but then Google changes its mind? Focusing too much or exclusively on Google can see a business end up completely without anywhere to turn and effectively destroyed overnight when the search engine moves the goalposts without warning. Always spread your eggs between a good few baskets.
Content Isn’t Everything.
Sure, you won’t get very far in SEO stakes with excellent content alone, but at the same time every single SEO element you can possibly implement in your strategy will come to nothing if your content isn’t killer in every way. The best way to think of the content of your website is as the linchpin that holds every single thing together and is crucial to everything around it. And as this is the case, this is precisely why content should always be your first and most important focus when getting started with SEO.
