Improving your online presence usually means search engine optimisation. But beware these common SEO myths, lest your project fail before it even begins.
The classic tagline to the movie Alien was: “In space, no one can hear you scream”.
Likewise, in search, if you don’t have a presence or an optimised website, no one hear you sell.
Search optimisation is one of the most in-demand marketing projects for any website, and a must have if your business has an online presence. Without it, no one can find you.
No one can see you, meet you, connect with you. More importantly, no one can transact with you. Your business may as well not exist online.
It’s also vital to get your SEO right first time if you want to avoid even more effort correcting mistakes and avoiding penalties. Here are six common myths that can catch you out.
Myth: You only need to do SEO once
Regardless of whom you hire, don’t go into a search exercise thinking the process is “set and forget”. Quite the contrary, actually.
SEO is an ongoing process, and rarely is it something you do once.
You do a big audit once to identify and fix some of the more complicated problems to begin with. But in the long term you’re looking at a continual process of incremental improvements to each of your web pages.
Myth: Links are all you need for ranking
The importance of backlinks remains one of the most pervasive SEO myths.
Backlinks have long been bedrock of the search industry. Back when Google was starting out, they formed a major part of how Google ranked and positioned your page. However, despite many changes to Google’s ranking factors over the years, marketers have a difficult time moving on from the idea of backlinks being the most crucial aspect of SEO.
They are but one aspect of the many, many signals Google uses for ranking. Prioritising backlinks over everything else will likely not see you gain any long term positions, and may actually disadvantage you in the long run.
You need more than backlinks. You also need internal links, great copy, solid structure and authors and subject matter experts who know what they’re talking about.
There’s more, too – search is always evolving. But it would be foolish to rely on links and links alone.
Myth: The longer the content, the better the result
It should go without saying that you need content to appear on Google. But a myth that refuses to die is that the length of said content matters significantly to Google. Simply put, the more you have, the better the result.
And it’s simply not true.
Content varies in length depending on who wrote it, what the writing is about, and what it’s trying to say. But content length doesn’t always denote better quality overall. More words don’t automatically translate to a better piece of content.
Search engines are typically looking for the best content that displays the most complete answer to a query. Sometimes, that might be a long piece, but it could also be something small and precise. A tighter body of content could deliver a more accurate result for Google, as could content with a personal experience.
Length doesn’t denote quality. It’s just more words, and more words doesn’t necessarily equate to more ranks.
Myth: An SEO plugin is all you need
If you operate a website, you’ve probably installed an SEO plugin to help make life easier. In the WordPress world, that’s probably Yoast or Rank Math, but there are plenty of others out there. These come with a lot of features designed to make implementing SEO rules and standards that little bit simpler.
However, they are not by any means a replacement for a search engine specialist, nor are they intended to provide everything you need to deliver perfect search engine optimisation.
A plugin won’t write great content for you, nor will it find an author with expertise and authority. An SEO plugin won’t necessarily fix your website’s technical issues relevant to search. And we’ve yet to see one that automatically understands your site’s specific issues versus that of another.
Simply put, installing an SEO plugin doesn’t mean your SEO is sorted. It’s just the beginning, and chances are there’s more you’re not considering.
Myth: Only position one matters in ranking
One big myth concerns the idea that rank one is the only position that matters.
Nabbing the number one position for your keywords is lucrative. It’s the top spot for all searches and the first thing a lot of users will see. But it’s also not the only thing anyone will see in those search results.
Well-written copy that Google identifies as the best answer for a query could land a coveted featured snippet; a highlighted entry sitting above the number one position. If your content is chosen as part of an AI Overview answer, it will be featured above that spot, too, worded in your native language in answer to your question.
Meanwhile, sites that use structured data could see extra content appearing alongside their listing in the search results that users find useful.
These days, there are also typically as many as four Google ad spots appearing before the number one position, and it’s entirely possible users will scroll past number one thinking it’s all the same.
And with the addition of AI Overviews borrowing passages from the best content to display directly on the search results page, you can see why the number one position might not always be the best spot – or the one that attracts the most attention.
Myth: SEO experts can guarantee performance
Finding a team of SEO practitioners is a must have for any business. But you shouldn’t automatically believe the claims and marketing collateral touted by said experts – particularly when they “guarantee” specific rankings or outcomes.
In SEO, there are no guarantees for performance. An SEO team or specialist should not guarantee page one rankings because it’s out of their control. Anyone who offers one is being less than truthful, or even intentionally deceptive.
It’s not that they don’t have skills; rather, it’s that Google and other search engines change rankings and algorithms so often, there’s actually no way to guarantee anything.
What they should guarantee, however, is their ability to get your website in fighting form, ensuring it has the best possible chance to deliver the improvements in web ranking performance that you hired them for in the first place.
