Search engine optimization is a tricky concept in digital marketing. Marketers and the so-called “SEO-Experts” are also people who cannot get it all right and give a “One-size-fits-all” solution for SEO. The question that remains: Do you need SEO for your website? Well, if you thought that you don’t, let me break the hard truth that YOU DO! If you are creating a website for any purpose and want it to help you build a business, attract leads, make your brand, reach out to people, well, you need it to be optimized.
SEO is an ever-changing process where every website employs a different technique, making it more difficult. With so many variables, and so many “guides and tutorials and hacks” available, it gets difficult to separate the facts from myths.
Let us help you debunk some of the most trending SEO Myths online!
Myth #1: A higher keyword density improves ranking
Fact: Keywords are really important for your website but if you stuff in too many keywords, it can cause harm to your search ranking. After Google rolled out the Hummingbird Update, the SEO landscape has not been the same. Instead of keyword density, SEO now focuses on the content quality and whether it fulfills the searcher’s intent or not. You need to understand the reason for a keyword being searched. Then, create the content meeting the need. But it doesn’t mean that you don’t need keywords. You just have to find a balance of the keyword ratio and use it only where necessary.
Myth #2: Top-level domains receive higher ranking
Fact: It is popularly known that most of the internet is populated with websites with .com or .org or .net extensions whereas .digital, .guru, or .biz are the extensions few know of. Since we all know of .com or .net as website extensions, we tend to use it more often. This is why the search traffic for these is immense. But this does not mean that it is because Google discriminates between them. It is because of user psychology.
You can have any(.com or .net or .biz or .digital) extension and apply the correct SEO methods to rank it on Google. If you use the right keywords and great content and have valuable backlinks, you can even have a #1 ranking website on Google for your keyword.
Example: Upon searching for Digital Marketing Courses in Kolkata, we got:
Myth #3: XML Sitemaps improve your ranking
Fact: XML Sitemaps are not the most important factor for your website’s SEO Ranking. They make your website easily crawlable by search engine spiders. This means that every time you add a new page or post, they update the sitemap and submit it to the search engines to crawl and index the new content. But does this help in improving your website’s ranking?
Well, you can say that it acts as an aid to your SEO attempts. Popular tools like the Google XML Sitemap Generator act as guides that provide more information to Google and other search engines. This helps them to index your page quicker. Without XML Sitemaps, it would naturally take 1-2 days for Google to find your website online and index it. With XML Sitemap, the process is carried out quickly leading to your website being prioritized. So it’s more of a catalyst than a variable in the SEO process.
Myth #4: Quantity of the backlinks is an important factor
Fact: Many link builders or digital marketers make a rookie mistake when they are developing backlinks to the website. This is when they blindly start making backlinks to their website from any or all possible classifieds sites and listing their website wherever possible. This might seem to work initially but the more backlinks your website gets, the more harm it does to your SEO Ranking.
You need to ensure that your website is linked to the websites that are relevant and has your audience hanging out there. For example, social media marketing of your website is considered good by Google. But if you start employing deceptive methods, your website’s rank starts to fall.
You also need to keep in mind that if you enlist your website on a “free-to-all website”, where anyone and everyone can post content, your brand image takes a hit as it can be placed next to content you would not want to be associated with (explicit content or dodgy content websites)
Myth #5: A SEO Agency can get you to rank quickly
Fact: This is one of the most hilarious myths and here are some numbers to help you understand it. Google gets over 150 billion searches in a single month and there is no way of knowing what keyword will be ranking tomorrow. There are more than 1000s of websites that would be competing with you for the same keywords. This makes it impossible for anyone to guarantee that they can help your site get top ranking quickly.
What you need to understand is that SEO is a long-term process and it can take a few months or even a year to come to the first page of Google Search, let alone the top of the list. But this does not mean that SEO Agencies are a scam. You might still need them to help you with detailed keyword research, competition analysis, and different ways to make your website SEO-friendly.
You will always find a huge amount of content or tutorials on SEO and how you can hack your way to the top but always remember that SEO is one of the hardest elements of digital marketing and there is no mantra to get to the top without putting in time and efforts. Do not fall for these myths and many more and steer your website towards the top ranking of search engines!