What Are Some Common Misconceptions About SEO That An Expert Can Clear Up?

What are some common misconceptions about SEO that an expert can clear up? 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a complex topic that has many elements. As a result, it can be difficult for business owners to understand why they need it and how it can help them. In addition, SEO practices evolve rapidly and sometimes even certified experts get things wrong. This can create a lot of confusion about what is and isn’t an effective SEO strategy. 

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To make matters worse, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about SEO that get thrown around in the industry that can be misleading. It is important for businesses to understand these misperceptions so they can avoid falling victim to them and instead focus on their digital marketing strategies. 

Myth #1: SEO is all about keywords and links.

Keywords and links are a crucial part of any SEO campaign, but they are not the only things that matter. Everything from the mobile-friendliness of your website to the social virality of your content can impact your search engine rankings. It is also important to note that with the introduction of Hummingbird, Google now takes into account full queries rather than just single keywords when determining a page’s rank. 

Myth #2: Google will penalize websites that duplicate content. 

This is a common misconception that can be perpetuated by people who don’t fully understand how Google’s algorithm works. The truth is that Google will not penalize you for having duplicate content on your site. However, if you have multiple pages that are nearly identical to each other then it is a good idea to use the rel=canonical tag on them so that Google knows which one you want to rank and which ones are duplicates. 

Myth #3: Purchasing links is a great way to improve your SEO ranking.

While some SEO agencies do purchase links, this is a bad practice and is a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines. This can lead to your website being penalized and you may have to pay a fine. You should only use reputable link building techniques that are ethical and will benefit your business in the long run. 

Myth #4: Using keywords in your titles and meta descriptions is helpful.

This was a common practice years ago, but it is now considered to be an outdated SEO tactic. It is more important to focus on creating quality content that provides value for your visitors and will encourage them to share it with their friends and family. This will help to improve your organic search engine rankings as well as your overall ranking. 

Myth #5: Leaving links in blog comments is beneficial for SEO.

While it is nice to see a comment on a blog post from someone that you have linked back to, it is not a huge contributor to your SEO ranking. If you are constantly leaving links in the comments of blogs that are irrelevant to your industry then this could be flagged as spam by Google and your site may be penalized.