Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The internet is evolving rapidly and has made it possible for everyday people to start their own companies without the need for an office.
An internet connection, combined with a laptop or desktop computer, is now all it takes to start something on the internet that may bring you some extra cash at the end of every month.
Unfortunately, while some people are succeeding and rising to the top ranks, others are struggling and are unable to make even a single dollar on the internet.
The difference between a person who is making thousands of dollars on the internet and one who is hardly earning anything is usually the way that they promote their website online.
While having a website that is optimized for conversions is an important part of being successful on the internet, a website cannot be successful and cannot make any money if it doesn’t receive an adequate supply of high-quality traffic.
There are both free and paid methods for driving traffic to a website.
When it comes to paid methods, website owners usually turn towards advertising platforms, such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads and Facebook Ads to drive traffic to their website.
In such a case, the website owner would usually pay the advertising platform every time someone clicks on their ad.
Influencer marketing and blogger outreach campaigns are also two excellent examples of paid advertising methods that are becoming more popular than ever this year.
When it comes to free traffic; social media marketing, content promotion and guest posting are often the most preferred methods.
In addition to these internet marketing strategies, search engine optimization is another particularly important technique that should not be overlooked.
This technique involves implementing certain strategies to push a website and its pages up in search results for targeted keywords; thus gaining exposure on search engines such as Google and Bing.
The Most Popular SEO Lies and Why You Should Not Believe Them
When it comes to search engine optimization, you will see quite a lot of mixed opinions on the internet.
One person will tell you to do something and another person will advise you to not do that specific “something” that you just read about.
The truth is, there are certain techniques that work and others that don’t.
In this post, we are going to focus on ten of the most popular SEO lies regarding search engine optimization that are often being told on the internet – and then we’ll tell you why you should not believe them.
1. Content Length
The first SEO lie we would like to point out is the numerous posts that tell you that all of your content has to be around 500 to 750 words in length.
Take a look at some gigs on Fiverr and other similar platforms, especially those that specialize in SEO services.
You’ll notice that the majority of the “SEO writing” services offer 500 word articles. This is because many people advise that articles on a website should be 500 words in length for best results.
Anything below 500 will get you penalized – yes, you will often see such claims as well.
The truth is, Google wants your website to look as natural as possible; thus you shouldn’t have a lot of articles on your website that all fall within the same word count range.
Instead, vary your content length. Some articles can be less than 500 words, while others can be over 2,000 words. However, the truth is, a 500 word article will most likely not rank well in Google.
After analyzing as many as 1,000,000 web results, Backlinko found that the average word count for a web page that ranked #1 was 1,890 words.
2. To Rank In Google, Your Domain MUST Include Your Keyword
Another lie is that you need to include your keyword in your domain name if you wish to rank well in Google.
This is a claim that has been made by quite a lot of people, but there is not much truth to this.
The truth is, while it may be beneficial to some degree to have your keyword included in your domain name, you are still able to rank number one in Google even if your domain does not include your primary target keyword.
The truth is, Google considers your keyword placement in other locations more important.
Thus, you should rather focus on registering a domain that contains your brand name.
Then place your target keywords in post titles, image captions, image alt tags and, of course, in the headings and body of your content.
3. Thousands of Social Signals Will Get You a Top Ranking
Social media platforms have taken the world by storm and they are now more popular than any other types of websites on the internet.
Facebook has more than 1.94 billion active users. Twitter now has over 317 million active users. Instagram, Google Plus, LinkedIn and other social networks are also widely used today.
You will often find that people are offering “bursts” of social signals from these websites. And they will tell you that that the thousands of signals they are able to offer you will get you a high ranking.
Yes, social signals do account somewhat for rankings – but in an indirect way. Buying 10,000 Facebook social signals for $50 is not going to get you that #1 spot you are after in Google.
4. Content Syndication Improves Your Rankings
You will often see bloggers and other internet marketers recommend syndicating the content of your blog to certain services. This allows other people to publish your content on their blogs as well.
There are ways to play it safe when it comes to content syndication, such as ensuring your site is mentioned as the author of the content.
But it causes Google to pick up the content on your website as duplicate content. Duplicate content does have an effect on Google rankings!
5. You Don’t Need Experience In the Niche You Are Trying To Rank
Many companies and agencies that specialize in SEO services will tell you that they can rank any website, regardless of its niche.
They often tell you that experience in a particular niche is not needed. These companies are basically using “generic” SEO methods to try and get you a high ranking.
Sometimes they might be lucky and push you up a page or two for the keyword you are targeting.
But if you want real and effective results, then you will need to hire someone that has experience in the niche you are targeting.
6. Build Thousands of Links for A #1 Ranking
Link building is one of the primary factors that are taken into account when Google determines the search position of a particular webpage based on a specific keyword.
This, however, does not mean you need to build over a million links to your site to get a good ranking.
You will find that many SEO “experts” on certain platforms offer thousands of backlinks and claim that these backlinks will push you up in Google.
The truth is, when Google analyzes a website’s link building strategy, they prioritize quality over quantity.
7. Rank a Site in One Month
Another common lie that is told in the SEO industry, especially by those “scaly” SEO agencies that charge ridiculously low fees, is that they will rank your website at the top of Google in a month.
Search engine optimization is a relatively complex process that takes some time to work. You are not going to see your website jump from page 600 to page one in a single month.
Website Muscle reports that a realistic time period for ranking on page one would be three to six months.
8. Guaranteed #1 Spot
We have all seen this one before – those companies that guarantee you that they will get you ranked #1 for the keyword you are targeting.
Unfortunately, if you fell for such a scheme, then you paid money and most likely didn’t get the results you expected.
The truth is, no one can guarantee results when it comes to search engine optimization. Google is always changing the way they rank sites and competitors are always getting smarter.
9. Keywords Everywhere
Have you ever gone looking for some tips on how you can improve your on-page optimization for better rankings?
Then you’ve probably already come across a blog that recommended adding your target keywords to various positions of your website.
Now, this isn’t the lie. It is essential to include your target keywords in your content – the title of the page, the URL, the body and the headers should contain the keyword.
There are, however, some blogs that recommend aggressive keyword placement – this is the lie.
You need to keep the keyword count in balance so that Google will pick up the keyword, but without causing Google to consider the content “spammy”.
10. One Package Fits All
Finally, we would like to point out that those agencies that are telling you their packages are suitable for any type of website, are lying to you.
Visit their “packages” pages and you’ll see they have some predefined packages – 1000 backlinks, 10,000 social shares, etc.
The truth is, every website really needs a custom SEO campaign due to the vast variety of factors that go into its ranking.
You should rather choose a company that does not have predefined packages – they will be able to truly analyze your website, identify your needs and then act upon their findings.
Conclusion
While paid traffic is a great way to drive immediate traffic to a website and convert it into leads or sales, it can also cost quite a lot of money.
Search engine optimization, on the other hand, has longer term benefits for a website owner and can help you gain more exposure from organic traffic.
It is possible to target specific keywords that will help you convert website visitors to leads easier.
And search engine optimization can result in thousands of website visitors without having to pay for a single click.
Unfortunately, not all the advice shared on the internet about search engine optimization is true or accurate.
In this post, we exposed some of the most common lies and advised why you should avoid believing these lies.
We hope this helps you in your efforts to optimize your web site properly for the search engines. 🙂
