If you own a website or you are anyhow connected to the latest happenings and trends on the Internet, then you have probably heard the term Search Engine Optimisation, widely known as SEO. Truth is: SEO is a very important aspect of building your online empire that helps you attract more visitors by showing on the first pages of search engine results. However, SEO is yet another topic that is associated with numerous false beliefs that not only don’t help, but sometimes even ruin your efforts of developing a SEO friendly website. In order to save you precious time, we have listed here the top five SEO fallacies that should be ignored. Use the time saved on something useful instead!
1. Meta title, meta tags and meta description improve your ranking
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Well, this should be already familiar to everyone who considers themselves a SEO expert, but anyway let’s put it out there. Meta title, meta tags and meta description won’t improve your ranking on Google. Yes, it’s definitely smart to use them and make them as recommended by search engines. However, don’t rely too much on them since they’re far from crucial. In fact, these three little things usually help you improve your click-through rate and that’s about it. The time when doing meta title, meta tags and meta description meant having a SEO friendly site are over.
2. You should use as many inbound links as possible.
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Um, not really. Inbound links are important; nobody tries to opposite that thesis. Nevertheless, low quality incoming links can result in a penalty or lowered rankings. Therefore, you should focus on high quality inbound links as well as on organic link building. Provide content that people would enjoy reading and also make your content so good that people would enjoy linking it to their websites, blogs and so on. Never forget that SEO is all about quality and not quantity. This can help you stay true to your visitors and avoid making rookie mistakes that can cost you a lot on the long run. Remember the higher quality your inbound links are, the higher your website is worth! You can check out what your site is worth with a domain value estimator.
3. The more content the better!
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The belief that search engines love content is another myth that has to be busted. Honestly, this is not 100% false because content can certainly help you improve your website rankings. However, the crucial thing to remember is that not all content is desirable content. There are thousands of companies, for example, that have heard this fallacy and started publishing whatever they can think of. Such actions usually have the opposite effect and can result in a penalty. If you really want to improve your SEO then you should focus on having high quality content only. If you’re wondering what a high quality content in the “eyes” of Google is… well, people link to it, it’s widely shared on social media and it’s viewed by thousands or even millions of visitors. Therefore, if you’re making let’s say a directory of online blogs or site that informs visitors where to get the latest reviews on video games – stick to the topic and double check every piece of detail you provide.
4. There is a preferred keyword density.
Just no. This fallacy has been around for too long and it’s funny how people fail to see it. There isn’t an optimal keyword density that can help you improve your site ranking. The only idea here is to make your content readable and enjoyable. Too many keywords will most certainly be noticed by the most important factor – READERS and thus you should avoid using them countless times. However, Google doesn’t really care how many keywords you have decided to use and if you only care about Google then you’re free to use ten or twenty keywords per paragraph; but how would your visitors feel about that?
5. SEO can help you achieve results quickly.
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The final fallacy that website owners have to have in mind is that SEO provides fast results. To make a SEO friendly site is a strategy that should be incorporated on the long run. Building a SEO friendly site is a process that cannot be completed overnight and thus nobody can guarantee positive results after several weeks. Yes, your site would probably have slightly improved ratings and start attracting more visitors, but that doesn’t mean that in a month or two you will be ranked #1. Therefore, you should have patience, stick to your strategy and be proud of any progress.