Almost everyone who owns a blog or is thinking of launching one understands the importance of SEO.
Search Engine Optimization is a fundamental need that ensures that your blog/content ranks higher on various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc, when anyone searches about it by putting relevant keywords.
However, many new bloggers, who started blogging as a hobby, thinks SEO is too technical and daunting. Believe me, once you’ve decided to implement SEO practices thoroughly, it will consistently bring organic traffic to your blog.
Although Search Engine Optimization is a widely discussed topic in the blogosphere, there are still many misconceptions bound to it.
Not only that, SEO myths and mistakes always keep on rising, maybe because of all the unnecessary fuss about it on the internet. Following these SEO lies won’t help you in any way.
In this post, I will describe 7 SEO myths that you must stop believing right away to implement it correctly and have better rankings.
5 SEO myths to avoid
1. You must hire an SEO agency
This is one of the most widespread SEO myths. Understand that SEO is not a short-term practice as Google takes time to trust your site and recognize your SEO effort.
If you’re thinking that by hiring an agency, your site will appear on the first page in a few months, you’re making a huge mistake. It’s because no agency or expert can guarantee top search engine rankings since they cannot predict what people will search for tomorrow.
That doesn’t mean it’s futile to hire an expert because there are some excellent reasons to appoint them if you’ve got heavy pockets. Some of them are,
- You don’t have enough time to handle everything yourself
- You want to keep your website up-to-date with the latest SEO norms
- You’re a newbie and want to understand the dynamics of SEO
- You want help with keyword searches, title tags, marketing, blog topic, etc.
However, remember that you should never trust anyone who promises to deliver quick results.
2. SEO is just about Backlinks
Of course, backlinks indeed help Google understand the credibility of your blog in a particular niche, which is an essential factor for higher rankings. But, SEO is not just about acquiring backlinks to skyrocket your Domain Authority.
What I mean is, don’t just focus on asking for backlinks. Instead, develop a share-worthy content by writing in-depth for every topic, include relevant keywords (targeted and long-tail), focus on image optimization, create perfect title tags and meta-description, do internal linking, and promote your articles on various social media platforms.
You’ll be amazed to know that following good SEO practices mentioned above can bring your content to the first page of Google even if your DA is comparatively lower.
Besides, crafting valuable content will automatically higher your chances of getting high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites in your niche.
3. Bounce rate has no role in SEO
Bounce rate means how long your audience stays on your page, and Google takes this seriously. Believe it or not, the bounce rate is one of the crucial factors that affect your content ranking.
Here are a few things that you can do to lower your bounce rate,
- Attract the right visitors by focusing on user intent and relevant keywords while writing your blog posts.
- Ensure that your site is mobile-friendly and has high loading speed ( preferably it should load under 2 seconds)
- Don’t use irrelevant popups as they tend to annoy users.
- Improve the readability of your content and keep it updated
- Internal linking to help your visitors explore your site seamlessly
4. You only have to use long-tail keywords a few times
Long-tails keywords are the holy grail of SEO, and luckily there is a simple rule you can follow to make sure Google recognize your post for that keyword, which is –
Use your keyword on your title, and as often as possible (DO NOT spam) in your content to let Google understand its importance.
Use them in the headline, URL, meta-description, first paragraph, and body of your content. But, make sure that you are not OVER stuffing them.
Also, focus on naturally using long-tail keywords. If you don’t use them wisely, it may look spammy, which can harm your blog’s ranking.
You can use LSI strategy (latent semantic indexing) to avoid the stuffing of keywords. It means using synonyms or related terms along with your specific long-tail keywords.
5. Social media and SEO are unrelated
Your social profile is essential for Google, plus people reading your blog and looking for you online will be genuinely interested in knowing your brand better through various social media accounts.
When you search for a business on search engines, you may find Twitter feeds, Instagram profiles, etc in the search results. So, this indicates that social media activity can increase your visibility.
As of now, social signals are not directly affecting your rankings in Google, but with ever-changing algorithms, this can soon become a reality.
For instance, Binge has clearly stated that their algorithm considers social signals into their search results.
Therefore, we must update our knowledge with the best practices to implement for the ultimate ROI.
The bottom line
I know SEO myths and mistakes can be a real pain, especially when you are a newbie blogger. But don’t worry, everybody has to start somewhere and has to learn from the mistakes they make.
Remember, blogging is all about consistency. You can learn and implement SEO yourself or hire an expert to do it.
Whatever SEO strategy you end up implementing, please avoid these myths to achieve optimal results.
Lastly, I would love to know what SEO misconceptions you believed in when you were just starting. Let’s share each others’ stories in the comments!