When it comes to mastering Search Engine Optimisation, separating fact from fiction isn’t always an easy task – so what are some of the most common SEO myths?
In the digital age, demand for professional SEO services are surging – and for good reason. Considered to be one of the most viable alternative ‘pay per click’ style advertising options, mastering search engine optimisation via digital content that meets this criteria is now regarded as a must for brands and businesses trying to make it online.
If you’re still unfamiliar with the term, SEO is the term we use to describe the process of getting traffic from free or organic clicks from blogs, web pages or products that are shown in the results delivered by search engines. A good SEO strategy aims to improve your website’s position in search results pages using optimisation techniques, while bad SEO is ‘clickbait’ style keyword placement in digital content that is blatantly trying to climb to the top of the search engine results.
To further complicate matters, what counts as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in the search engine algorithms is constantly changing, which would help to explain some of the most common SEO myths floating around out there on the world wide web.
Quashing Five SEO Myths That Aren’t Quite True
Like it or not, getting seen by the right audiences online requires much more than simply having a website. Without strategies in place to attract new customers, retain the loyalty of existing ones and even adhering to the technical guidelines required by the likes of Google, it’s a bit like expecting a car to operate without having an actual engine under the hood.
Despite their best efforts, SEO myths are the prime reason why most organisations fail to attract the right target audiences. After all, if the directions on the map are wrong, then it’s unlikely that you’re going to get where you want to be – so what are some common beliefs about SEO that are actually way off the mark?
Only Fresh Content Ranks – The ‘freshness’ is a query-dependent ranking factor, meaning that it does apply in some topical cases, but not always. It all depends on whether the freshness of the content has any impact on content quality. As a result, writing evergreen content for SEO that is not time sensitive is one way to maximise your return on investment.
Quantity Over Quality – Many budding bloggers make the mistake of assuming that publishing four 500 word articles a week will rank better than one 2000 word blog. In reality, this isn’t quite true as if the keywords and topics are similar, those four articles could be combined into one mega blog and increase the chances of Google viewing that content as high quality.
High Volume Keywords – If you had to boil all of your website’s content down to just a handful of phrases – and this includes all of the images, videos and text copy – these should be your primary keywords. Despite this, don’t be tempted to aim for the keywords with high traffic, as this also means much more competition from other brands, many with bigger budgets.
No SEO For Social Media – While it’s true that SEO only technically applies to search engines and not social media platforms, Google ultimately knows where your clicks come from. Social profiles like Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn profiles actually do rank and are often the top results for brand names and individuals alike.
Content Heavy Homepages – Many budding internet barons make the mistake of assuming that their home page needs to be jam packed with keywords, content and other SEO friendly features. In reality, this can hurt your load time and bounce rates, so keep it simple and focus on optimising each page of the website to get the relevant audience straight to what matters.
Although original content that packs a punch is essential if you want to gain traction online, the downside is that producing SEO friendly content takes time, effort, experience and resources. While you’re not alone if you can’t quite commit to that, the good news is that there’s never been a better time to consider outsourcing to the professionals.
The Key To Good Marketing Is Great Content
Here at Content Hive, producing top quality digital content is exactly what we do best. We have itemised a list of digital content services, and allocated credits next to each of these. This means that each month, you can use your credits with us to produce digital content such as blog articles, social media posts, videos and even animated Instagram stories. By using this model, we believe that it enables us to produce high quality content with faster delivery times.
If you aren’t quite sure where to start on your digital marketing journey and would like to speak to a professional, why not book in a free discovery call with us at Content Hive today to discuss how we can get your brand buzzing online.
