SEO myths and legends waste valuable time, money and resources on things that will never improve your website's visibility.
Voluntarily maintained by unscrupulous professionals, or simple legends that die hard, it is important to deconstruct the main most harmful legends.
Natural referencing is a discipline in constant evolution , subject to changes in algorithms and ranking criteria and moving relevance of search engines.
Although some information is public, and spokespersons for Google and others regularly answer webmasters' questions, much strategic information will never be disclosed. Sometimes false information is undoubtedly relayed to confuse the tracks.
In a technical discipline like SEO, for which not all ranking factors are known, and there is much speculation, myths and legends about SEO are easy to create , and difficult to forget once they are widely disseminated.
This article aims to list the main myths that die hard and help those who wish to better understand what SEO is and avoid the pitfalls.
What are the main legends in terms of SEO?
Everything Google says is gospel
The engine wants to offer the best possible results to its users, encourage the use of its paid advertising service and fight against the manipulation of its search results.
Faced with these different imperatives, the corporate communication of the search engine adapts to serve these objectives .
Not all information should therefore be taken literally. Some announcements may be intended to create unfounded fears or serve communication purposes.
White hat SEO meets Google guidelines
Many SEO agencies position themselves by announcing themselves as companies with White Hat methods , setting themselves up as a model of virtue. Right now, 100% compliance with Google's rules is almost impossible if you want to perform optimizations in a somewhat uncompetitive environment.
Buying the slightest link or carrying out exchanges is already in opposition to the guidelines. So beware of the myth of professionals setting themselves up as guardians of morality, especially when they use for themselves the techniques that they like to criticize so much for pure commercial positioning.
The Artificial Intelligence Revolution of SEO Tools
Use of AI, artificial intelligence tool, machine learning, incredible technology … This vocabulary is fashionable and there is no shortage of superlatives to present a multitude of tools that simply use classic development scripts.
The most effective tools on the market are often developed by humble developers who do not need excessive marketing varnish to demonstrate the relevance of their achievements.
A simple test of the tools by webmasters is generally sufficient to identify abuse of language.
The goal of SEO is to rank first on a keyword
This unique notion of positioning on keywords is somewhat outdated at a time when Google prefers to offer content in line with the search intent. The qualified audience and conversion factors supplant the simple notion of traffic.
The goal of natural referencing is above all to generate a targeted audience in order to achieve the types of conversions desired.
An agency is certified by Google
There are Google Ads Certified Agencies using the advertising platform for their clients, but there are no certified SEO agencies. Beware of this type of false argument.
Google is at war with SEOs
Another myth. the engine implements actions to avoid too obvious manipulations of its search rankings. At the same time, it offers a multitude of tools to make life easier for SEO specialists.
Referencing is not in itself sanctioned, simply abuses, more or less effectively.
SEO is dead
The Internet, search engines and users change over time . Techniques and professionals adapt. Each year the SEO is announced at the end of its life, we see it evolve, but certainly not die.
Google Ads helps rank in organic results
Buying paid ads via the advertising network does nothing in terms of natural referencing . SEA is an interesting strategic complement to SEO, but in no case will paid advertising have an impact on your positions. This has been confirmed several times by Google's communicators, and nothing has ever proven otherwise.
SEO is always less expensive than SEA
Natural referencing is one of the most profitable marketing methods. However, the implementation of strategies will have variable costs depending on the sector of activity and the competition on the targeted requests. Technique, content and netlinking represent long-term expenses that should be added together in order to properly assess the overall cost of online SEO work.
There is therefore no ready-made answer to this false assertion.
You must submit your site
Search engines quite easily find new websites for indexing . It is useless to have recourse to the services of software of submissions which propose to you to reference your site in the search engines for a few tens of euros.
Clicking on the results of his site makes him move up in the rankings
Clicking several times on its site in the results does not improve its positioning. Natural referencing and the functioning of Google are more complex than some myths still want to believe.
Just repeat the keyword to optimize the page
Gone are the days when it was enough to repeat a keyword dozens of times to position yourself in the results . In 20 years, Google and its algorithms have evolved and using this type of obsolete technique in the era of semantic search and artificial intelligence has no positive effect, quite the contrary.
It takes six months to a year to see results
Natural referencing work is a long-term strategy . However, depending on the themes and the competition, it is possible to position pages quickly and attract online traffic.
In competitive sectors, results take longer to obtain. Everything also depends on different factors: age of the site, popularity…
You will immediately see dramatic results
Run away from offers that promise quick results and to be first in record time . SEO strategies and results are dependent on many criteria. Ensuring results in a short time is in itself a suspect approach.
Netlinking does not matter
Links and Pagerank are the origin of Google's initial algorithm. Links are still among the essential levers of a successful strategy. In a competitive environment, netlinking strategies are essential for success. Positioning yourself on competitive queries without external links is a myth.
Link building is dangerous
In terms of netlinking, the rules given by Google are easily crossed . Manual or algorithmic penalties exist and strike regularly. No strategy is 100% risk free. It is necessary for the SEO to assess the risks of its strategies and to create the most natural link profiles possible to limit the risk of penalties. In the event of a manual sanction or via an algorithm, it is always possible to get out of a penalty.
See our article on the best ways to get inbound links to your website.
Content is all you need
In SEO, content is king. Creating quality content for visitors, semantically optimized for search engines is a winning strategy. In the presence of many competitors, this will not be enough, and it will have to be supplemented by a popularity strategy.
Regularly updating your site helps SEO
Certain types of research and themes must highlight recent content . Apart from these particular cases, old content has the same chance of positioning itself. Updating content and warning readers can, on the other hand, encourage them to read it.
Meta tags don't matter
Certain tags like "keywords" and "description" are no longer ranking factors for the Google algorithm . However, a well-optimized meta description can improve your click-through rate by giving users information that makes them want to click. The title of the pages remains an important factor.
The home page is the only one to reference
All the pages of a site must be exploited to generate traffic. The home page is often the most powerful in SEO , because it receives the most internal or external links, and therefore has the easiest positioning. However, it is necessary to optimize all its pages to position them on different expressions and intentions. Creating an internal link will facilitate the work of robots and the indexing of pages.
SEO is a one-time activity
It works over time . A good result obtained is not final and must be maintained to cope with changes in algorithms and competitors.
Long content is a sign of high ranking
Long-form content that goes deep into a topic gets more links and can rank for more keywords . Short content can very well be referenced on competitive expressions. Short answers can satisfy specific searches. Quantity is not necessary sign of quality.
So there is no clear cut answer on this.
The purchase of 500 backlinks for 5 euros
Do not give in to cheap methods and offers that put your visibility at risk . The quality and relevance of a link are expensive. Buying links at discount prices is a sign of poor quality and automated techniques that risk earning you penalties via an algorithm.
In terms of netlinking, it is better to do without a link than to acquire a bad one.
It is possible to guarantee a ranking in first position
On the name of your company no doubt, on very uncompetitive keywords as well. Otherwise, ensuring first place positions in Google is a fallacious commercial argument. No reputable company can guarantee high rankings on hard queries. Local SEO can also be very competitive depending on the sectors and the traffic available.
How to avoid believing false information?
On many subjects, the information can be different and distill doubts or misconceptions in people's minds. In order not to fall into certain traps, here are some tips to avoid falling into these traps.
- Listen to the opinions of recognized professionals.
- Do not take all the statements of Google communicators at face value.
- Beware of press articles.
- Be wary of IT professionals who sometimes have a non-objective view of the referencing profession (developers, graphic designers, etc.).
- Be wary of articles written with the aim of favoring a particular stratum (sellers of links, tools, content, etc.).
- Collect information from multiple sources.
- Identify the most relevant sources of information.
- Look for serious studies on the specific question.
- Carry out tests yourself.
- As with any subject, make the difference between correlation and causation.
- Accept that for certain subjects there is no definite answer due to the lack of reliable sources.
- Keep in mind that a successful SEO and the accumulation of all good practices with sliders activated differently for everyone.
Top comments (0)