SEO Myths That Are Killing Your Website Traffic (And What to Do Instead)

Hey folks, were you also thinking that it’s high time for your website to start ranking, and your SEO efforts to finally bear fruits? Well, I guess you’re not alone. Several individuals are overwhelmed with worry about their website not ranking and questioning the integrity of SEO. But truth be told, these individuals are merely ‘informed’ of the purpose of SEO, but oblivious to how to ‘achieve’ that purpose. Consequently, they take the wrong route of SEO, leading them to nowhere. 

Therefore, let’s stop beating around the bush and finally come face-to-face with the top 10 SEO myths you have been entangled in all along.    

1. The More Keywords, The Better Results

This phrase often rules over the heads of many SEO amateurs, who assume that adding more keywords than necessary would serve as a bonus to boost their ranking. Unfortunately, things don’t work that easily in SEO and this concept—known as ‘keyword stuffing’— is rather negatively correlated with search performances.  

Today, search engines are more focused on hunting content, which is authentic, reliable and offers rich knowledge. Thus, if you keep on stuffing your web pages with numerous keywords then your only likelihood is to be falling under Google’s spam policies—yes, google strictly condemns keyword stuffing. Hence, play smart with google by only adding suitable and necessary keywords if you want to rank.  

2. SEO Once Means SEO Forever

Well, there are plenty of pals out there, who stop focusing on SEO the minute their first web page ranks—this wishful thinking only takes them several steps down the ladder.  

SEO isn’t a one-time thing. Search engines evolve, new trends come along, and user-behavior keeps on changing. Thereby, you must also keep working on SEO by updating content, keywords and webpages to meet the standard of ranking on search engines, otherwise your website would be just another far-reaching website buried beneath thousands of others. 

3. Longer Content Equals Higher Ranking

Do you also associate content length with better ranking results? If so, you have definitely taken the wrong path. As a matter of fact, search engines hardly pay any attention to the length of your content because it is ‘high-quality’ content that they seek for.  

Search engine crawlers only tend to rank content which offers reliable and relevant knowledge. Therefore, as long as your content is long because it offers in-depth and useful insights for users, then it’s a win. But, if your content is long, repetitive and irrelevant then there are high chances search engine won’t consider your content for ranking.  

4. Backlinks Are Not Important 

Plenty of rumors have circulated in the air regarding the insignificance of backlinks, claiming that backlinks don’t help in ranking. 

This rumor is entirely false, because backlinks do matter in SEO by showing search engines that your content is worthy of trust and is reliable.  

This makes backlinks today just as important as they were yesterday—however their use has been slightly conditioned. This means that search engines do not favor content which is too full of backlinks from low authority or irrelevant sources. So, do make use of backlinks but keep in mind that even one backlink from a well-established website is enough, for quality matters over quantity.  

5. Search Engines Don’t Care About Mobile Optimization

This SEO myth is bound to kill your website traffic, mark my words. Nearly half of the population uses their mobile phones to search websites. Google ranks your website based on mobile optimization as well, this is called mobile-first indexing. 

Therefore, if your website wasn’t ranking previously, do check whether it is mobile-friendly or not. Otherwise, this could be one of the leading factors why your website doesn’t show up on search results.

6. Meta Tags Don’t Hold Much Value  

Don’t fall for this myth if you want visitors for real. Whilst Meta tags and description might not have a direct effect in pushing your website up in search results, they do definitely have a huge hand in bringing in users.  

Your Meta tags and titles are the first thing that your users see. So, make sure that you write appealing headlines and descriptions if you want users to choose your website over others.  

7. Technical SEO Doesn’t Play a Big Role

If you had previously disregarded technical SEO, it’s time to fix the game. Technical SEO is the most crucial aspect of SEO which can only be disregarded if you aren’t ambitious about ranking on top of search results. That’s why many businesses tend to invest in technical SEO services.  

During the stage of crawling and indexing of your site, search crawlers check for the speed, security and structure of your website which comes under technical SEO, making it a crucial ranking for your website. 

8. SEO Specialists: Simply Overrated

Many people assume that SEO specialists are only here to make money. But that is not the case. SEO goes beyond keyword research; including local SEO, on-page and off-page SEO. All of this requires thorough analysis and knowledge to be tackled, which can only be done by SEO experts.  

Hence, if you are not an SEO specialist yourself, then it’s time to hand your website to reliable SEO services provider to increase ranking.  

9. Social Media is Enough to Bring in Users

Many people believe that social media is enough to circulate their brand awareness, but is it? Through social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, people will surely cross paths with your posts, however, those posts will gradually end up somewhere at the bottom of their feed, or new trends will invade social media taking over their feed.  

Therefore, while social media does help to spread awareness or bring in traffic, its effects are short-lived, and to keep a consistent number of visitors coming to your website you have to have something more reliable like SEO. 

10. SEO Must Bring Swift Outcome

When people do SEO, they usually anticipate abrupt results. 

But what they don’t want to fathom is that in SEO they have to be patient in order to witness their efforts bearing fruit. Hence, don’t give up already; give it some time, be consistent and follow the right path of attaining success in SEO.    

How to Rank High on Google 

Let’s unveil the hacks you should be doing instead. 

• Use keywords correctly: Make use of keywords that are relevant to your services, but don’t overdo it. Also, integrate both long-tail and short tail-keywords. 
• High quality backlinks: Only use backlinks which are from high authority websites.  
• Improve page speed: make sure your web pages don’t take too much time to load. 
• Write engaging headlines: Write headlines that attract users. 
• Add FAQs to your website: By answering the questions that most people are confused about, you have higher odds of bringing in more traffic.   
• Focus on the entire SEO: By this I mean that you must do on-page SEO, off-page SEO and local SEO or you can simply contact SEO services companies to assist you with it.  
• Check your progress: Do check the website ranking on google to see how you are progressing.  

FAQs 

Is SEO dead? 
Not at all. Since the dynamics of every industry change, SEO only evolves.  

Will SEO be replaced by AI? 
This is not true. AI isn’t here to replace SEO; however, it will surely transform it as SEO strategies are more likely to move towards optimizing content for AI tools.  

What is SEO and how does SEO work? 
SEO stands for Search engine optimization, it is there to help you improve your visibility in search results and drive in users. The process of SEO might be a bit slow; however, it does help you rank up on search results. All you have to take care of is following the right SEO. 

How does SEO help build awareness? 
So, basically when a person searches for something, a search engine will display several websites before them, depending upon their search. When your website is fully SEO optimized, you have a higher likelihood of being placed first, allowing users to know about your brand.

While SEO has proved itself to be a game-changer for plenty of folks out there, some might argue that it is merely an overhyped piece of digital jargon which doesn’t work for everybody. However, it is important to understand that SEO only works for people who do it the right way and that it is okay to invest in SEO specialists or Seo companies for small businesses if you want your website to rank.  

By getting to know these top 10 SEO myths you can surely bring a change in your ranking and me among the top websites that search results show. For further insights, contact us now.