We live and breathe SEO and are constantly staying on top of what the search engines are doing and how to respond on behalf of our clients. We in turn also educate our clients in the process so they also have some insight on what is going on and why we do the things we do.
But for all those poor, unfortunate souls who are not our clients, there are still many who have some crazy ideas about what SEO really is or what they think they can do to get listed on search engines.
See if you’ve heard (or heaven forbid, said) any of these before:
“We need to rank #1 for ‘topkeyword1’ and ‘topkeyword2’.”
Put your ego aside here and hear us when we say that ranking number one on page one for particular keywords is not the ultimate goal of your SEO effort. Getting good traffic and relevant leads is what really matters. “Topkeyword1” and “topkeyword2” are just two of the thousands of searches visitors might do to find you. It’s far more productive to look at how much traffic your site is seeing from all organic searches as a measure of your SEO success.
“Google will just rank us if our site is good.”
You might have just launched the biggest and best site on the web for the business you’re in. That’s a great first step. Google will do it’s usual thing of spidering your site and will see that it’s out there, but without ongoing content additions, design/usability enhancements, and social engagement, the Big G isn’t going to be super interested in ranking your site well.
“SEO is a big scam.”
Actually, this one can be true in some cases. We recently posted a blog on this and there are unfortunately people out there promising to get you ranked for just $99 a month. If you are partaking in this “great deal” then you are likely going to get scammed, and you’ll be left with a bad taste in your mouth about SEO. What they are doing is NOT SEO. There are no quick and easy wins to search engines and run swiftly in the opposite direction when anyone tells you otherwise. SEO is about long term commitment and slow and steady wins the race.
“Google doesn’t like SEO.”
Google actually states that SEO can improve your site, save time, and provide useful services. They even have a starter guide for people wanting to learn how to do it right. What is important here is that Google encourages you doing it right but they HATE people trying to game their system. While the $99 a month SEO team may think they have figured out a way, Google will soon enough figure out their game and penalize anyone who has been participating.
“SEO is set it and forget it.”
SEO is definitely not a one time thing. Just because you released a new, pretty website that is well optimized doesn’t mean you are done. Algorithms change, content gets stale, and most importantly, your competition is evolving. You have to stay on top of your site and continually show Google you are doing your due diligence to make your site the best possible resource for what you are selling. THAT is when the rankings come.
“SEO is all about tricks.”
Actually, real SEO is all about creating a natural, welcoming experience for users that makes the overall browsing better. It makes content more discoverable both for humans and search engines and if done right, everyone wins.
The bottom line here is while there are many myths out there about SEO and what it is and isn’t, the same old mantra is still valid – if you are regularly putting out good content and legitimately trying to make your site a great resource for what you are selling in your market, eventually Google will reward you for it. If you think SEO is dead and this is just trickery and games, see how well you rank against your competitors in a year after they are taking this all seriously.