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SEO Myths You Should Stop Believing in 2022

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The internet is a beautiful place, but it can also be confusing. There are so many different opinions and ideas regarding SEO floating around that it can be tough to know what is true and what is just an urban legend. 

SEO consists of the process of tailoring your website to rank better in search engines like Google and Bing for specific keywords or the phrases users type in when looking for information on the web. With Google releasing hundreds of updates every year in order to best meet their users’ needs and protect their safety and privacy, SEO best practices are constantly evolving.

As SEO has become a driving force in digital marketing, there is no scarcity of SEO information available for free online. However, as such, SEO myths are also everywhere.  If you are a site owner looking to improve your rankings, getting to know which tales are true and which ones are not is essential before you make any changes to your website.

Since SEO is a complicated field, it is easy for myths to get mixed in with facts. While some of the information shared online does come from the experts, some has been spread around by amateurs who do not know any better. Especially considering Google keeps updating its algorithms, making it difficult for content creators and online businesses to identify what strategies work, which don’t, and which have simply become outdated and inefficient. 

Taking all of this into consideration, our SEO experts will dispel some of the most common SEO myths out there.

The Most Common SEO Myths in 2022

SEO is DEAD!

If one thing is for sure: SEO is not dead. It is more important than ever before. It is just that people are getting more thoughtful about how they do SEO.

In 2021, there was a massive shift in how people did SEO. Part of these changes involves SEO professionals moving away from looking at rankings as the only measure of success for an SEO campaign.

The search engines have also changed their algorithms to make it harder for people to manipulate them with spammy tactics and tricks like buying links or creating low-quality content just to boost rankings in search engines like Google and Bing.

Thus, if you are going to do SEO in 2022, you need to understand that there are no shortcuts or quick fixes — you have to create great content and promote it effectively while being mindful of Google’s guidelines on how to use its platform responsibly.

SEO is all about keywords – keyword stuffing

While keywords certainly matter, they should not be the be-all, end-all of SEO strategy. The days of mindlessly stuffing keywords into your articles and copy to increase their density are long gone – at least if you care about getting high rankings.

That being said, you should still use keyword-rich headlines and subheadings, and include keywords in the body of your content to improve your rankings. However, beware of overdoing it. Instead, focus on creating valuable, well-written content that people actually want to read, and you will naturally rank well for your chosen keywords.

SEO is all about producing lots of content

Google wants websites with helpful information, so more content can help your website rank higher in search results. But do not go overboard! If you fill your website with hundreds of pages of low-quality content, Google will penalize you for having too much junk on your site. It is also essential to ensure that your content is unique and has been thoroughly researched before publishing it online.

The number of articles, videos, and other content on your website does not automatically mean that more is better. Having enough content is important but search engines want to see quality over quantity. That is why they started favoring sites with fewer pages but more relevant information over those with thousands of pages filled with low-quality content.

SEO is a one-time effort

“Set it and forget it” is the one thing you should never do for SEO. In fact, there are serious consequences to treating SEO as a one-time effort. The first step in SEO is creating an SEO-friendly website and then optimizing its content and site map for search engines. However, this is only the beginning of your work. You need to keep updating your website regularly and continuously creating content to remain relevant to searchers’ queries.

The search engines change their algorithms regularly, and if you want to stay in the top rankings, you need to adjust your site regularly. You should also update your site with fresh content (which Google loves), build links from reputable sources, create valuable and relevant social media accounts, add schema markup (e.g., product descriptions), and track your site analytics for insights into what users are doing on your site.

You have to rank #1 to be successful

Many people think that getting the top spot on Google’s first page is the only road to success. But that is not true at all. You can be in the second or third position and still get high organic traffic from Google search results.

Many businesses are doing well without being on the first spot or even the first page of Google.It might also be more feasible for you to score higher rankings for some keywords than others depending on your niche. So aim for the first spot, but do not get disappointed if you do not get it. Digital marketing is made up of many different elements which you can leverage to grow your biz.

The more backlinks you have, the better

Backlinks are an essential part of SEO. They are critical to determining your website’s domain authority and to growing traffic coming into your site. If a site with reputable authority links to your site, then Google will see this as an indication that your site is widespread and will rank it higher in its search results. However, backlinks can cause more harm than good if they don’t come from a reputable source. 

Google has made it clear that they do not want people to build links with low-quality sites, so we have to be careful about where our links come from.

We should focus on getting links from high-quality websites that have good domain authority and that are relevant to our industry. Thus, helping us rank higher for specific keywords and topics without risking ranking penalties from Google or other search engines.

The more pages your website has, the better you rank

Google loves sites with lots of content because they look more helpful to people visiting them. But that does not mean you should add more pages to your site just because you can — especially if those pages are irrelevant to what you do or provide no value to your customers.

The truth is that Google does not care as much about how many pages you have on a website. It only cares about how valuable those pages are to its users. If you want to rank well in Google, focus on creating high-quality content that answers user queries, more than on creating a large quantity of content.

The most important thing is that each page has its unique purpose, not just an added number in a SERP. Your rankings will suffer if you have 100 pages, but none of them have any visitors from Google.

Images and graphics have nothing to do with SEO

The primary misconception is that images do not matter in SEO. However, Google does not give much value to images in its ranking algorithm since 10.1 percent of all Google traffic is for images.google.com. Therefore, there are other reasons why your site should use SEO-optimized images. 

First, Google indexes pictures and displays them in Google Images. Therefore, it is helpful for visually-oriented users who rely on images to understand a topic. Second, pictures can help with user engagement by increasing time spent on your website and improving user experience.

If you have an image on your page that is not optimized, it will not be able to give you any SEO benefit. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that all your images are optimized before uploading them onto your site to provide maximum value for SEO.

Local SEO is not effective for online businesses.

Local SEO is one of the fastest-growing sectors of search marketing, and it is easy to see why. Local businesses with local listings on Google receive 80 percent more clicks than those without, depending on location. 

But what if your business does not have a physical location? Or what if you are an online retailer with no physical location? Local SEO still works for any business that wants to rank locally, even if they do not have a brick-and-mortar store. You can attract more customers, increase your sales and improve your ranking by optimizing your website and creating local listings on major directories like Yelp and Bing.

The truth is that local search results have become increasingly important, even if you are a national brand. And if you are not ranking well locally, chances are you are missing out on many potential customers.

Keywords with low search volume are worthless

You may be tempted to reject keywords with a low search volume from your content marketing strategy. However, it is better to get more traffic from a small number of searches than none. Most of the time, these low-volume keywords are exactly what you need.

You would be surprised at how much traffic some low-volume keywords can drive. Unfortunately, as a result, some websites rank for terms with a deficient number of searches each month.

According to Mozs keyword difficulty tool, a term with lower volume has an easier time ranking than one with fewer than 100 searches per month. The same is true for page views; it is possible to rank for terms with only a few thousand hits per month if your site is authoritative enough. 

Thus, it is not always better to target high-volume keywords; sometimes, it is better to target long-tail keywords with less competition because fewer sites compete for them.

You can take a break once you get the desired ranking.

It is a common belief that once you rank your website on Google, you can relax and enjoy your success. However, in reality, this is not true at all. Unfortunately, many businesses have fallen victim to this myth because they thought they had achieved their goals and stopped making further efforts to improve their rankings. 

But this is not the case; as time goes by, newer sites will appear with fresh content and better optimization techniques, which may push your site down in SERPs or even out of them entirely if you fail to update your website regularly with fresh content and new SEO strategies.

PPC impacts SEO

False! PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising has nothing to do with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Instead, PPC is an internet marketing strategy that drives traffic directly to your website through paid search listings, links, or ads on Google or other search engines. 

PPC campaigns can effectively drive traffic, but they are not designed to improve organic rankings on search engines. If you use PPC to send visitors to your site who are not interested in your offer, you could hurt your organic rankings by increasing the bounce rate and lowering time spent on on-site metrics.

SEO Myths be gone! Learn The Right Way To Do SEO.

Unfortunately, many people are taken in by SEO myths and fall for shady tactics. Most of the time, this is because they do not understand how search engines work or how to do SEO properly. Instead of blindly following these myths, you should learn about modern SEO practices and research the issues yourself.If you follow conventional wisdom and base your SEO strategy on flawed advice, the potential consequences could be dire. But, in the end, no one knows the future of search engines better than Google. Our advice? The best way to obtain results is to work with an SEO expert to develop a professional content marketing strategy for your unique situation and develop an SEO-friendly website for your business.

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