Whether you’re an expert or a beginner at SEO, it’s always useful to compile all the myths you read about, so you can work out for yourself the ones you
You may be surprised at how common some SEO myths still are in 2016, so it’s definitely time to leave them behind.
Whether you’re an expert or a beginner at SEO, it’s always useful to compile all the myths you read about, so you can work out for yourself the ones you actually need to be worried about.
What would you add to this list of the most common SEO myths?
1. SEO is dead
This is certainly the most popular SEO-related myth and it ended up an urban legend, widely spread among sites and communities. If you happen to believe that SEO is indeed dead, or if you’re just a pessimist, I assume the rest of the myths won’t be much useful to you.
If you want to keep on reading and set things straight once and for all, keep in mind that search engines and algorithms are not disappearing anytime soon, so you may still rely on SEO to maintain visibility and traffic to your site.
2. SEO is about adding the right keywords
There used to be a time when keyword density was (mistakenly) synonymous with a good SEO practice, but as search engines keep changing, so does our SEO strategy. Keywords are still part of your optimisation, but the focus is more on the content and its relevance, rather than the exact keyword.
The arrival of RankBrain made even clearer the focus on relevance, with the page being crawled for its content and emphasising the user experience, rather than the use of the exact keyword.
No more awkward headlines to favour a specific keyword, let’s concentrate on the content’s meaning.
3. SEO is about ranking #1 on SERPs
Many “SEO ninjas” promise to land your business at the #1 ranking spot for just $100, but even if they manage to deliver their promises, SEO is not just about the ranking, especially when focusing on the goal of reaching the top spot.
Your SEO strategy should aim to increase traffic, engagement and eventually conversions and this cannot be achieved by merely focusing on the site’s position in SERPs.
It’s true that being on the first page of SERPs can lead to an increase of traffic to your page, but the goal is not to simply gain the #1 spot.
For example, featured snippets, the summary of an answer to a user’s query that is displayed on top of Google search results, can lead to an increase of traffic of up to 20-30%, but 70% of them do not come from the first organic result. Thus, it’s the optimisation of the content, the usefulness and the relevance that may lead to additional traffic and make your SERP position more effective.
4. The more webpages you have, the better the ranking
Quantity should not be preferred over quality, especially when it’s simply picked as part of your SEO strategy.
You can create as many webpages as you want if you feel that they add value to your site, but there’s no need to create additional pages hoping to increase your crawling from search engines. Not every page gets indexed and quality is a crucial factor for your attempt to increase your site’s visibility, so keep that in mind next time you feel inclined to create new (pointless) pages.
5. Image optimisation is not necessary
As visual content increases, its optimisation becomes more important and although it’s an easy process, we sometimes need to remind ourselves to do it when creating new content.
As search engines cannot actually see your images, you need to provide the right description to make them ‘visible’. Google suggests you use descriptive titles and captions, while the use of a keyword can also be useful.
Make sure you fill in the fields of title, alt text and description, as they all contribute to the increased chances of having your image visible in search engines. Also, keep in mind that a unique image has more chances to be seen, compared to a boring stock photo.
6. Mobile optimisation is overrated
Do you still underestimate mobile optimisation in 2016? “Mobilegeddon” is here to stay, which means that Google officially measures the mobile-friendliness of your site among its ranking factors.
In Google’s own words:
On average, people check their phones more than 150 times a day, and more searches occur on mobile phones than computers. But if a potential customer is on a phone, and a site isn’t easy to use, they’re five times more likely to leave.
To avoid losing out in these crucial moments, you need a site that loads quickly and is easy to use on mobile screens. The first step is seeing how your site is performing. We can help by scoring your site for mobile-friendliness, mobile speed, and desktop speed.
Mobile optimisation is all about the user experience, whether it’s the design of the page, the responsiveness, the number of clicks, the page speed, or even the screen size.
What’s more, we cannot underestimate Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), Google’s latest attempt to improve the performance of mobile web articles in a light, fast version of a page. As it now arrives in organic search results, it’s becoming quite imperative to give it a try and enhance the user experience and hence, the traffic to your post.
Source: 11 SEO myths to forget in 2016 | Search Engine Watch
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