Search engine optimization or SEO as we gladly call it, has seen a kind of ‘population explosion’ in human terms. Meaning, with every new update that Google rolls out regarding search engine algorithms, there is a significant rise in the number of facts and rumors equally.
In the recent times, this has got completely off balance. Thanks to misinterpretations and a limited amount of understandings among the common folks, several useful facts, and bits of information often get ignored under the veil of wrong information.
It’s time we fire a head-shot at these myths and put them to rest for the greater good.
Here are some of the most infamous SEO myths that have been doing rounds on the internet.
Myth #1
Approved by Google.
Look, boss, Google handles more than 100 billion searches per month. With that gargantuan amount of data, it is next to impossible for someone to predict what keywords will be used in the future or guarantee which website stays on the top.
If any agency claims that they have been approved by Google or claim to be endorsed by Google, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. Google never shares its search page ranking algorithm. And it does not endorse any SEO agency or company.
Even though companies offering SEO services are definitely helpful for your website, say for Keyword research, anyone claiming that they have the pixie dust which they will sprinkle on your website and it will magically rank on the top of search page, is hoodwinking you.
Myth #2
You have to submit your site to Google
No, you don’t!
There have been times when we received emails stating that we need to pay those so-called ‘SEO experts’ in order for them to submit the site to search engines. That is a scam.
You can always ask Google to recrawl your website’s URLs, but never pay someone for it. Google’s algorithm is smart, it does not need any manual submission for a website. As soon as a website goes live, Google gets it indexed. The only time you need to ask Google bot to crawl over your website is when you submit new content or make a drastic change in lieu of the existing services.
Myth #3
Content is King
While good content is definitely important, the term content is king is slightly overrated. By having your website stuffed with plain content will never help it rank better on the search page.
One thing needs to be understood here- SEO is one big eco-system; no single entity can be termed as the most important nor the other can be deemed the least important. For a website’s SEO to work flawlessly, it is important for various factors to work in unison.
Do great looks make someone a great actor? Or great policies make great politicians? Content without quality links is like a house without doors or windows. Unaccessible and non-existent to the outer world.
Myth #4
Link building is dead
Link building is far far far away from being dead.
One of the most extensively time-tested and fairly authoritative methods of marketing is link-building. Search engines rely on link authority and anchor text cues for search engine ranking of a website.
According to many experts, anchor text will remain as one the most important ranking factor regardless of the updates that Google will roll out.
Myth #5
Google doesn’t know if bad websites are linking to you
Oh yes, they will!
Consider this: The amount of data indexed by Google exceeds over 100 million gigabytes. A company of that size knows things you would not even imagine. Just like the Santa knows you were not good this year, Google knows that bad websites are linking back to you.
In an online session, a guy asked this: “Recently I found two porn websites linking to my site. I disavow those links and wrote to the admins asking them to remove those links. But what can I do if someone – like my competition – is trying to harm me with bad backlinks?”
Matt Cutts, former head of the webspam team at Google, replied, “Just go ahead and disavow those links,” even if those linking to you do not remove the links. “At that point, you should be in good shape and I wouldn’t worry about it after that.”
Just disavow those links but never think that Google will not consider them in SEO.
Simply because many people are talking about something, it doesn’t become the truth. Do a thorough research and rely on reputed sources before taking a decision.
