If you are a business owner who has a digital presence or would like to build a website in future, then you must have heard about SEO. SEO or search engine optimization is a tool which is extremely useful. It helps in gaining a place in search engine’s first page.
In the past, Google had a different algorithm for SEO which has changed significantly over the years. Even digital marketers are unaware of these changes. Many times, digital marketing agencies will misguide you (based on the past SEO guidelines) on how you must design your SEO strategy. So, in this article, we are about to snub all the bad advice we have heard about SEO.
1. SEO gives instant result
No, that is not true. SEO is a tool through which you can market your website online. It cannot give instant results. It takes weeks at times months to improve the rankings on Google through white hat SEO strategy. So, steer away from anyone who says that SEO gives instant results.
2. If you want to rank high on Google, keyword stuffing helps.
This is an extremely wrong notion. It is important to have keywords in the article. But it does not mean that keyword stuffing will help. In fact, Google penalizes if there are a lot of keywords and article does not make any sense. Our advice is that use keywords wherever it is required and is relevant but do not overdo it.
3. Content does not matter
One of the arguably worst advice one can hear while creating SEO strategy. While keywords are important, it is also that there is a relevant and unique content available on your website. Readers are now the first priority for Google and it wants the content which users find interesting and relevant. It should be error free – grammatically and spelling wise. It should be unique and not be copied from any other website. It is very easy and tempting to duplicate content but in the long run, this practice can really harm the SEO of the website. Google penalizes if there is duplicate content.
4. Focus on as many links possible
It is important that your website has links but it is more important for it to have quality links. One good quality link is far better than 100 links of inferior quality. So, what is the definition of a good link? A good link is the one which is an authority in a particular field. Suppose you own a second-hand auto dealer website. A famous auto magazine if mentions you and your website with the links on its blog, then that is a good quality link. So, try engaging high profile bloggers and get links from them. Even if you get one good link, chances of your website ranking higher in Google will go up. A piece of advice though- please don’t purchase links, chances of Google penalizing your website is quite high.
5. Utilize all your marketing budget in SEO
Again, a big no-no. As the saying goes, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Similarly, your marketing mix should have a balanced mix of SEO, social media and PPC. They all complement each other. Just banking on SEO to give your website more exposure would be a wrong practice. Though SEO is an extremely important part of digital marketing and gets great results but other tools need to be used for an all-round and comprehensive results.
6. Show different versions to crawlers
One does not need to have two separate versions of websites for users and crawlers. Two versions lead to a lot of confusion. So, we advise that keep one version of website text for both users and crawlers.
7. Put a lot of text on the homepage
Again, a recipe for a disaster! Having too much information or cluttered homepage is not advisable. We know that homepage is where most of the users will check in. But giving putting a lot of text can make the loading of the website very slow. For better optimization, the website should be able to load in 4-5 seconds because human’s average attention span is 8 seconds online So, make your homepage clutter free and create more pages for giving more information.
8. Put most of the ads before the fold
It is a fallacy that one should put the ads before the fold. Google frowns if too many ads are placed before scrolling. There are chances that your website rankings will go down if you have many ads. So, make sure you utilize the entire space of the homepage and display your ads.
9. Indexing of the page does not matter
Of course, it matters. Google is particular that information regarding new web pages should be added. Google’s index is the collection of web pages searched by crawlers. So, if a particular page is not indexed then it cannot be found by the search engine and then SEO strategy fails. So, it is a very good idea to index all the new webpages you have created.
10. You don’t need to have local SEO
Local SEO is an integral part of any SEO strategy. 50% of the consumers who do a local search end up visiting a store. Similarly, 34% of users who have searched locally have visited the store that day itself. With such high numbers, local SEO cannot be ignored. As more and more people are using cellphones, local search is now very important for any business owner.
These are many of the worst advice that any website owner will get. But after reading this article, we are sure that that you would be able to implement and execute SEO plan. If you any more queries regarding SEO, do contact us and we will do our best to help you.