In the ever-evolving world of SEO, there are always new myths being formed or misconceptions being construed, so we thought it would be apt to generate a blog that addresses the most common misconceptions of SEO. It’s interesting to ponder as to why there are so many lies manufactured in this industry, but we can only conclude that perhaps it’s because the industry itself isn’t exactly tangible, or possibly because many SEO companies share slightly differing views on how best to optimize your site for the search engines. However, the points we are about to share require no debate, they are simply putting fact to fiction.

1. Guarantees

Oh, this one is a goody. Let’s just quash any debate: No SEO company on the planet can guarantee your website a rank, nor can they give you an exact time frame for when you’ll see their results. We have had a few frustrated conversations with existing clients explaining that they’ve received a call from an SEO company who have pretty much offered them the world (for nothing), and they’ve guaranteed them page 1 for all their top search terms. Thus, they don’t understand why we’re unable to offer the same. First and foremost, be wary of any SEO company that cold calls you in the hope of gaining your business. And secondly, if it were possible to make such guarantees, we wouldn’t be here writing this blog for you because we’d be drowning ourselves in our millions.

2. Speed

When it comes to SEO, the phrase that springs to mind is always, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. Nor, do we imagine it was an easy peasy, straightforward process to construct such an architectural dream. So, trying to understand search engine’s incredibly complex algorithms isn’t easy, nor can our work be carried out and rewarded overnight. We always say to our clients that it can take between 3 and 9 months for them to recognise the impact of our SEO, and that’s only if they’re utilizing all the services we offer and follow the instructions outlined in our reports. It can take time for the search engines to even index your site, let alone position it at the top. So, don’t give up on your SEO company after just a matter of weeks if the speediness of their results is the only aspect of the service you’re disappointed with.

3. You only need SEO until you achieve your goals

It can be quite tricky to convince potential clients that SEO needs to be considered as an on-going factor in their marketing strategy, and it can become more difficult to get existing clients to stay with us if/ when we’ve actually helped them achieve their SEO goals. Of course, for us, the comfort of recurring revenue is great, but honestly, that isn’t why we think SEO should be carried out long term, even if you’ve made it to the position you want to be in. There are a number of reasons why:

Search engines are in a constant state of flux, so how their algorithms function alters and updates regularly. It’s crucial to work with a company that will be able to prepare you for and assist you when these updates happen to make sure that your website’s ranking/ performance isn’t affected by them.

On top of which, search engines ranking factors expand and are re-prioritised all the time, so you want be sure that your site stays appealing to them, as well as potential clients.

Finally, any links gained aren’t necessarily going to stay there forever, so new ones need to be acquired.

4. A PPC campaign will benefit your ranking

When we used to manage Google AdWords campaigns, it was quite common for new clients to ask if it benefited their SEO in anyway. Sadly, it doesn’t, nor does any PPC campaign for any search engines/ social sites. (See What are some myths about SEO in number 5.)

5. Search engines hate SEO

Search engines do not hate SEO, what they hate is when people try to trick their algorithms. For example, keyword stuffing, hidden text, content plagiarism and so on, are all tactics that, long term, will ultimately get you nowhere with the search engines.

Here are a few videos from head of Google’s Web Spam team, Matt Cutts on SEO:

What are some myths about SEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ9Xt5PohgU

Google on WordPress and SEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P-m2cBCJSk

Here is a link to Google’s SEO Starter Guide: htttp://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.co.uk/en/uk/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

6. Link building falsification

It’s strange; there are two ends to the spectrum when it comes to our client’s queries about link building. Some potential clients want a thousand built in a day because they believe this will improve their rank, others think that link building has a negative impact on their ranking and it’s not even a crucial SEO element anymore.

To begin with, building huge amounts of links all at once is known as a ‘black hat’ SEO technique, where you are clearly trying to manipulate the search engine’s algorithms. Search engine bots have gotten pretty clever over the years and your site will be penalized and face suspension if it’s evident that you’re trying to cheat the system. Even if you were to build hundreds of links in a short space of time, you may notice a quick jump up the search engines, but we promise you won’t stay there and the pros of a short-term boost are not outweighed by the cons.

With regards to link building not being an integral part of SEO anymore, this is a lie. There’s a ton of evidence to support the fact that link building is still a vital element when it comes to SEO. Link authority and anchor text signals are key components in all search engine algorithms. However, as we have stressed above, building and generating links has to be done in a natural, organic way. At Click Submit, our partner web masters will only place a backlink if they feel the site has relevance, and crucially, they’re not obligated to place any link. See our knowledge base article on link exposure for more information on this.

8. Bad links will cause your site to be penalized

Whilst we’re on the topic of backlinks, it’s worth acknowledging that you will never be penalized for a poor quality backlink, despite the rumours. If this was the case, businesses might build ‘harmful’ links to their competitors in an attempt to cause them problems, and this is something Google could never condone. If you do have any backlinks that are of particular distress, you can use Google’s disavow tool to remove them: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main

9. Google are clever enough to find us without SEO

Although there’s no doubt that the search engines algorithms are super clever, they have yet to make magic, and we wouldn’t advise you to rely on the fact that they will find your website, crawl, index it, and push you to the top pages all on their own. If it were oh so simple, there would be no need for us guys or the heaps of other SEO companies out there.

10. ?

Well, we just thought we’d add on a number 10 so the article was a little more rounded. We hope this blog has been useful to read and cleared up any of your SEO doubts. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.