4 SEO Myths That Should Be Completely Busted

As the year comes to an end, those of us who are doing our best to navigate the Google-driven world have stumbled across several SEO myths that we are going to do our best to debunk. The online marketing industry is a mover and a shaker, and with the constant ebb and flow we must always be on our toes. With phrases like “SEO is dead” being thrown around in an attempt to gain as many clicks as possible, we thought it was time to shed some light on a few online marketing myths and misunderstandings.

SEO Myths are one of the crucial factor among the various factors affecting online marketing and businesses. There are various myths related to SEOs which should be busted completely, quickly and efficiently. Some of the SEO Companies, together studied about the myths of SEO and the truths behind them.

Let’s take a closer look at the myths and the truth beside them. Here is what experts from Top SEO Companies need to say about this issue.

1. Should You Build Links For The Sake of SEO?

• The Myth:

Google wants nothing to do with link building for SEO purposes. Search engine’s have a distaste for “unnatural” links. Your link profile should expand naturally over time, due to the incredible content on your site. These things are all true observably true, so a professional SEO company that actively builds links can’t really help.

• The Truth:

Google may say that links are becoming less effective in the land of online marketing, they still remain the strongest ranking signal for any given site.

Whether google admits it or not, link building is and will always be the strongest part of the company’s SEO strategy. Otherwise, you will fall behind your competitors. What we as an observer, observed is the brand’s value will only be with high quality links from valuable sources.

2. Clicks Do Not Affect Your Rankings

• The Myth:

Google has been extremely inconsistent about their stance on whether or not SERP click-through rates have an impact on a website's rankings. This leaves the online marketing industry thinking that click data is muddled and spammy.

• The Truth:

There are patents that include methods of getting rid of the “muddy water,” which Google sees as a reason for not using clicks for rankings. But, just because there are patents, doesn’t mean a system is in place and currently being used.

Rand Fishkin and other people at MOZ, conducted a test, result of which was, “The increase in rankings was temporary, which makes click-through rates effective in real time, but not necessarily effective long term”.

Regardless, optimizing your Google snippets for clicks should be an important part of your SEO strategy.

3. Keywords Schmeewords:

• The Myth:

In 2013 Google announced its Hummingbird update, which seemed to replace the value of keywords with concepts and topics. Hummingbird wasn’t working alone, RankBrain and the Knowledge Graph also seemed geared towards understanding “human-like” queries.

When announcing the Knowledge Graph, Google’s Amit Singhal said:

“Thanks to the Knowledge Graph, your results are more relevant because we understand these entities, and nuances in their meaning, the way you do.”

Few marketers have suggested that keywords should be forgotten as a part of SEO Strategy and should become obsolete.

• The Truth:

Although Hummingbird most certainly turned Google into a more understanding critter that considers the actual context or the phrase being searched, it doesn’t make keywords any less effective.

You could be missing some opportunity if you haven’t completely delved into the commonly used long-tail keywords. Keyword research and use is still a very important part of any SEO strategy.

4. There Is No SEO Value In Social Signal

• The Myth:

Likes, Tweets, Pins, and other social signals have always been controversial factors for SEO strategies. Google’s Matt Cutts mentions, “To the best of my knowledge, we don’t currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.”

This is a much different from his earlier statement telling the marketing world that engagement metrics from social media are used in the ranking algorithms.

• The Truth:

To be fair, things change and these “facts” may have been true at the time. But lately, Google has not been denying that social signals have an impact on rankings. Google’s Andrey Lipattsev stated: “You generated exactly the sort of signals we are looking out for: mentions, links, tweets, and social mentions - which are basically more links to the page.”

Seems like a pretty straightforward way of saying that Google does, in fact, use social signals for rankings. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+... they do make an impact and absolutely should be a part of any SEO strategy.

What You Really Need To know About SEO!

One thing that is not at all a myth is that, “The technology is imperfect, including the almighty Google”. Algorithms will inevitably change and Google will continue to shift how they value content and rank pages.