THE 12 SEO MYTHS
Natural referencing covers complex aspects, and certain points are the subject of eternal debate. To the point that it is sometimes difficult to get rid of our received ideas on the subject. This non-exhaustive list applies to take stock of the main myths that have been built around SEO. An SEO audit can also help you dispel these preconceived ideas.
1. An agency can guarantee to make you appear in 1st position
WHY IT’S WRONG: the criteria taken into account by the SEO algorithm are known to Google, and only Google. It’s impossible to predict how quickly your site will reach the top spot on the search engine, or even if it will. Your site has its specificities, you must first carry out an audit, an analysis of the competition, and define which requests are the most relevant to position yourself. Moreover, reaching the first position among the results is not an end in itself: see point n°9.
2. Target only one general keyword
WHY IT’S WRONG: Very general queries such as “restaurant” are also very competitive, and it will be that much more difficult to rank. In addition, even if you manage to achieve the first results, you will certainly have a large volume of traffic, but a very low proportion of qualified traffic: indeed, you will not necessarily meet the specific needs of the users who are looking for you. Conversely, a more specific “long tail” query, such as “cheap Chinese restaurant in Lyon”, will attract you more quality traffic and will also be more reachable.
3. The number of links is more important than the content of the page
WHY THIS IS WRONG: It is true that incoming and outgoing links, provided they come from quality sites, are useful for natural referencing. On the other hand, poor quality links penalize the SEO of your pages, as well as too many links. Moreover, since the evolutions of the Google algorithm, the user experience has become the priority criterion in SEO, and this requires quality content.
4. The only page to rank well is the homepage
WHY THIS IS WRONG: Depending on your visitor’s request, they can land on any landing page on your site. Thus, it may be more interesting to optimize the SEO of one of your pages in particular (a product page for example), if the subject it covers is the subject of a lot of research.
5. Just multiply the keywords in the content to get to the top of the results
WHY IT’S WRONG: This may have been true 15 years ago, but today there is no better way to get misreferenced. This is called keyword stuffing and it can get you penalized by Google. The Penguin algorithm is responsible for demoting web pages that use this technique. If SEO were as simple as writing lots of keywords in a row, without considering content relevance or readability, SEO experts wouldn’t exist and no one would bother (at least not as much ) to provide a good experience to its users.
6. You have to put lots of keywords in the keyword tag
WHY THIS IS WRONG: Following the same logic as the previous point, the “keyword” tag in a website is simply no longer useful. Today, listing your keywords in this tag in your code will only give information to your competitors about the queries you are looking to rank for.
7. Meta description is very important for SEO
WHY IT’S WRONG: The meta description doesn’t affect your page’s ranking in search results. On the other hand, it is still important to take care of it because it can attract traffic to you: between two results on Google, a user will be more likely to click on the one whose description is the most relevant and catchy.
8. An SEO agency can be approved by Google
WHY IT’S FALSE: You may come across web agencies that claim to be “SEO certified” or “Google approved”. But make no mistake, this kind of certification does not exist: Google does not accredit any SEO agency. On the other hand, an agency can pass the tests to obtain the Google Analytics and Google AdWords certifications.
9. The ultimate goal of SEO is to rank #1
WHY IT’S WRONG: The goal of SEO for Chiropractor is to attract quality traffic and therefore generate business. Indeed, what is the use of arriving first on Google if it is to have only a very low conversion rate? Conversely, a site displayed in 3rd position on a request but which manages to convert many prospects into customers is much more interesting.
10. AdWords campaigns have a good influence on my SEO
WHY IT’S FALSE: You might think that paying Google for an SEA campaign can influence the algorithm and improve its position in natural referencing, but it’s false. In this, Google is fair and equitable: a good natural referencing is the result of long-term work on the quality and interest of our site. There is therefore no link between the AdWords budget and the position in organic referencing; however, SEO and SEA are related in terms of traffic acquisition, since for example, a visitor who clicked on your AdWords ad may subsequently search for you directly on Google.
11. The more content I have, the better
WHY THIS IS WRONG: Indeed, a website with a lot of content means that many different themes are covered, and is therefore more likely to answer a large number of requests. However, you don’t have to make content to make content; remember that if the pages of your site are indexed by robots, they are read by humans. Your content must therefore be relevant, interesting and provide added value somewhere.
12. Once you’re well ranked, you don’t need to touch it anymore
WHY THIS IS WRONG: You have carried out an SEO campaign and you have finally reached the first place on the targeted queries: congratulations! But the work does not stop there, because your competitors will not stop their SEO strategy. Thus, it is very important to continue to make a strategic watch and to adapt to the new needs of your users, as well as to the evolutions of the Google algorithm.
We hope this article has helped you to see more clearly in the different springs of SEO. To be sure not to go wrong with your natural referencing strategy, call on the 1st position agency!