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SEO is an online marketing channel with reputation for being technical witchcraft. Therefore it isn’t easy to determine what is true about it and what isn’t. The many algorithm updates of Google do very little to alleviate this confusion and because of this it is difficult to dispel the most prevalent SEO myths:
Rankings are all there is about SEO
Rankings have been the obsession of both Search Engine Optimization experts and their clients. Some customers are still on the opinion that they already have a reserved position in Google for their chosen keywords. This is simply not true and such an assumption is both deceptive and undermines the efforts behind an SEO campaign.
In truth, given how sophisticated the Google algorithms are today, it is simply inappropriate to talk about rankings. The term average rankings should be used instead. Depending on a large number of factors, Google projects different results that stand beyond the control of any webmaster.
Links are all that matters
This is just one more myth. As aforementioned, Google uses a range of factors to determine how to rank a page in a search result. Although it is true that backlinks are an important factors that influences website ranking, not all the links have equal strength.
Links are just one of the components that make a website and in order for them to be valuable, they must also be truthful, genuine and informative in the eyes of a visitor, and in this case the visitor is Google. Stay away from link directories and the like. If it is easy for you to acquire a link, it is very likely that it is not worth having it.
Black hat SEO is cheap, automated and it works
When done in the right way, SEO is not cheap or automated. Historically, those who call themselves black hat SEO experts will try to find a way around the Google algorithms with the aim to exploits them to acquire unjustified rankings. While several years ago these techniques were somewhat effective and functioned to a large extent automatically, Google started penalizing websites relaying on them more severely. The latest Google updates ensure that black hat SEO is no longer cheap or effective.
Google is unable to read JavaScript code
This is a common myth, although Google itself has been very thorough in explaining it. Google not only can read code in JavaScript but is getting increasingly good at reading dynamically loaded AJAX content.
Your SEO performance increases significantly when you invest in AdWords
This false statement has been circulating among SEOs for some time with some of them believing that those who spend a lot of money on AdWords campaigns will be rewarded by Google.
As Google has officially stated, the company has independent Organic Search and advertising teams that work isolated from each other. AdWords doesn’t modify organic search results and such a statement doesn’t make sense.
People should try to distinguish fiction from facts as SEO has undergone a lot of changes throughout the years and a many statements about what works for SEO and what doesn’t are simply false.
