3 Common SEO Myths You Can Stop Believing

Despite the fact that SEO has been around for what seems like forever, there are still a few commonly believed myths that continue to be passed around the camp fire. In an effort to help you stop spinning your ‘marketing wheels’ through buying into these common myths, we hope to squash the rumor mill and help you refocus your efforts on meaningful marketing tactics.

Top 3 SEO Myths

SEO Myth #1: Organic vs Paid Search

Oddly enough, a lot of people will tend to either focus on SEO for organic search results and traffic or focus on just paid advertising because they think the two are independent of each other. They are, however, those few who seek a balance between the two have lessons to teach us all!

In 2013, Resolution Media, one of the largest search agencies in the world, and Kenshoo, a digital marketing technology company, created a white paper for Hewlett Packard (HP) entitled, “The Search Sandbox: Paid Plays Well with Organic.” They were able to determine that running paid advertising in conjunction with organic search results provided a positive value, beyond just using one strategy or the other.

And, even when there was an organic search result in the number one position, searchers still clicked and converted on a paid advertisement 39.6 percent of the time. Paid search is even more valuable, and your only option, when you don’t rank on the first page organically.

Even when you do rank organically on the first page for a keyword, an additional link on the page, through paid search, is very beneficial. When your brand takes up more search result ‘real estate’, click through rates tend to increase.

SEO Myth #2: SEO Is For the Search Engines and Not For Visitors

Oh now, come on! This myth is furthest from the truth. Search engines are always evolving and so is the way in which they are able to interpret the data. The goal, more often than not, is to return search results that contain a ranked order of the best user experiences mixed with authority in a subject and trust.

Search engines are able to view a website much like a person (yes, actual people at Google test results and websites and the positive aspects are turned into part of the ranking algorithm), and with semantics (better understanding language and search intent), they are getting a better understanding of the content the search engines crawl.

Much of what search engines look for on a page/website that results in higher placement is based on better user experiences. User experiences are a HUGE part of SEO and not mutually exclusive of it.

SEO Myth #3: Social Is Not the New SEO

Ok, that’s true — social media marketing is not replacing SEO. Still, focusing more effort on just social because it’s new and shiny isn’t always a sturdy foundation to base your online presence on. But, nonetheless, social signals are an important part of SEO. You need to create quality content for SEO to truly work and we know that quality content provides a good user experience; plus, visitors are more likely to share quality content. As organic search and social signals intermingle, they tell a story to the search engines about your brand and how useful/valuable the content is on your site. SEO and social are more intertwined with one another than most people think. Why else would Google crawl and index Twitter conversations?

There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to SEO and many aspects of SEO are based on your particular niche, but with better understanding, you can dispel SEO myths and spend more time on actionable tactics that produce results. Need help? Contact the experts at Brawn Media to help with your SEO efforts.