5 SEO Myths that are Hurting Your Website

Over 90% of all online activities, including sales, start with a few keywords typed into a search engine and these 5 SEO myths might be hurting your website.

The search results for any given keyword are often affected by how well your blog or website is optimized for search engines. Some of the myths around what SEO techniques to use are pretty harmless, while others will do some serious damage to your rankings, even while you are tirelessly trying to boost them.

If you own a small business, write a blog, or create content for a living you are familiar with SEO. For those who are a bit new to all of this, SEO is Search Engine Optimization. Writers and content creators work tirelessly to perfect their SEO game so that their content will make websites and blog rank highest for a particular keyword search in Google and on other search engines, like Pinterest.

Because SEO has such an impact, there is a ton of information floating around that tells us the best ways to use SEO in our businesses when we are creating content. Like all other information on a topic, some of this info is very useful, and some of it is downright damaging. Here is a list of some pretty popular SEO myths so you can see if you are doing these and change your method for using the best practices when optimizing your content for search engines.

Myth 1: Stuffing Keywords in as much as you can will make your blog appear in more searches

This is one of the biggest mistakes I see people making with their content. Sure, when you research a topic or create your title for a blog post you do keyword research to see what is popular right now in your specific niche. What happens next is often a process called keyword stuffing. So what is that? It’s when you type in a keyword or phrase, then take too many related keyword phrases that ranked in the search engine and randomly start plugging them int your blog post.

Why? The theory behind this is that the more keywords you have in your post, the higher you will rank in search engines. This is not true. When this whole internet business started, it was true that keyword stuffing would make you rank higher. But here in 2019, this is a dead strategy. Not only will keyword stuffing not make you rank higher, but it can also hurt your rankings if Google decides to punish you for your keyword stuffing practices.

No one wants to work this hard only to be pinned to the last pages of search engines because you annoyed the SEO gods. So just don’t do it. Only use keywords from your searches that are relevant to your topic and helpful to your readers.

Myth 2: Flooding Blog posts with H1 formatting will make your blog reader-friendly

Sure, we want our posts to be broken up into a reader-friendly format. Most people,  myself included, would suggest breaking up paragraphs into shorter segments (while still making them form a complete thought of course), using images, and using header formatting throughout an article or a blog post. However, don’t go crazy with the splicing and the massive H1 header formatting. Believe it or not, too many H1 headings in a post can harm your Google ratings. As an alternative, use H2 headings to intro your paragraphs throughout your blog.

Myth 3: Focusing only on optimization will make you rank higher

Yes, SEO is very important. But, it is pretty much useless unless your content is truly helpful and relevant to your readers. All the SEO in the world won’t help you if you are producing low-quality, ad-heavy, and otherwise weak content on the regular. Stick to thinking about your audience and writing for them: what are their problems? and what do you have to offer that can help solve them? From there, do some research on popular keywords and go ahead and use them when they are completely relevant o what you were already planning on writing about.

Myth 4: Commenting with your links on as many blogs as possible will drive traffic

While commenting on relevant (see how many times I used this word, it’s really important when it comes to SEO and ranking in search engines) blog posts, it can be useful to your site’s traffic to leave a link that other readers may find useful. However, randomly dropping links to your posts in irrelevant places will do nothing for you except flag you as spam. And no one wants to try and dig out from under that mess.

Myth 5: Copying popular content and creating clickbait titles will get me traffic

As a writer, this one is probably my biggest pet peeve. In the land of the internet, this technique of taking other people’s content and lightly rewording it and then calling it your own is called “spinning” content, in the editorial world, it’s called straight up plagiarism. Whatever it is called, try not to do it. It’s tacky and you will end up sharing information that you don’t really understand, therefore creating a false image of your expertise to your readers. Focus on what you know and share that.

There is always something you will know that someone else is looking for. Keep your content genuine and you will be rewarded by your reader’s loyalty, as well as by search engines. The other part of this myth is that shocking or “click bait” titles will help get you traffic. Sure, these types of titles may get you a few extra clicks, but once readers get to the post, they won’t be connecting with your content on a genuine level. Avoid these two traffic-grabbers and stay genuine with what you post and you will be rewarded for the long haul.

Conclusion

These are just the major no-nos of SEO, and there are more SEO tactics that should definitely be avoided. So how do you know which things will get you good traffic and improve your rankings and which will damage both your business reputation as well as your search engine rankings? it’s best to think of the content you produce as the face of your business. if you are putting out info that is solid, genuine, and truly helps your readers, then you should be fine. If your blog is the online version of a used car lot, you might need to rethink the way you are approaching your content and the information that you share. It’s also helpful to remember that SEO techniques are a guide or an assistant when trying to increase traffic to your blog, but they should never be your jumping off point. Always start with a topic that is helpful to your readers, and then go ahead and tweak your wording to make it more search engine- friendly.

Need some help with your content for your business? My 10-point blog and SEO checklist allows me to create conversion content that truly connects your brand with your audience and turns readers into clients.  Get in touch with me today and schedule your free consultation!

This post was proofread by Grammarly.