One of the best ways to increase website traffic for your business is through search engine optimization, or SEO, which improves the chances someone will organically find your website through an internet search. The higher a company ranks in search engine result listings for specific keywords, the more likely a user is to find that company’s website.
Google and other search engines use algorithms to determine which websites are most relevant to a user’s search query. There are a number of strategies that companies can use to make those algorithms work in their favor. However, because the digital world is constantly changing and evolving, it is important to stay up to date on the best SEO practices and how to implement them.
There is a lot of misinformation circulating about what is effective when it comes to SEO. This is mainly a result of certain standards and practices becoming outdated over the years as search engines become faster and better at identifying what users want and need.
Here are seven common myths about SEO to watch out for:
- More keywords = better. While it is important to include relevant keywords in your copy, it can be detrimental to use too many. This is known as keyword stuffing and some search engines might penalize you for it.
- Social media shares will impact SEO. It is always a good idea to create content that is easy to share on social media, however likes and shares on sites like Facebook don’t directly translate to a better search engine ranking.
- Headers must contain keywords. Most experts would recommend including relevant keywords in your main site header, but it’s not necessary to stuff keywords into all your site header tags throughout the page.
- Your domain name affects your ranking. Relevant and easy-to-understand domain names can help you build your brand, but a domain name that is too generic or contains too many keywords may appear less credible to users and may therefore negatively affect website traffic and ranking.
- Meta tags should contain all keywords. Meta tags are useful because they tell search engines what your page is about and can entice users to click on a link. However Google doesn’t use the meta tag for ranking purposes, so stuffing keywords in the meta tags will probably do more harm than good.
- It’s all about the words. Ranking high on search engine results is about more than the words you use in your tags and page content. It’s also about how well you engage users once they land on your site. If most users click on your website from a list of search engine results, only to quickly leave and return to the results to choose another option, it can negatively impact your future ranking.
- You can get penalized for duplicate content. Duplicate content can confuse search engines because they don’t know which page to prioritize on search engine results. However, you will not be penalized for having duplicate content.
The click-through rate for Google Ads is less than 2%, and the click-through rate for Facebook ads is less than 1%. In today’s digitally competitive environment, that means your SEO strategy needs to be foolproof in order to attract new leads and customers online.
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