What Is The Biggest SEO Myth In 2021?
SEO is as fatal as it is beneficial if you don't do it right. Any wrong optimization can penalize your website. SEO is very vast and there are many myths in this domain. Now you should know legit techniques for your business SEO.
Let's learn about the top 21 SEO myths that you must know and avoid now and in 2021.
1. SEO Is Dead
This myth amplifies every time search engines launch an algorithm update. The thing that changes after an update is the SEO strategy. You need to upgrade your SEO according to the new update so that you can continue having results. Sometimes, algorithm updates diminish your results, so keep an eye on algorithm updates and optimize your SEO to have maximum results.
SEO is not dead and never will be.
2. SEO Is A One-Time Thing
SEO is not like you do it once and you have results for life. You have to maintain consistent SEO optimization to have sustainable results. SEO is a continuous refinement process that keeps your online business up to the mark to gain maximum business.
So, don't stop your SEO if you want to have profitable results online continuously.
3. Google Ranks Fresh Content
Yes, content freshness is a factor that Google considers to determine the quality and rank of your content. But it's not like you have to create new content every time; your existing content can also help you gain ranking. All you need to do is update your existing content to renew its freshness and earn the benefit of content freshness.
Republish your content to refresh the effectiveness of your existing content.
4. Long-Tail Keyword Rankings Aren't A Piece Of Cake
You can find many resources saying that you can earn quick rankings with long-tail keywords, but that's not entirely true. Long-tail keywords have low search volume and competition, but Google mostly ranks the websites for long-tail keywords that rank for famous or main keywords. Hence, you need to work on your authority and all over rankings to earn the rankings on long-tail keywords.
5. Duplicate Content Causes Penalization
This is the most popular SEO myth that most people believe. There is no penalty for duplicate content, but still, duplicate content can harm your organic rankings. If you have duplicate content on your site, search engines divide the authority between copies and ultimately dilute your rankings.
Moreover, your backlinks also drop due to duplicate content. The crawl budget also gets wasted on crawling the same content twice, which could have been used to index other important webpages.
6. Social Media Channels Improve Rankings
Social media channels are a great way to spread brand awareness and generate huge engagement, but it doesn't help you with rankings. Social media channels do not have a direct impact on organic rankings. However, you can double up your website traffic from social media channels. You can also get free referrals from your social media platforms if you have amazing credibility with your followers.
So, consider social media platforms for earning traffic and brand awareness, but don't expect rankings.
7. PPC Has No SEO Benefits
PPC helps you get non-organic results, and there isn't any direct SEO benefit, but if you implement the right PPC approach, you can have some results from SEO. You can promote your content for backlink generations and that will help you improve the rankings.
Moreover, Google AdWords is a great research tool, and you can get valuable data for your SEO optimization and have profitable results. You can use it for keyword research, buyer journey analysis, user intent analysis, etc., to upgrade your SEO strategy.
8. PageRank Is Obsolete
PageRank is a Google matrix to scale the authority and quality of a webpage. However, Google stopped the PageRank public scores in 2016, and people believed that PageRank is no longer considered, which isn't true. Google itself confirmed that they still consider the PageRank with other ranking factors to decide your SERP rankings.
Hence, you should optimize every webpage to have favorable rankings in the SERPs.
9. SEO Is For Rankings Only
The number one ranking is something that all the online business owners desire. People believe that SEO can help you gain the top ranking, which is true but incomplete. There are many other aspects as well. You can't have the most traffic even if you rank at number 1. People are more likely to click on the result that appears in top positions for all related keywords. Single keyword rankings won't deliver you what you expect. You have to work on the entire website's SEO to build authority and brand awareness so people click on you even when you don't rank for the top position.
If you have the quality, then searchers can search for you directly with brand keywords. So, don't target your SEO for ranking only, and nurture your business completely to have profitable and sustainable results.
10. Keyword Research Is Ineffective
A webpage ranks for multiple keywords and combinations of them, so what's the point of doing keyword research and optimizing your webpage according to a targeted keyword? Keyword research is crucial for traffic and conversions. If you target the wrong keywords, then you won't rank, or in case you rank, then you won't have the conversions. So, it's mandatory to filter the keywords.
11. #1 Ranking Guarantees
#1 rankings are beneficial for your business, and you must consider SEO to get top rankings. However, if someone guarantees you top rankings, then it's a red flag. No one can guarantee your ranking. Moreover, if someone tells you that they have some connection with the search engine, then never consider that guy or service. Search engines work based on several algorithms, and there is no human intervention. So don't believe guarantees and false promises for rankings. SEO is a promising process; just don't believe this ranking SEO myth.
12. The More Backlinks The Better
Backlinks are a vote for your popularity or credibility. It's like someone is referring you for quality services, products, or information. That is, backlinks play a huge role in your organic rankings and are a significant ranking factor.
However, Google not only considers the number of backlinks when measuring your authority, it's also the authority of the websites you are getting links from. Hundreds of backlinks from low authority or spammy websites won't give you the value that a single backlink from a high authority website can.
This is a prevalent SEO myth, and you shouldn't consider it in 2021. Focus on quality instead of quantity.
13. Nofollow Links Are Fruitless Links
Google bots move from link to link on the web, and a nofollow attribute is to tell the crawlers not to follow that link. Crawlers pass some link juice when the link is dofollow, and in the case of nofollow, you don't get any link juice, which makes the people think nofollow links are valueless. However, visitors can click and visit the linked page, and if you have a nofollow link from a high authority site, you can drive significant traffic from there. So, nofollow links are not fruitless; you can have immense traffic from the nofollow links if you get it from a popular site. So, ditch this SEO myth in 2021, and earn some quality nofollow backlinks.
14. You Shouldn't Link Out To Other Sites
This is the most prevalent SEO myth that if you link out to other websites, you are sending your users away. Obviously, users have to go on other websites, but if you serve your quality content by supporting it with the data from authoritative sources, it'll pass value to the users.
If you pass value to the users, they will consider you a reliable source and return to you for sure. So, improve your quality and link back if needed to best serve your users.
15. Meta Title And Description Are A Ranking Factor
Meta titles and descriptions represent your webpage in the SERPs. Earlier, these used to impact rankings, but later on, Google declared that meta titles and descriptions were not a ranking factor.
However, you should still work on your meta titles and description, as there is an indirect effect on your rankings. Compelling search snippets stimulate the CTR, and Google sees high CTR as a positive signal and improves your rankings. So, don't consider this SEO myth; optimize your meta titles and descriptions for users to get the indirect ranking benefit.
16. Your Domain Name Should Include A Keyword
Keywords are important to show your relevance about a particular domain to search engines. But it doesn't mean you insert the keywords everywhere. Search engines promote the natural use of keywords, and stuffing is prohibited. Hence, there is no benefit of a keyword in the domain name.
You should keep your domain meaningful to the users so that they can understand your offering from the domain name only. So, if you are buying a domain name for your business, then there is no hard and fast rule to insert a keyword, name it what you feel like.
17. More Content Is Better
Content is the fuel of SEO, but that doesn't mean you bombard your website with content. Google always prioritizes quality over quantity, and if you are posting less content, but it has the utmost value for the users, you'll have profitable benefits.
On the other hand, if you are posting generalized and spun content daily, it's a total waste of resources and time. So, unfollow this SEO myth in 2021 and recenter your focus on quality content from the content quantity.
18. Respinning Content And Repurposing Content Are The Same
Respinning content is changing some wording and the title of your existing well-performing content piece. You can represent your old content as new with respinning, but as users can see what you are doing, they won't like it. And if users don't like it, Google won't like it and push you down in the rankings.
On the other hand, content repurposing promotes your well-performing content on various new channels to drive more users. You can use social media channels, YouTube channels, podcasts, etc., to promote your content. Don't spin content, just update it and create a marketing strategy to drive fruitful results.
19. Top-Level Domains Improve Rankings
TLDs are the extensions used after your domain name like .com, .net, .co, .org, .edu, .gov, etc. The most common TLD is .com and when users see other extensions like .biz, .online, .guru, etc., they get confused. However, TLDs make no impact on the rankings, and you can get any you want.
If you focus on quality and serve your users best, then you'll grow irrespective of your TLD. You value users, and Google will value you. So, don't let this SEO myth restrict you, and get the domain you are comfortable with.
20. Google Cares About Domain Authority
Google never introduced anything like Domain Authority (DA); it's launched by some authoritative third-party websites like Moz and Ahrefs to scale the backlink profile of a website.
As Google didn't invent the DA, it doesn't care about this matrix. However, they care about your backlink profile, and you must work on your link building to have a plethora of quality links.
21. Google Will Find Your Fresh Content And Index It
Google recommends creating fresh content to deliver users with the latest information. When you create new content, Google will crawl and index it, but it'll take some time. However, you can speed up the process by installing the Google XML sitemap generator plugin. It will create a new sitemap when you publish anything new and send it to the search engines, inviting crawling. So, you have two options: wait for the spiders to crawl or invite crawlers for quick indexing.
These are 21 SEO myths that you must ignore in 2021. SEO myths can affect or restrict your SEO actions, and you should know and avoid these for forging an effective SEO strategy.
SEO changes every day, and you need to keep up with this. If you fail to do so, consider a digital marketing agency so that you don't do anything wrong unknowingly.
The right SEO gives the right results!
