Google does not hate your (or any) website. Content freshness and Keywords are as significant as many people think. AdWords (Google Ads) campaigns have no SEO impact.

SEO is a big part of digital marketing for online businesses. It has grown into a worldwide phenomenon and is largely controlled by Google and their search engine policies. Everything that gets big also gets a lot of myths. SEO is no different and probably has more myths than most industries about it. Professional SEOs are of course well aware of the whole SEO game. Here are some of the most popular SEO myths busted for the knowledge of SEO starters and business owners:

Myth 1: SEO Is Fair Competition

You’d like to believe and so would theoretical analysis suggest, “SEO Is Fair Competition”. It is easy and very logical to think that every website is on a level playing field when it comes to its chances to compete for queries and search results. In all actual fairness, it is not this way. It has not been a fair game for a long time and it will probably never be again.

Any two different websites show different on-page and off-page signals to the evaluators (Google in this case). As a result, both can and will be ranked differently. It is almost impossible to match these signals for any two given websites in their full detail. Page performance, SERP real estate, backlinking profiles, technical setup, on-page optimization and many others are these ranking factors.

As easy as most of these are to understand in theory, implementation is a whole different story. Important to know is the Google Honeymoon Period, where for a small period of time, even without having significant SEO signals, websites can rank well right after their birth. Also, websites doing well in this grace period of sorts stand a good chance of boosting on this early success. SEO is Not a Level Playing Field for websites from the same industry. These early ranked sites (usually) go down once Google gathers sufficient important regarding their SEO signals.

Myth 2: More Backlinks the Better

A lot of SEO starters and ill-informed business owners tend to believe backlinks is a numbers game. More of them you get, better website rankings there will be. However, this can be both true and false depending on a few factors. A website with no links would not point to search engines that its content needs to be crawled. In case of Google, backlinks do point as a serious ranking signal.

However, getting backlinks just for the sake of them can be harmful as well. Manual Spam Actions also known as Google Penalties along with the Penguin Algorithm are there to identify websites with mainly links from low-quality websites. Google has made it clear on many occasions that links should be on merit and not on paid and building schemes. All links don’t promote any given website.

Google has now become smart enough to understand the intent behind backlinks for websites. They do provide the Disavow Tool that helps get rid of all low-quality links to improve the SEO situation. It is important to have good backlinks rather than just getting as many as you can.

Myth 3: SEO Is All About User Signals

While it is true that user signals are an important SEO factor, the whole game is not only about them. Google has algorithms in place that measure their user happiness and also use this data to improve their services. However, Google doesn’t share this information with anyone at all. Thus, the only confirmed indicators are GSC impressions and click-through rate regarding user trust and behavior.

These present only a part of a much bigger SEO framework. A website’s unique selling propositions that involve users and visitors in a much deeper way are much more important factors. If websites can build on these features, the commonly known user signals (ones indicated by Google) might not matter a great deal at all.

Myth 4: SEO Is a One-Time Effort

As much as business owners and webmasters would like to think of SEO as a one-time effort or project, it is simply not. Whatever good you can do with your website’s SEO goals, over time it will all wear off if you do not continue the good work. Also, Google and other search engines keep on improving and evolving their algorithms.

Something considered good or acceptable at one time might not be so a few months or even weeks down the line. In competitive business industries, SEO needs to be an ongoing effort with properly planned strategies scheduled ahead of time. Factors impacting user experience and signals including snippets need to be worked on continuously and improved with time. On-page SEO can also be considered a yearly scheduled activity ironing out all the developed errors.

On the basis of it, SEO is a truly ongoing effort. Your SEO team must be kept engaged building quality links and pointing the right signals in order to stay atop of the competition.

Myth 5: Google AdWords Impact SEO Performance

Another common misconception around much of the SEO industry is that Google AdWords (now known as Google Ads) impact SEO performance. SEOs and business owners think that traffic of any kind whether it is paid through Google AdWords improves rankings in search engines. However, natural organic search is completely independent of paid search.

No matter what sort of budget you have dedicated to your Google AdWords campaigns, there will be no impact on any of the SEO signals. Algorithms from the search giant now tell them the nature of traffic landing on your webpages.

Myth 6: Google Hates My Website

One of the biggest myths flying around in the SEO community is that Google hates any particular websites. As irrational as this personal animosity complaint is, it is also equally frequent and also from some experienced SEOs as well. With a quality SEO audit, you can easily put rest to a claim that any website doesn’t rank because it is hated or not liked by Google.

Content quality, on-page and off-page optimization, technical SEO and many other factors are to blame that are often missed on. Some sites do get Google Penalties on the basis of their own doings. These are simply not triggered by any personal disliking factors Google or other search engines might have. A compelling Reconsideration Request can also lift these Google Penalties when the said problems are sorted. There is no indifferent treatment or perception in the eyes of Google for any sites at all.

Myth 7: It’s All About Content Freshness

Right from the bat, yes, Google does like fresh content on websites and webpages. However, this applies to websites that need fresh content as a factor for user intent. News websites and other informative blogs for example would need their content to be fresh frequently. Almost all other websites that do not need always fresh content, content freshness is not an SEO factor.

Some SEOs would tell you even to change publishing dates on your old articles in order to signal to Google about them being new and fresh. Yet, content freshness is not important provided your content is organic, unique and well written. Same is the story with Keywords. In the past, Keyword Density used to reign supreme. Today, you don’t need them in such high numbers at all.

How XpertSol Can Help?

Are you looking for a properly optimized website that ranks well in Google for best business output? XpertSol has Certified SEO Professionals in our Reading, Berkshire office who help optimize your business website according to all Google updates. Our professional Digital Marketing Experts including some of the most experienced SEO Experts make your business website perform great in search engines with top search results rankings. Call now or visit us to get professional business advice.