SEO is a one-time effort job
Many people believe that you can fix your SEO once and it will be good forever. However, SEO is a lot more complicated and it is a long-term allegiance. Google’s algorithms is not static: it is constantly being updated which means that we should also be regularly updating our plans to boost our ranking. Keep in mind that SEO is not simply a job that can be handed over to IT; a lot of effort has to be put into content writing, keywords as well as the site’s structure.
A secure site will not affect your SEO
If you paid close attention to sites’ URLs, you must have noticed that some of them start with “http://” while others start with “https://”. Adding that extra “s” to a site’s URL means that users’ connection to that website is encrypted so hackers cannot access your data. The technology that allows this little “s” to encrypt your data, is called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Now, from an SEO perspective, if two sites are showing the same results and one has SSL enabled, then the win will go to that site and it will rank higher. Not to forget that up to 85% of users admitted that they do not continue browsing if a site is labelled as “not secure”.
Source: www.solodev.com
Submitting your site to Google will increase ranking
You don’t have to submit your website’s URL to Google in order to increase your ranking. In fact, a submission to Google does not guarantee any kind of boost in your SERP. It is important to note that when you are making a Google Search, you are not searching the web as such. In fact, you are searching for as much information as Google’s crawlers can find on the web that is related to your search. According to HubSpot, crawlers will detect your website and index it in due time. Therefore, you do not have to worry about submitting your site to Google for a higher ranking.
Having more pages will increase your ranking
This practice used to work in the past where having more pages was causing more traffic. But, Google updated their algorithm and now, everything that is published on your website is not going to be indexed. Here’s why: search engines may leave out your page if similar content has already been indexed on your website. Also, being indexed does not automatically mean that they will navigate better traffic. More posts is not equal to more traffic. Therefore your motto should be: quality over quantity.
Meta tags increases your ranking but a lot
Meta tags are basically HTML features that explains the content of a webpage to users. They are mainly used as a preview of what to expect in the webpage a user is about to visit. Using meta tags is important because it allows you to persuade searchers that your page is worth clicking on. In fact, Google recently increased the length of meta description which allows space for a more accurate representation of a website’s content. However, despite it being important for searchers to understand the content of a page, meta tags do not affect ranking. But, you can use meta tags efficiently in order to increase your clickthrough rates.
Your local SEO does not matter
In 2014, Google released its Pigeon algorithm which allowed Google to better assess distance when controlling rankings. Google is constantly working on displaying relevant local content on top when using the search engine. Therefore, local businesses need to ensure that the information that is present on their websites are accurate and well illustrated.
Local SEO results
Your images do not require any tuning
There used to be a time when images did not require any kind of optimization but that is not the case anymore. Since search engines are unaware of the presence of images on a webpage, it is important to inform them about it by including alt texts and a proper file name. This way, the search engine will know what the image is about. If you do not include those texts, you may not be as visible online as you would want to. In February 2018, Google made a change to search results display for images which turned out to be beneficial by removing the “view image” button. By omitting this particular button, users are now more likely to visit the original webpage to view the image. Also, Google can only index BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG image types. So, in order to give Google the possibility to index your images, make sure they are in these formats.
Videos are irrelevant to SEO
Considering that YouTube is right below Google in the search engine ranking, we have to talk about the relevance of video when it comes to search results. With over 400 hours of video being uploaded every minute on the platform, YouTube’s algorithm is constantly operating in order to sort out and rank its videos based on several factors, which are also subject to continuous change. According to Hubspot, here are some important factors to take into account when publishing on YouTube:
- Video titles & descriptions
- Categories & tags
- SRT Files
- Video Thumbnails
Ranking is everything
Being listed higher does not necessarily guarantee success. In fact, you have no guarantee that your clickthrough rates will be higher even if you are being displayed on top. If the meta description does not appeal to the user, they will not click on it. Sometimes, the keywords are not associated to your subject.
Updating the date on a published page will boost your ranking
There is no wrong in updating the content of an old post by adding new relevant information and it may event boost your SEO. However, changing the date will make no difference. Here’s how this works: if you updated the date on a previous post to today’s date, Google is going to compare the newest version of the post to the version it once crawled. Since no relevant change was seen in the newest version, the ranking will not change.
Pop-ups always affect rankings
In 2016, Google announced that the use “intrusive interstitials” (pop-ups) will be penalized. However, this is not the case for all pop-ups- only for those that affect a user’s access to the content of a page while they are using their mobile phones. If your pop-ups are getting in the way of a user’s search, it will affect your ranking. However, pop-ups can be effective in your SEO if they are used properly. In fact, they can be part of your inbound marketing strategy.
Linking is everything (no matter who is linking you)
Google knows if there are bad sites that are linking to yours. Now that Google has updated its Penguin algorithm, it is easy to know if not-so secure sites are linking you. It is no longer permissible to pay for links in order to have higher rankings. If you think that one of the sites that are linking you are causing harm to your website, you can disavow it.
Source: www.highervisibility.com
Now that we have busted some SEO myths for you, we want you to recognize that SEO is about a searcher’s experience and your ranking will depend on whether that searcher’s experience with you was good or bad. Quality, consistency, originality and honesty will definitely help your boost your ranking. Good luck!
