{"id":3050,"date":"2021-03-05T04:29:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T04:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shourai.io\/?p=3050"},"modified":"2023-02-16T01:22:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T01:22:30","slug":"the-truth-and-myths-about-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shourai.io\/blog\/2021\/03\/05\/the-truth-and-myths-about-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth and Myths About SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Digital Marketing world changed a lot ever since the Coronavirus pandemic started. A lot of businesses shifted to online business to make their business afloat. To stay on top of the competition, SEO is one way to achieve it. In this article,\u00a0 the truth and myths about SEO will be discussed. There are a lot of arguments and misconceptions about Search Engine Optimization and people wanted to know the facts for these speculations to be solved.<\/p>\n

Sean Si from SEO-Hacker<\/em> enumerated some truths and myths about SEO. He also provided his insights about it and these are the following:<\/p>\n

Myth: On-site optimization is just a small part of SEO.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth: On-site optimization plays a big role.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are very few blog entries about on-site optimization. Perhaps because it is closely tied to having a technical background. On-site optimization can just as easily deal with keywords as much as it can with coding. And with all the new coding required stuff coming out like Schema Markup, Responsive design, Site speed optimization, etc., it\u2019s easier to just go and do off-site and outreach to try and improve rankings.<\/p>\n

That being the case, SEO specialists who know how to do on-site optimization well are easily at the best strategic positions today. Lots of people and blogs are talking about link building, link outreach, co-occurrence, co-citation, etc. Some don\u2019t even know what they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

Shift focus to on-site optimization. You\u2019ll thank me for it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Myth: You don\u2019t need technical SEO. Content is king.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth: You have no Frikin\u2019 idea what you\u2019re missing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Technical SEO is just a small part of on-site optimization. However, please realize that Google is a technical engine working a technical algorithm that reads your (technical) website.<\/p>\n

Remember, your website is made up of a bunch of codes in the back-end. Whether you realize it or not, having a website is already technical in nature. If you neglect technical SEO as unessential because you can write like Seth Godin, you\u2019re wrong. (Well\u2026 maybe not if you can really write like Seth Godin.)<\/p>\n

A hard tweak here and there, an update on your structured data markup, a canonical to some duplicate pages, and voila!<\/p>\n

Technical SEO is where the magic is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Myth: Linkbuilding is dead.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth: Linkbuilding just got a lot more natural.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any news that something in SEO died is a lie until proven with solid data. Or at least, until Danny Sullivan and Bill Slawski says so.<\/p>\n

What really happened is that link building shifted to a more \u2018natural\u2019 way of evaluation. Artificially built links are seen as a taboo \u2013 and are deemed to get devalued or penalized.<\/p>\n

Of course, building naturally earned links is encouraged. Who are we kidding? It\u2019s way harder to earn links than build \u2019em up-front.<\/p>\n

However, if naturally earned links make it harder to game Google\u2019s algorithm, then it\u2019s going to have to be the way to go.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Myth: Content marketing is the new link building.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth: Not really. You can still go with diversified Linkbuilding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Content marketing has been built up and up and up and up. So many blogs wrote about it \u2013 even claiming it to replace link building.<\/p>\n

I think you can never replace link building.<\/p>\n

People tried social signals. People are trying co-citation. And so on and so forth.<\/p>\n

However, links are still one of the main fundamentals of how Google sees the web. An influx of relationships between one website to another.<\/p>\n

Links make up the web. Deal with it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There’s another article entitled “Top Google Ranking Myths<\/strong><\/em>” written by Amanda Hoadley of Northwoods<\/em>.\u00a0 The content is as follows:<\/p>\n

Myth #1: Keyword Targeting is Irrelevant<\/h3>\n

Truth: Keywords still matter! Just not in the same way they once did. Keywords are still showing on search engine results pages (SERPs), and every Google algorithm update is intended to further hone in on\u00a0search intent<\/a>. You should still include keywords in your content, but any efforts by content marketers and bloggers to hit a certain keyword ratio became obsolete with\u00a0Google\u2019s Hummingbird update<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, keyword ratios are out, but a focus on creating content based on search intent – knowing the motivation behind why particular keywords are being searched \u2013 and naturally incorporating relevant keywords in your copy is critical.<\/p>\n

Myth 2: Meta Tag Keywords Don\u2019t Matter<\/h3>\n

Truth: Meta tag keywords DO matter. Meta tags are used in HTML documents to provide structured metadata about a website and appear between the opening and closing <head> tags on a page. The three elements of metatags are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Title tag<\/li>\n
  2. Meta description<\/li>\n
  3. Meta keywords or phrases<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Google doesn\u2019t use the keyword meta tag for ranking purposes; however, meta tag keywords are still relevant as they indicate to Google what your content is about. Meta tags can also make your search results more appealing, which attracts more clicks from searchers.<\/p>\n

    Myth #3: Target Keywords in Anchor Text Don\u2019t Matter<\/h3>\n

    Truth:\u00a0Link building<\/a> has become a crucial part of SEO strategies; however, there is a debate in the content marketing community about whether you should use keywords in your anchor text. Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink that takes a user to another page.<\/p>\n

    The main reason why content marketers debate the value of keywords in anchor text is that overoptimization is penalized by Google. Keyword stuffing is seen as a red flag, which negatively impacts site rankings. To say keyword-rich anchor text doesn\u2019t help your site isn\u2019t accurate because anchor text helps Google understand page content and helps determine relevancy when it comes to link building.<\/p>\n

    So, instead of avoiding keyword-rich anchor texts, just change your approach by diversifying your anchor text to avoid overoptimization.<\/p>\n

    Myth #4: Having More Links is Better than Having More Content<\/h3>\n

    Truth: There was a time when it was better to focus on creating more links than it was to develop more content, but that time has officially come to an end. Now, it\u2019s all about the quality of links rather than the number. Creating a natural link profile with amazing content is what will help improve your search rankings.<\/p>\n

    Why the change? In the past, webmasters and SEO pros started to take advantage of link building by creating chunks of links that had no valuable content just to improve rankings. As Google caught on and its focus changed to search intent in order to serve up better content to its users, having relevant, trustworthy, and authoritative links became the name of the game.<\/p>\n

    Myth #5: Too Many Keywords Will Result in Poor Organic Rankings<\/h3>\n

    Truth: SEO experts and bloggers are always asking themselves how many keywords are considered too many and if Google will penalize a website for over-optimizing. The simple answer is that as long as your keywords are used naturally and your content is helpful, the number of keywords you have doesn\u2019t really matter.<\/p>\n

    The key to avoiding over-optimization is to make sure you include a variety of keywords in your content, including:<\/p>\n