Friday, July 20, 2018

SEO Beliefs That Have Been Long Been Debunked


There is a lot of misinformation being passed around about SEOs. Unfortunately, some people's inability to make sense of this information can leads to poor decision making.

In the SEO industry, there is no shortage of myths. Unfortunately, CEOs who should know better still hang onto these myths like their lives depend on it.

Here is a list of four popular SEO beliefs that are undeniably wrong, yet still being used:

Correlation Studies Show Us How Algorithms Work.
SEO blogs generally lists of ranking factors such as Moz, SMORush, Backlinko and Search Metrics. The problem is, none of these are ranking factors. No one really knows or understands how Google does its rankings. And many of rankings are considered suspect, at best.

The ranking factors list is also a list of how can be measured based on the public data available. Correlation is little more than chance and should never be substituted for experience or personal experimentation.


Guest Blogging is Against Google's Term of Service
This is also a falsehood. The initial story was written in 2014 by blogger Matt Cutts. He wrote a one story stating that people probably should not use Google for guest blogging then contradicted himself later, listing the reasons why people should use Google for guest blogging. The posts were a source of great confusion. Cutts came back to apologize and clarify his statements.

Social Signals Are A Ranking Factor
There is a lot of back and forth regarding this issue.

Michael Cutts says:

"Social media pages are treated like any other web index pages, so if something occurs on social media we find relevant, it can be returned in the search results. But as far specific work, no such signals are available," according to Cutts.

The myth about ranking factors began when Rankbrain was introduced. While there was no real proof regarding ranking factor as related to social signals, there was a great deal of speculation.

Regardless of the findings, no one is telling people not to invest in social media marketing. It is just a warning to let individuals know that SEO benefits may not give you the results you're looking for.


Links Are the "Most Important" Ranking Factor
While some professionals still hang onto this belief, it has also been discredited. Although some insist links are far more important, algorithms are considered much more relevant. Some of the bad points of links include:
  • Users facing penalization
  • Encouraged little research
  • Users missing important values
  • Content being downplayed
  • Users missing tags
  • The creation of SEO spam
While most people in the SEO community are proud of the work that's being done, there are many things that can be done to make the situation better. It all comes down to holding people within the SEO community accountable and continuing to do what it takes to keep the SEO industry honest.