SEO can be intimidating, confusing, and frequently misunderstood. The SEO rules and suggestions continuously change as marketing teams, solopreneurs, and large corporations catch on to tricks that work. Without staying updated on current SEO trends and suggestions, businesses will keep following rules of the past such as flooding a blog with as many keywords as possible, not adding links, ignoring SEO completely, and thinking efforts like PPC ads will help search engine rankings.
Put simply, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Businesses that focus on drawing organic traffic to their website have optimized their search engine searchability–thus ending up closer to the first page of search engines like Google. Over the years, SEO has seen drastic changes, but Google has been incredibly clear in defining SEO success in recent years. Google rewards sites that naturally solve very specific problems with relevant and popular solutions. In other words, when users search for a product, question, or service, Google will provide links to the websites that most users organically visit to purchase the product, find the answer, or hire the service.
Online visibility is an important factor when it comes to generating leads and potential clients. When SEO is one aspect of a carefully strategized digital marketing plan, clients see a slow progression in gaining targeted leads. It’s important to consider that building SEO value takes time, consistency, and patience because marketing agencies need time to review old data, create content for new data points, and carefully assess the data to guide further SEO tactics.
Working with a knowledgeable, skilled marketing team that is well-versed in the changing world of SEO is incredibly helpful when running a business. Good JuJu Agency is a boutique marketing agency located in Tucson, Arizona that skillfully pairs digital and traditional marketing efforts to deliver desired results such as more organic leads using strategic SEO tactics as one part of the marketing plan. This blog debunks 4 common SEO myths that actually hurt your overall SEO ranking.
MYTH #1: SEO is Pointless. It Doesn’t Work.
FACT: SEO takes time, but it works. When working with a skilled marketing agency that stays updated on current digital trends, your chances of gaining organic SEO traffic look pretty good. These SEO statistics found on Finances Online may help clarify the usefulness of SEO marketing tactics:
- Around 65% of total e-commerce sessions are generated through search traffic.
- Businesses spent about $47.5 billion on SEO and related products and services in 2020, even during the COVID-19 outbreak.
- 61% of marketers say growing organic presence and improving SEO are their top inbound marketing priorities.
- 65% of marketers see a close correlation between local and organic rank.
- Up to 62% of companies have in-house employees to manage their SEO strategy.
- B2B enterprises generate twice more revenue from organic search compared to other channels.
- Retail and e-commerce companies earn 36.4% of their revenue from organic search through SEO.
- Travel and hospitality businesses earn more than 40% of their revenue from organic search.
- Marketing professionals who prioritize blogging (with keywords) are 13 times more likely to enjoy positive ROI.
- 70% of business owners say that SEO generates more sales compared to PPC (30%)
It’s clear that SEO is powerful for both consumers and businesses alike.
MYTH #2: Keyword Density is the Most Important Factor in Your SEO Ranking
FACT: Content that features organic, naturally-used keywords and long-item keywords is more successful than flooding a website with as many keywords as possible. Keywords matter, but you don’t need to fill a specific percentage of content with your keywords.
Google uses tools to search for term frequency, but when your website comes up with an unusual amount of keywords for a specific topic, it raises red flags. Search engines could even penalize your site and flag it as a manipulative outlier rather than a helpful, organic resource for users.
Search engines also recognize keywords along with their various synonyms and word stems. For example, if your keyword is “Marketing Agency in Tucson, AZ,” an organic keyword sentence could be, “Good JuJu Agency is a locally-owned and operated, boutique marketing agency in Tucson, Arizona that specializes in digital, traditional, and event marketing.” In short, when businesses organically and naturally use their keywords in purposeful sentences that help their clients, SEO efforts will pay off.
MYTH #3: Page Links are Unimportant
FACT: Organically shared links to your website help SEO value. PageRank is an algorithm that Google uses to rank the websites that populate in their search results. The algorithm counts the number and quality of links to a page to generate an estimate of how helpful and important the site is for users.
When users share the link to one of your blogs, posts, or pages Google understands that your content helps users and is more likely to populate it as a top result. (P.S. Notice how I said, “organically shared links.” Purchasing thousands of backlinks will HURT your SEO ranking because backlinks will associate your site with shady parts of the internet instead of genuine leads.)
MYTH #4: PPC Advertising Helps Search Engine Rankings
FACT: PPC and SEO are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. A common misconception is that because PPC generates more clicks, those clicks will also translate into organic clicks that boost SEO value. Though PPC can help your website, it does not increase organic traffic because its objective is running paid ads. The algorithms for PPC and SEO are completely different because the two marketing tools function for different purposes.
Just like the digital world, SEO changes constantly. If you want your business to grow, your website to generate authentic leads, and your ideal clients to find you–it’s time to invest in marketing.
Good JuJu Agency stays updated on the ins and outs of SEO strategies to help businesses of all sizes.
Boost your SEO value with Good JuJu. The Good JuJu Crew is passionate about digital marketing in a dynamic world.