Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a fairly new practice, and like all facets of the internet, is constantly evolving. Contributing to this is the pure and unabashed dominance of Google. Google has achieved this status atop the search engine (in fact, the internet) due to the fact that it is constantly refining itself to better serve us a human beings, instead of the other way around.
It is because of this that SEO exists. Simply put, SEO is determining what Google- and therefore- people are looking for, and making your site findable (sound familiar? That’s why we say that). But because it is fairly new, there are widely varying theories, and many of them, to put it bluntly, are wrong. This can be for a variety of reasons. The most common is being misinformed. What worked in the 1990′s (remember them? Dot-com boom and all that?) will not work today- link farms, keyword spam are things of the past thanks to the efficiency of Google. So along those lines, I will put to rest some of the outdated practices and myths we hear, and explain why they don’t work- and best of all, offer solutions that do get your ranking up. Read on!
Myth #1: It’s all in the URL. This is the most common, and probably the most damaging. The notion that you have have to have the exact URL that people are searching for, or that multiple URLs will drive up your SEO is simply outdated and wrong. Google largely ignores URLs because of the dot-com boom, and knows that domains are bought and sold and are largely irrelevant to a given search. Multiple URLs are ‘grey-hat’, that is a questionable SEO practice, and Google will see right through it and will often penalize it as spam- which will keep your ranking down forever.
Myth #2: Pay-Per-Click Marketing works. There was no nice way to say that, and a lot of people have spent a lot of money finding it out the hard way. Now, that is not to say you’ll never see traffic or customers if you do a PPC campaign, but statistics show that 60% of people ignore the PPC ads, and focus solely on organic results. couple that with the fact that the first three results in a given search account for over 60% of the clicks. So the numbers don’t lie- an effective organic SEO campaign will get you way more clicks- and more than that, more conversions since you’ll actually be what people are looking for, not just what’s thrown at them.
Myth #3: Social Media is a Fad. This falls under the category of “ignore at your own peril”. More statistics: If Facebook was a country, it would be the worlds fourth largest. 95% of the users on Twitter are connected via mobile phone, laptop or PC 24 hours a day. Will social media change? Yes. Will Facebook and Twitter be the social standard for years to come? No one knows. But one fact is undeniable: social media is here to stay. Over the next year, more people will use social media than ever before, and if you are not using social media marketing, you’re in danger of being left behind. It’s not a bandwagon; it’s not a fad- it’s the future of marketing.
I (and the rest of the SEO team here at Roadside) do our best to stay on top of the latest in what works in SEO- not by hearsay, not by rumor, but by the numbers and facts. If you have questions about SEO, or have heard something you’re not sure of, email us or follow me on Twitter
