7 reasons why people believe SEO myths

Some days in the SEO world, it feels like “Groundhog Day” – the classic 1993 movie where Phil Conners (played by Bill Murray) repeats the same day over and over.

But instead of the day repeating itself, a question is asked again and again. It usually goes something like this: what are the common SEO myths you always hear that need to be debunked?

The topic of SEO myths and conspiracy theories is popular. We recently published an article on Myths (11 Conspiracy Theories About Search, Google, and Big Tech) here on Search Engine Land and have published several more over the past few years. So we won’t get into any real myths or debunking here.

The big question is: why does your boss (and/or your colleagues and/or your team) keep asking you about these SEO myths? Or how did your client hear about a random, debunked tactic a long time ago? Shouldn’t they know better?

Part of your job is to understand and educate them on how search really works – why EAT isn’t a ranking factor, why domain authority isn’t a metric used by Google, or why words LSI keys are a ridiculous concept.

Read on to learn more about the top reasons people believe in SEO myths and how some SEO practitioners are dealing with them.

1. Repetition

SEO myths seem believable when repeated enough times. Misinformation tends to spread in our industry. It is shared in conference presentations, in blog posts, on social media, on podcasts and elsewhere. Before you know it, you have a myth (or a new SEO boogeyman).

So if you find yourself in this situation, what should you do?

Holly Miller Anderson, Chief SEO Product Manager, North America, Under Armour, put it this way: “Educate. Don’t argue.

“One of the best things SEO managers can do is be as proactive as possible in educating your organization and management team against SEO myths,” Anderson said. “The host talks about SEO myths as often as possible (i.e., lunch-learning style) and invites people to come hear some of the myths, share the ones they’ve heard, and provide different resources and evidence.”

This creates a safer space for people to voice their opinion or understanding of SEO without being viewed as stupid, Anderson added. It also gives the SEO manager a forum to address myths in a non-threatening way.

2. Myths typically are the “easy answer”

SEO is “free traffic”. At least, that’s the number of customers who see it. Sometimes SEO is oversimplified, to the point where clients think all you have to do is x, y, and z, then sit back and wait for all the rankings, traffic, conversions, and revenue.

Well, often the “too good to be true” answers turn out to be just SEO basics. Table stakes. Everyone is optimizing their meta tags, answering questions, creating mobile-friendly sites, and trying to create “great” content.

Sometimes, even worse, these “easy answers” might actually be tactics that could hurt your customers. And that’s something you never want to ignore, said Himani Kankaria, founder of Missive Digital.

“I will tell them I won’t do it and I won’t allow my team to do it because implementing the wrong things would cost the client and then cleaning it up would also increase the cost,” Kankaria said. “On top of that, what’s the guarantee that cleaning up this mess would yield results?”

The only way to fight bad information is to have better information, said Keith Goode, senior SEO product manager at Cox Automotive.

“Developers and even some SEOs will sometimes discover bad advice in a blog from 11 years ago (e.g. PageRank carving) and not bother to do any further research to find content that disputes it or refutes it,” Goode said. . “As a result, they will implement a change to their sites which will produce undesirable effects.

“The way I fight this kind of misinformation is to provide more recent posts that refute bad advice,” Goode added. “Better yet, I’ll show them an article that directly quotes a Googler. Better yet, if I can find Google Developer documentation that contradicts the original claim, that fixes the problem.

3. Information overload 

You can find all kinds of SEO information. There are endless help documents, articles, guides, studies, social media updates, ebooks, courses, podcasts, videos, and more. Talk about information overload!

But you know what else is easy to find? SEO misinformation.

Dave Davies, SEO Manager at Weights & Biases pointed out that most SEO myths stem from a kernel of truth. He said he found it helpful to identify that core and discuss why you didn’t engage the tactic in that scenario.

“Also, some tactics worked but don’t work now, and providing that context works wonders,” Davies said. “Think forum spamming in the early 2000s or keyword stuffing around the same time. Come to think of it, SEOs really messed up the results back then. Sorry about that.”

Maria White, SEO manager at Kurt Geiger, said communication is the best way to fight misinformation.

“First, I gather material from trusted sources (Google and SEO experts who do a lot of research, like Barry Schwartz, Jason Barnard, Lily Ray, and Marie Haynes),” White said. “I then use the document to let the client know why it’s not good practice and talk about the potential damage a myth or bad practice could have on the outcome of a strategy.”

4. It ranks well on Google, so it must be true

It is believed that ranking well on Google means it is accurate and trustworthy. I’ve seen this happen a lot over the years. For example, when people quote a statistic, they often type [keyword + stats], look at result number one, find a statistic, quote that summary post, and click publish.

Except, when you actually check the sources, you realize that someone at some point took a statement or a statistic out of context, and it turned into something it didn’t have. never been.

But Google doesn’t always rank the best or the right answers. Google’s algorithms are unable to fully determine accuracy.

Fortunately, many SEO professionals follow every shred of information that Google utters on SEO. Among them is Marie Haynes, whose agency documents everything Google says in blog posts, specific ads, videos, hangouts, forums, and everywhere else.

“We store the information internally,” Haynes said. “For most SEO topics, whether mythical or not, we can back up our recommendations with a link showing what Google recommends.”

Aleyda Solis, founder of Orainti, takes a similar approach.

“I am referring to official Google documentation on the subject where it is explained, if there is one, or I am looking for a quote from a Google representative from a Q&A or an event, where this topic has been addressed and clarified, along with my explanation/reasoning about it and a ‘real’ example of how it actually works, if available, so they can see for themselves.

5. Lack of critical thinking

SEO checklists only get you so far. It is your job to gather and process all the information, arguments and data that we can before acting. After all, the goal is to do what’s best for your brand, your business, or your customers.

So question everything. Be skeptical. Examine who, what, where, when, why and how of everything you read, watch or hear.

Most of your clients are simply not capable of critical thinking about SEO. They don’t have our experience, our knowledge and our data. And while it can be difficult, sometimes it’s important to be candid, especially if the situation requires a drastic change in mindset, said Kaspar Szymanski, co-founder of SearchBrothers.

“Most clients appreciate that my sole motivation, even pointing out the flaws in their current SEO approach, is to help them and make their websites more visible for relevant queries,” Szymanski said. “What is not widely understood is the fact that ultimately organic search visibility is all about signal input. Search engine optimization is essentially about managing that input. The best advice that customers readily adopt is to manage what goes into search engines to get the best result possible.

6. The source seems legit

For those of us who have been in the industry for several years, we have seen popular personalities and websites posting questionable, misleading, or downright incorrect information.

So we should be producing better information as positive alternatives to learn from, according to Bill Slawski, director of SEO research at Go Fish Digital.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and some SEOs are much more interested in writing popular clickbait than anything that might be more accurate,” Slawski said. “These writers can sometimes be successful in terms of getting paid by tool makers, but are not helpful to SEO clients who want successful businesses.”

Each media or publishing site sometimes gets the information wrong. The most reputable ones admit and correct their mistakes. This is not always the case in SEO. Some people, once corrected, will ignore it, or worse, stubbornly stick to their damaging content.

What should you do when faced with clickbait or misinformation? Find out where they came across the information. Then direct them to two or three easily verifiable and highly credible resources, said Michael Bonfils, global managing director of SEM International.

“My usual response is, ‘I wish it were that simple,'” Bonfils said. “But really, that’s what we do and how it works.”

7. It’s considered “best practice”

In SEO, sometimes frustrating, the answer is often “it depends”. This is because what is considered SEO best practices in e-commerce SEO may be different from news SEO, local SEO, or business SEO.

No website, even in the same market, is exactly the same. Some strategies and tactics may work for multiple websites, but results will inevitably vary. Some SEO “best practices” may turn out to be the “worst practices” for some websites.

One solution here is to steer the conversation towards your existing goals and tactics, said Jes Scholz, group marketing director at Ringier.

“Remind them how current strategy works and doing both current strategy and mythos isn’t possible, either due to resource constraints or strategy conflicts or whatever,” Scholz said. . “Then empower them by ending with a question of how to proceed.”

Davies said it was good to challenge yourself.

“We all test all the time. As knowledgeable as I think I am, my instincts have sometimes been wrong,” Davies said. “Basically, while 9 out of 10 times you might be right, testing and finding that can pay off big over time.”

The solution may be as simple as running a test.

“Find a set of pages where something could be tested with clear signs of search impact but hopefully little business (pages with it impressions but low clicks often come to mind) “Davies said.

What to do when faced with these SEO myths?

The key is not whether to bust the myth, but how you bust the myth, said Ryan Jones, vice president, SEO, Razorfish.

“You have to let the colleague/client down easily. It’s possible that the myth could have been good advice or a common theory years ago and they just didn’t keep up to date,” Jones said. “They may have already hired a bad SEO. You don’t want them to feel guilty for this, but you want to give them proper guidance for the future. You just have to do it gently, and there is also a time and a place.

In other words, you can keep the tone “well actually…” and combative for your next argument on Twitter.

“Don’t derail a larger conversation to get into a discussion about SEO in the weeds. A follow-up email or conversation may be warranted in this case,” Jones added. most important focus of the project/discussion and don’t miss the forest behind the trees.”

Corey Morris, director of strategy at Voltage, said it’s important to be nice when it comes to dealing with myths or misunderstandings when a customer or contact has the wrong information about how SEO works. .

“Take an educational approach,” Morris said. “By addressing the broader aspects of how Google works, what it rewards and why things are (or aren’t) included, I can find a foothold with them.”

Kevin Rowe, vice president of strategy and product at PureLinq, has a standardized approach that includes, in part, a three-question litmus test to prioritize and weigh risk against goals. These questions are:

“It’s really important that you treat the client like they’re logical people who have good ideas and aren’t SEO-literate,” Rowe said. “Just because we’re experienced SEOs doesn’t mean we always have the best answer.”

But what if a customer is stubborn about an idea? Jason Barnard, founder and CEO of Kalicube, said you might have to stop working with them.

“Why waste time? Bernard said. “There’s no shortage of smart business owners around the world who don’t treat SEO as a one-size-fits-all solution that’s quick and easy to win every time, effortlessly. We work with clients who want to incorporate SEO into a digital strategy broader business-oriented.”

New on Search Engine Land

About The Author

Danny Goodwin is editor of Search Engine Land. In addition to writing daily about SEO, PPC, and more for Search Engine Land, Goodwin also manages Search Engine Land’s roster of subject matter experts. He also participates in the programming of our conference series, SMX – Search Marketing Expo. Prior to joining Search Engine Land, Goodwin was editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal, where he led the brand’s editorial initiatives. He was also an editor at Search Engine Watch. He has spoken at many major research conferences and virtual events, and has been sought out for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.

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