7 SEO Misconceptions Every Website Owner Should Know

The most popular SEO misconceptions are myths related to link building that emerged over the years due to the rapid growth of the SEO industry. Google’s attempt to destroy link networks has changed how SEOs approach site promotion, which gives more importance to social media marketing and less importance to traditional link building.

From my experience and after talking with other bloggers and webmasters, I have come up with these 7 misconceptions worth knowing.

1. You should not link your websites together

Linking your websites together is bad because Google may consider them a link network.

This misconception has happened for several years, making website owners believe they cannot link their websites together. In a video (April 2013), Matt Cutts explained that there is nothing wrong with linking your websites together, provided that they are related and that they are less than five.

So, if you own less than five websites and link them together in a way that offers value to the reader, you can do so without taking any risks.

2. Internal links can put you into trouble

When you use internal links with keyword anchor text, you risk getting a penalty from Google.

I have read on various websites that keyword-rich internal links are ‘dangerous’ and should be avoided. This is a misconception and bad advice since internal links are good for SEO.

In summary, internal links are useful because:

• They help search engines discover more pages from your website
• They help users find out more about a certain topic
• They help search engines identify the most important pages on your website (they have the greatest number of internal links)
• They increase the time users spend on a site as well as the number of pages per visit

Some best practices for internal linking:

• Use no more than 7-8 internal links per page
• You can use the full article title if you cannot place the link naturally in the text.
• Do not always link to the same page or pages, but try to vary your linking
• A great way to use internal linking is to add a ‘Related posts’ section below each article/product with links to 4-5 related pages/products.

3. The only way to increase your rankings is through link-building

Link building is the only way you can use to increase your website’s ranking in the SERPS

This is another SEO misconception that almost destroyed the whole SEO industry. SEO is not about building links, and it has never been! Unfortunately, for a quick profit, various companies started selling link packages, tricking many people into believing that SEO is about building thousands of artificial links to increase rankings.

Link-building of this kind can lead to penalties, and websites can lose their ranking overnight after the release of Panda and Penguin.

If link building is not the proper way to increase rankings, how can I promote my website?

There are many ways to promote a website without building links. Consider the following examples:

• How to get more than 400,000 visits from Google
• How to increase website traffic

4. Guest posting is a valid way to get links

Guest posting is a legitimate way to build links pointing to your website

Another misconception gaining ground after Panda and Penguin are about the role of guest posting as a valid way to build incoming links. The truth is that when guest posting is done correctly, it is a great way to build website trust, but over-abusing it can lead to penalties.

It should be understood that if a webmaster does not naturally place a link, it is not valid, whatever name you want to give it. Google’s view about building links to manipulate its algorithm is clear, and violations of any kind are punished (or will be punished) in one of its algorithmic updates.

5. Google uses the same ranking algorithm as Bing and Yahoo

My website ranks high in Google, so it must rank well in Yahoo and Bing as well

I sometimes hear people argue: “My website is on the first page of Bing and Yahoo but nowhere in Google. I will send a message to Google to complain”. What should be made clear is that Google's ranking algorithm is different from that of Bing (Yahoo uses the same algorithm as Bing).

Google has a more sophisticated set of constantly changing rules, while Bing follows a different pattern. Good SEO practices are applicable for both search engines, but from my experience, a website can rank higher in Bing when:

• Domain is old (more than 1-2 years)
• Tweets and Facebook likes are important
• A lot of keyword anchor text links – While Google, Panda, and Penguin started penalizing websites with a large number of keyword anchor links, this tactic seems to work well in Bing.

6. Off-page SEO is more important than On-Page SEO

Promoting a website is more important than the content on the website and on-page SEO

Off-page SEO is what happens outside the boundaries of a website (for example, link building, guest posting, social media marketing, etc.), while On-Page SEO is settings you can apply on the website for better usability and visibility.

The misconception here is that off-page SEO is more important for ranking purposes than on-page SEO. The truth is that both aspects are necessary, but on-site SEO is a must for optimum results.

When you start an SEO campaign, your primary concern is to ensure that on-page SEO is done correctly. One of your first steps is to conduct an SEO Audit to ensure that any important issues regarding on-page SEO are recognized and fixed.

7. High-competition keywords can bring in more organic traffic

If you want to get organic traffic, you have to chase high-competition keywords

When you use the Google keyword tool to research keywords, it is normal to select keywords with high traffic, thinking that this will increase your website's visits. This is a misconception because high-traffic keywords are also high-competition keywords that are very difficult to rank. The result will be zero traffic and disappointment.

Instead, you should target low-competition, long-tail keywords, which are relatively easier to rank. Once you have top positions for several low-competition keywords, you can go after medium- and high-competition keywords, increasing traffic.

Conclusion

Many SEO misconceptions circulate the web, mainly because of the confusion caused by the various Google updates. SEO rules change constantly, and if you are not following recent developments, you may be confused.

The best way to minimize your risk from Google updates and to stay unaffected by any SEO misconceptions or changes is to create a high-quality website with attention to design and user experience. If you can offer your users a unique experience with good-quality content, success is inevitable, with or without SEO.