Misinformed Internet marketing practitioners are quickly attracted to online services that promise fast SEO solutions. They get excited about the different “time-saving” and “low-cost” packages offered to them. They jump the gun guided by SEO myths that will make their online business go horribly wrong.
Questionable companies that offer SEO solutions tell you that they can make you rank number 1 as soon as you sign up. However, they don’t talk about sustainability and the quality of links and visitors they feed your website.
Below are the 5 most common SEO misconceptions that fraudulent companies continue to exploit to make their packages attractive. Understanding the ill effects of each myth will help you make informed decisions.
Myth 1: A month without results is a failed SEO campaign
Successful search engine optimization is something that is sustained. Successful SEO campaigns took months and years to make certain websites stick to number 1. Although sometimes they drop a spot or two in the rankings, their websites never leave the top 5, let alone the first page. This is what you want to achieve, and not a one-day-at-number-1 phenomenon.
Myth 2: You need online companies to submit your website to search engines for you
Ask yourself how many search engines you actually use. What about your friends? When you realize that only the top 3 search engines matter, ask yourself again why you need to spend for your website’s presence in hundreds of search engines and directories that no one uses?
Spreading yourself all over the Internet is good, but you have to think about what your objectives are and how you’ll accomplish them. Getting yourself listed in random search engines and directories will not do anything to boost your rankings in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Channel your efforts to the ones that matter.
Myth 3: The more visitors, the better!
A million hits a day won’t matter unless those 1 million visitors end up in your product page and actually make purchases.
Rule number 1 of marketing tells us to always go back to your consumer. Get to know your market so that you know which Internet marketing route to take and which keywords you should optimize for. Remember that 20% of your customers will give you 80% of your revenue, if you understand them well.
Myth 4: The more links, the better!
A powerful link network is important. However, getting someone else to do it without properly understanding your business objectives could ruin your image instead of making you more famous.
Allowing your website to be linked to “every popular website and blog there is” could get you associated with names, brands, and organizations that don’t share your brand values. This could negatively impact your business and distort the way your niche market understands you.
Myth 5: A good-looking site will do it
Some questionable companies who claim to provide SEO services go as far as dropping the entire concept of optimization and just let you pay for web design. Although a good-looking website won’t hurt you, it doesn’t automatically mean that people will find you and search engines will put you on top.
Remember that search engine spiders only crawl through text content. You might want to allocate more of your resources to creating powerful content rather than investing on bells and whistles.