Some days in the world of SEO, it feels like “Groundhog Day” – a 1993 regular movie where Phil Conners (starring Bill Murray) repeats that day over and over again.
But instead of the day repeating itself, the same question is asked over and over again. Usually something like this happens: what are some common SEO stories that you feel need to be eroded?
The topic of SEO fairy tales and plot techniques is popular. We recently published an article on fairy tales (11 tricks in search, Google and Big Tech) here on Search Engine and we have published several others over the years. So we are not going to get into any physical or imaginary myths here.
The big question is: why do your boss (and / or your colleagues and / or team) keep asking you questions about these SEO stories? Or how does your client feel about some random, long-lost strategy? Shouldn’t they know better?
Part of your job is to understand and educate them about how search actually works – why E-AT-T is not a standard, why the Domain Authority is not standard Google uses it or why the words LSI are a funny concept.
Keep reading to learn about the main reasons why people believe in SEO myths and how other SEO professionals interact with them.
1. Repetition
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SEO fairy tales feel believable when repeated over and over again. Inaccurate information is spreading 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 story (or a new SEO boogeyman).
So if you find yourself in this situation what should you do?
Holly Miller Anderson, senior product manager for SEO, North America, under Armor, put it this way: “Education. Do not argue. ”
“One of the best things about SEO is to be very passionate about educating the org and the leadership team on SEO stories,” Anderson said. “The host talks as often as possible (i.e. lunch and style learning) about SEO stories and invites people to come in and hear other stories, share those who have heard, and provide different resources and assurance. “
This creates a safer environment for people to express their views or understandings about SEO without viewing them as stupid, Anderson said. It also provides an SEO discussion forum guide to deal with myths in a non-threatening way.
2. Myths typically are the “easy answer”
SEO is “free travel.” At least, most of the customers are watching it. Sometimes, SEO is easy, as far as clients think all you have to do is x, y and z and then sit and wait for all the rankings, traffic, conversions and revenue.
Well, often “good to be true” responses are the only source of SEO. Table gungumen azaba. Everyone is promoting meta tags, answering questions, making mobile social networking sites and trying to create “great” content.
Sometimes, and even worse, these “easy answers” can be strategies that can hurt your customers. And this is something you would never want to miss, says Himani Kankaria, founder of Missive Digital.
“I will tell them that I will not do it and I will not let my team do it because doing the wrong thing will result in customer loss, and then cleaning it up will also make it more expensive,” Kankaria said. “After all, what guarantee is there that cleaning up this mess will bring back results?”
The only way to fight bad data is to get the best out of it, says Keith Goode, senior product manager at Cox Automotive.
“Developers and even some SEOs will sometimes find a bad idea in the blog from the last 11 years (e.g., PageRank sculpting) and will not bother to do more research to find out what is arguing with it or refute it, “said Goode. . “Therefore, they will implement a change on their website which is causing unwanted impact.
Goode added that “The way I deal with this kind of unfamiliar information is to generate new articles that refute bad advice,” Goode said. “Best of all, I will show them a story about a Googler directly. Still better, if I could find a Google Update document that contradicts the original claim, this would fix it. “
3. Information overload
You can find all kinds of information about SEO. There are unlimited help sheets, news, guides, readings, social media updates, ebooks books, lessons, podcasts, videos, and more. Talk about the details!
But do you know what else is easy to get? SEO misunderstanding.
Dave Davies, SEO Leader at Weights & amp; Biases, it turns out that most SEO myths are derived from the real nut. He said he found that identifying this pill and discussing why you are not implementing the strategy in this case is helpful.
“In addition, some strategies have worked but not now, and creating this context is doing wonders,” Davies said. “Think of a forum spam in the early 2000s, or drowning words at almost the same time. Come to think of it, SEOs have really ruined the results. Sorry about that.”
Maria White, head of SEO at Kurt Geiger, says communication is the best way to deal with misunderstandings.
“First, I collected documents 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 used the document to inform the client why it was not a good practice and to talk about the possibility of a fictional injury or a misdemeanor that may have resulted in a strategic result.”
4. It ranks well on Google, so it must be true
There is a belief that what is good on Google means that it is accurate and trustworthy. I have seen this happen a lot over the years. For example, when people say stats, they write [keyword + stats], look at the first result, find stats, print that round of post and publish.
However, when you look at the actual sources, you will realize that someone sometimes took information or statistics from context, and transformed it into something that never existed.
But Google does not always provide the best answers or standard answers. Google’s algorithms fail to determine accuracy.
Luckily, most SEO experts follow every piece of information that Google says about SEO. Among them is Marie Haynes, who collects everything Google says in websites, specific announcements, videos, forums, meetings, and more.
“We store the data internally,” Haynes said. “For many SEO topics, whether they are myths or not, we can support our recommendations with a web link that reflects what Google is recommending.”
Aleyda Solis, Founder in Orainti, takes a similar approach.
“I refer to Google ‘s official documents on the subject where it was expressed, if any, or to seek comment from a Google representative from the Q&A or conference, where the subject was discussed and clarified, with my information / thoughts on it and the example of “real life” with how it actually works if any, so they can see for themselves.
5. Lack of critical thinking
The SEO search engine list just takes you so far. It is your job to collect and manage all the data, arguments and data we can before taking action. After all, the goal is to do what works best for your brand, business, or customers.
So ask everything. Do not hesitate. Find out who, what, where, when, why, and how everything you read, watch, or heard.
Most of your clients do not have the ability to think deeply about SEO. They lack our experience, knowledge, and information. And although it is difficult, sometimes it is important to remain silent, especially if the situation requires a profound change in thinking, says Kaspar Szymanski, co-founder of SearchBrothers.
“Most clients appreciate that the only purpose I, even when it comes to highlighting flaws in their current SEO system, is to help them and make their websites visible for relevant questions,” he said. ji Szymanski. “What is not well understood is the fact that ultimately the theory of molecular research is all about signal input. Improving the search engine is essentially managing that signal input. The best advice that customers embrace carefully is to control it. what goes into search engines to achieve the best results. “
6. The source seems legit
For those of us who have been in the industry for many years, we have seen some famous people and websites that publish some information that is uncertain, deceptive, or inaccurate.
So we need to provide quality data as an effective way to learn from, according to Bill Slawski, Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital.
“Unfortunately, there is a lot of inaccurate information in the world, and some SEOs are more interested in writing popular clicks rather than something that can be accurate,” Slawski said. “These authors can be successful sometimes in terms of the fees paid by the content providers, but they do not help SEO clients who want the business to succeed.”
Any media or website that is published periodically receives error information. Most honest people acknowledge and correct their mistakes. This does not always happen in SEO. Some people, if corrected, will either ignore it or – worse – stand firm on harmful content.
What should you do when you have to deal with clickbait or incorrect data? Find out where they encounter the information. Then point them to two or three easily identifiable resources that are highly effective, said Michael Bonfils, managing director of SEM International.
“My usual answer is, ‘I hope it’s that easy,’ ‘Bonfils said. “But really, this is what we do and how it works.”
7. It’s considered “best practice”
In SEO, frustrated at times, the answer is often “dependable.” This is because what is considered the best SEO practice in e-commerce SEO may differ from news SEO or local SEO or business SEO.
No two websites, even in the same market, are identical. Some strategies and techniques may work for many websites, but inevitably the results will vary. Some SEO “best practices” may prove to be “best practices” for some websites.
One solution here is to divert the discussion to your goals and strategies, says Jes Scholz, chief marketing officer at Ringier.
“Remind them how the current strategies work and doing all the current strategies with the story is impossible, either because of resource problems or strategic conflicts or whatever it is,” he said. from Scholz. “They should be empowered by ending the question of how to proceed.”
Davies said it was really good to ask ourselves.
“It simply came to our notice then. As knowledgeable as I think I am, my thinking is erroneous at times, ”Davies said. “Basically, while 9 out of 10 times you can be right, test and find out that a person can pay a high price on time.”
The solution can be as simple as conducting an experiment.
“Look for a set of pages that can test something with clear search engine optimization but hopefully less business (sites with its own ideas but small clicks are often remembered),” Davies said.
What to do when faced with these SEO myths?
The key is not whether the stories will be broken, but how you break the story, says Ryan Jones, VP, SEO, Razorfish.
“You have to let the client / client go down easily. It is possible that the story may have been a good idea or a common theory decades ago and they did not continue to exist,” Jones said. “They may have hired bad SEO in the past. You do not want them to feel guilty about it, but you do want them to give you the right advice to move on. You need to do it carefully, and there is time and place. “
In short, you can save the “good actually…” and the struggle tone for your next Twitter argument.
“Don’t ruin a great conversation to join the SEO discussion. An email guarantee or discussion can be obtained in this case,” said Jones. “
Corey Morris, chief strategist at Voltage, says it is important to be cautious when dealing with any rumors or misunderstandings when a client or contact loses information about how SEO works.
“Make it a learning path,” Morris said. “By tackling the benefits of how Google works, what the rewards are, and why things are (or are not included) in this, I can have a goal with them.”
Kevin Rowe, VP of strategy and product at PureLinq, has a standardized process that includes, in part, a litmus test of three questions to prioritize and assess risk on the net. These questions are:
“It is important that you treat the client as they are intelligent people who have good ideas and are not educated in SEO,” Rowe said. “Because professional SEOs do not always mean we have the best answer.”
But what if the customer is stubborn about the idea? Jason Barnard, founder and CEO of Calicube, says you might stop working with them.
“Why waste time?” Barnard said. “There is no shortage of smart business owners in the world who do not consider SEO as a quick-and-easy-to-use-all-time success. Let’s work with clients who want to connect SEO is one of the most important digital strategies for business. ”
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About The Author
Danny Goodwin is the Editor-in-Chief of London Search Engine Optimization. In addition to daily articles on SEO, PPC, and more for Search Engine Optimization, Goodwin also manages the Search Engine Optimization queue for expert topics. It also helps organize our event list, SMX – Search Engine Optimization. Prior to joining Search Engine Optimization, Goodwin was the Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Optimization, where he led editorial work for the brand. He was also an editor at Watch Engine. He has spoken at numerous research conferences and events, and has been recognized for his expertise in numerous publications and podcasts.