This post was written by Anthony Acampora, Today’s Business’ Director of Digital Development.
Each year, old SEO trends are phased out and new trends and tactics are ranted and raved about across industry websites, blogs, and forums. It’s often quite overwhelming to the average business owner/website manager, since there isn’t really a “customer support” line that they can call to get info needed. To assist in planning out your SEO strategy in 2015, we’ve compiled a list of 5 SEO myths aren’t as important as you may think!
I NEED to Submit My Site to Google
There is a common misconception that you need to submit your website to Google in order to appear in search results. Brand new websites can still be submitted to Google via Webmaster Tools; however a search engine like Google can still find your site without you submitting it. Submitting a site does not guarantee anything. Web crawlers will index your site, so don’t worry about this idea of needing to ask Google about your site. It is not necessary to submit your site to Google. Instead , in 2015, it is important to pay more attention to what pages you would not like to share with Google via your robots.txt file. When modifying this page, it is crucial to make sure unused directories or category pages should be excluded from the search index.
I NEED More Link Building and Content
Acquiring back links and generating content are still crucial pieces to the SEO puzzle in 2015. But what should be focused on this year? Links still remain to be a crucial factor in increasing a website’s authority. However, having a strong content team is more valuable in 2015. Link building is not about the amount of links anymore, it’s about the quality and relevance of said links. Spending time and effort on generating content is more valued since it can be utilized in a number of different ways, like website copy, on-site/off-site blogs, and social posts. Professionally written content will prove vital in bringing more links over time. Link-building is still necessary, but creating awesome content has become required in order to succeed.
I NEED to be #1 on Google
In 2015, there still is a powerful connection between search placement and clicks. Ranking is not the ultimate goal that it was in previous years. The top results will always have higher CTR and searchers tend to favor these top results. However, now search results that show after the top three include rich snippets, which has shown to help increase CTR. Your SERP does not promise success. If you rank very well for a selected term, receive a lot of web traffic, but are not converting any of the traffic, then SERP positioning isn’t your problem. Instead of fixating on being number 1 on Google, find ways to be beneficial to potential customers and the conversions will generate organically.
I NEED More Pages on My Website
It’s a common misconception that having more pages on your website would increase your websites page rank. Not everything posted on your website will be submitted/crawled by Google and other search engines. Occasionally, new pages of content get indexed, but then do not stay indexed. Finally, if a new page is indexed, it does not necessarily lead to quality search traffic. The problem is that with many pages of content, the quality of this content is ignored and it’s not easy to have both. The goal in 2015 is to make sure the content that is being added is relevant.
Local SEO is DEAD
Via Techwyse
The last SEO myth is totally BUSTED. If you have a local business, optimizing for local search will not only help with being discovered, but will help with being found by people searching near your business. In terms of local SEO, the people searching your business are all potential customers. In 2015, Google will keep pushing the best local content to the top of search. Local SEO still very much alive with the increase of location based searches on mobile devices. Continuing to claim citations and making sure business info is consistent across all websites is crucial.
Hopefully these myths being debunked can help as you plan out SEO strategy for 2015. While SEO isn’t a perfect science, placing these tactics into your plans should have a positive impact on your SERPs and CTRs as the year goes on. Have a myth that we didn’t include on the list? Leave it in the comments section and we’ll be sure to add it in!