10 Small Business SEO Myths Debunked

Oct 3, 2022 | Search Engine Optimisation, WordPress

Kevin Fouche

10 Small Business SEO Myths Debunked

Posted by Kevin Fouche, Pixel Fish Director

Kevin handles the planning, design, launch and training of every website that Pixel Fish creates. He ensures that every website is highly engaging and aligned with our client’s goals. With over 20 years of design and web industry experience to draw upon, Kevin aims to pass on his knowledge to our clients and like-minded businesses wanting to grow their online presence.

When small business owners start their online journey, hoping that an online presence will attract more customers, they often face many conflicting reports about what should be done for SEO and what one should stay away from. Let’s explore 10 Small Business SEO Myths Debunked.

This excess of information can be very confusing, and it’s essential to have accurate information about what will hold water in the world of SEO and what will lead your website down the drain.

Let’s shed light on 10 small business SEO myths debunked, as well as some other vital tips and information.

10 Small Business SEO Myths

1. Keywords are king

Well, no… actually, content is king. In the days, the ranking algorithm used by Google was much simpler and revolved mainly around how many times keywords were used per ratio (of words). People often stuffed their articles with keywords and even hid keywords in white print in order to make it search engine-readable only. Nowadays, however, websites that overuse keywords are penalised.

Tips for using Keywords correctly on website pages

  • Use keywords that are relevant to the page topic.
  • Do not repeat words more than twice in a row.
  • Spread out the use of keyword phrases throughout the content.
  • Include synonyms and related terms for each keyword phrase you choose to use.

2. Backlinks are crucial

Again, this is not the case anymore. Yes, Google used to view backlinks to rate a site’s popularity, but after people started manipulating the system by having websites set up to create thousands of backlinks, all that has changed. Excessive will only damage your site in the long run.

Tips for gaining quality website backlinks

When it comes to getting quality backlinks, the best strategy is to focus on providing interesting, valuable content that other websites may want to link to. That means creating informative blog posts or videos, sharing them across social media and building relationships with other website owners in your industry who may be willing to share links. It’s all about putting out good content that other website owners can benefit from. Don’t forget to include a link back to your site, of course! You should also consider guest blogging on other sites as well. Just make sure you provide quality content and don’t do too much self-promotion.

Finally, make sure that any backlinks you get are coming from relevant websites with a good reputation. Quality is always better than quantity when it comes to backlinks!

By following these strategies, you can make sure that your website has quality backlinks and will rank higher in search engine results pages. Plus, by providing quality content and engaging with other websites in your industry, you can build relationships that could result in success.

3. Submitting articles to article directories is useful

This used to be a major fad; the main point of doing so was creating backlinks. However, since, as mentioned, backlinks do not matter, their only possible use would be to drive extra traffic to your site.

4. One should use any SEO service

“We will push your website to #1 in Google for only $200 a month!” is the sort of advertisement that is commonly found. Unsuspecting website owners may fall for this scheme, but even if it does work in the short term, these services usually use spammy, black-hatted methods, which means that you risk getting your website blacklisted by Google.

Tips for finding a reputable SEO Provider

  1. Look for online reviews – By searching for “SEO Company + Reviews”, you can find lots of feedback from existing customers. Make sure to check out actual customer testimonials and not just glowing reviews from the company itself.
  2. Don’t base your decision solely on price – If someone is offering a service that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Always compare the services offered by different companies and make sure you are getting value for your money.
  3. Check their track record – Good SEO agencies will be able to provide examples of successful campaigns they have worked on in the past, with measurable results. This can help you decide whether they are worth hiring or not.

5. Keywords should be placed in the meta tags

Well, that’s outdated information, fellas. Meta tags and descriptions can help search engines know what your site is about, but stuffing keywords in the meta section (an HTML section in the article) doesn’t work anymore.

6. Sites should be directly submitted to Google and Bing to boost rankings

Well, sites should be submitted to Google and Bing (by using a site map), but it won’t increase your rankings. It lets Google know whenever you’ve updated your site so that your new posts will get indexed faster.

Tips for submitting a website to Google Search Console

  1. Make sure you verify your website –  This is the first step and very important in getting your site on Google Search Console. You need to do this to gain access to all of the tools for optimizing your site for search engines.
  2. Submit an XML sitemap –  An XML sitemap is a list of all the pages or posts on your website that you want Google to index. It helps search engine crawlers find and understand all of the content on your site.
  3. Check for any errors or warnings – After submitting your site to Google Search Console, you should check for any errors or warnings it might be displaying. This can help you identify any problems with how your website is being indexed and help you optimize it accordingly.
  4. Keep an eye on search performance – Once your site is in Google Search Console, you can track how it’s doing in organic search results. You can use this data to identify any areas of improvement or keywords that are driving the most traffic to your website.
  5. Test structured data – Structured data is a way of annotating your content with additional information that can help search engine crawlers better understand what it’s about. You can use Google’s Rich Results Test to check if the structured data on your site is working correctly and being read correctly by Google Search.

7. Using paid search campaigns will boost organic search rankings

Well, PPC campaigns such as Google AdWords will increase paid traffic, but there’s no evidence that it will affect your organic search rankings. Google does a good job separating the two.

Tips for running effective paid search Adwords campaigns

  • Set realistic goals and KPIs to measure success
  • Use the right keywords for your campaigns
  • Monitor your campaigns constantly and make changes as needed
  • Take advantage of Google’s tools (e.g. Adwords Editor) to manage large campaigns more effectively
  • Optimize your landing pages to ensure maximum conversions

8. I can cloak all I want. No you can’t

Cloaking is hiding things (such as keywords) in the HTML part of an article so that only Google will see it. However, Google will detect that you’re deceptively serving different results and will penalise your site.

9. I’ll link to whom I feel like

Please don’t. If your site contains too many outbound links, say affiliate links, it tells Google that your site has no value of its own, other than serving as a bridge to other sites! So link smartly, don’t overdo it, and having some links to authoritative sites such as Wikipedia and CNN is actually beneficial.

Tips for choosing which domains to link to from you website

  • Only link to sites that are related to the content of your website since this is what Google wants.
  • Linking to high-quality websites that have a good reputation will help improve your site’s reputation as well.
  • Use anchor text – when linking from one page on your site to another, use descriptive keywords for

10. Gain Google’s trust

This doesn’t happen overnight, so continually offer good content, avoid black-hatted tactics such as duplicate content and link farms, and your site will slowly but surely inch its way up Google’s search results.

Ways to earn Google’s trust include:

  • Create content with high-value and offer it to your audience for free.
  • Update your website frequently, post fresh content that is related to the current trends in your industry.
  • Provide a link back policy so other websites can link to yours without feeling like they’re being taken advantage of.
  • Monitor your site for spam, malware and other malicious activity to keep it secure.
  • Make sure your content is original, relevant and interesting to visitors.
  • Follow Google’s webmaster guidelines in order to stay within their acceptable practices.
  • These are just a few of the ways you can earn Google’s trust and get better search engine rankings. If you’re dedicated to creating a website that is both helpful and engaging, you can accomplish this goal.

We hope you have learned some valuable information about these Small Business SEO Myths. And remember, you can always contact us for more help. 

Let Sydney’s leading Web Design Agency take your business to the next level with a Pixel Fish Small Business Website.

Check out some of our latest Website Design projects.

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