6 Common SEO Misconceptions

You’ve probably heard the buzz about SEO, and possibly some of the common misconceptions floating around. Getting your website found on search engines is important to having a website – after all, what’s the point if you’re not found? There are some misconceptions to be aware of so that your site is found by prospective customers looking for you – you don’t want to avoid SEO completely because of lack of understanding. Here are eight common misconceptions to avoid:

  1. Only focus on keywords.

Don’t just focus on keywords. There are other components to SEO, but keywords typically get all the attention. The other components that are just as important include all your content, HTML tags, organization of site pages, size and age of your site, and other components that are built into the design and development of your website. There are a number of aspects to SEO to pay attention to – not just keywords. Something else to stay away from is inserting keywords just for the sake of having more keywords. Content should sound natural and readable for your human readers, not only for the Google bots.

  1. Google is the only search engine that matters.

Google is the most widely used search engine with a 75% share of the US search market, but to get the most out of SEO you should include some of the other search engines in your scope. Bing and Yahoo have users that need some attention too! It doesn’t hurt to engage users from various search engines as opposed to putting all your eggs in one basket.

  1. The appearance and design of your site don’t matter to SEO.

The design of your site does matter! If you have a well-designed, properly coded, easily navigable site users and search engines will like being able to find information easily. Search engines take into account usability when ranking sites. If you have a site that is designed with usability in mind, you stand a better chance of ranking higher.

  1. Don’t worry about mobile users and other devices.

Mobile optimization does matter…a lot. Google ranks sites according to their mobile capabilities – after all, 94% of people with smartphones use them to search the web. If your site isn’t mobile, you’re missing out on a lot of potential viewers and Google may ding you for it resulting in lower rankings. Having a mobile-friendly site is just part of having a website in the 21st century.

  1. Images and videos don’t impact SEO.

If search engines can identify your media content as relevant, it can help your rankings. There are certain things that you can do to images and videos to optimize their searchability and enhance your SEO. Using informative image names and alt tags while minimizing file sizes (speeding up your load time) are some useful ways to enhance your media.

  1. SEO doesn’t need updating.

Regularly updating your website helps in a number of ways. You engage users with fresh content and search engines are encouraged to index frequently which will potentially help with rankings. Also if you’re regularly updating with fresh content, this means more keywords and phrases that will also help – just remember, it’s not all about the keywords! 59% of people use Google every month to find businesses and they will be looking for fresh, updated content that indicates reputability.

With these misconceptions floating around, it could be tempting to just ignore the SEO hype. But SEO is a very important part of having a functioning and successful website. Drawing people to your site is the main goal, and if you’re going to invest in a website you may as well invest in getting it found online. Fusion Group USA integrates SEO practices into the design and development process and offers monthly updating so you won’t have to worry about staying on top of SEO. If you’re interested in other SEO services Fusion Group USA offers, don’t hesitate to call or use the contact form to get in touch with a knowledgeable sales representative!

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