Thanks to a handful of shady characters out there, SEO (search engine optimization) often ends up getting a negative – and wholly undeserved – reputation. Let’s look at a few of the common myths about SEO and why they should be dispelled.
Myth One – SEO Will Get My Site Banned By The Search Engines.
The fact is that professional and ethical white-hat SEO helps search engines do their thing better. Because effective SEO doesn’t try to deceive or trick the search engines in any way, they will not punish such ethical SEO at all. However, cross the line and go black-hat, and it’s a different story altogether.
Myth Two – SEO Will Require A Complete Website Redesign.
This is not necessarily true at all. Sure, some website design is totally non-search friendly, but most of the time, a good SEO professional can work with an existing site to improve the performance from what is already there. Content can be optimized; navigational structures can be adjusted, and so on. That said – sometimes the most efficient way to do SEO is to start from scratch, especially when the site design is severely dated anyway.
Myth Three – SEO Is Too Expensive For My Budget.
The goal of SEO is almost always to improve profitability from a website. Sure, the initial price of implementing an effective SEO campaign can be a little costly at times (exactly how costly depends on the actual scale of the project). However, once the SEO is up and running, and a effective Internet marketing campaign is implemented, the increase in sales and leads it provides will more than pay for the costs associated with the project.
Myth Four – SEO Is A Do-It-Yourself Project.
Well, the web-savvy folks out there can definitely figure out the basic principles of SEO – it’s not rocket science. But it does require extensive time and work to pull off successfully. Time is money, and hiring a professional can save you lots of both. Because they do SEO all day, every day, the professionals have the insiders’ expertise and the knowledge of all of the most up to date strategies that really do work.
Myth Five – I’m Not Looking For Increased Traffic, So SEO Isn’t Necessary.
SEO almost always improves the aspects that make a site visitor friendly (and this functionality is also a good part of what search engines use to rank a site). Therefore, using SEO could not only boost traffic, but it could also create a much more efficient and practical website for your customers and visitors – both external and internal. Quality SEO is a win-win proposition.
It’s worth checking out an SEO tactic before implementing it to make sure it’s considered search-engine friendly – and most of the time, the search engines will outline what is acceptable or not within their policies. But know that SEO is real, and to be successful, it’s important to ignore unfounded myths.
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