As an SEO Company we hear a ton of funny stuff from clients, usually revolving around an SEO Myth of some sort. Unfortunately, despite an incredible wealth of clarifying information, some SEO myths just won’t DIE!
So, in the interest of keeping it short and sweet, we’ll just mention 3 things that SEO is not:
#1 – SEO is not a baseball diamond in some rural Iowa cornfield – And by that we mean “if you build it, they will come” DOES NOT apply to SEO. Once upon a time, long long ago in a WWW far away, you could do that. You could build an awesome site, submit it to a few directories, and you really could rank well. Alas, that is no longer the case, and hasn’t been for many years.
Building a great website with great content just isn’t enough to rank in ever more optimized, ultra-competitive spaces. If you build it and fail to effectively market it, they most certainly WILL NOT come 🙂
#2 – SEO is not a Showtime Rotisserie – That’s right, you can’t just “set it and forget it”. SEO is not a one-time effort. You can’t just “SEO” your site, and be done with it. It is a constant, ongoing battle, requiring perpetual content growth, link building, and ever more creative marketing tactics.
If you think you can do some SEO once, and then move your marketing budget to other things, you will be sorely disappointed. If you sell goods or services online, and you aren’t dedicating a goodly portion of your budget to SEO, then you are likely losing money.
#3 – SEO is not Criss Angel – SEOÂ isn’t a trick, gimmick or illusion. SEO is somewhere between an art and a science, with elements of both. It is, after all, “Search Engine” optimization, and despite the best efforts of Google programmers, Google isn’t an AI.
Search engines are machines, code, and as such they have rules, formulae, and boundaries in which they must function. If you can figure out those rules, you can optimize for it. So long as you do said optimization with an intent that is in harmony with the search engine (or that at least doesn’t blatantly violate their ToS), then you are doing a good thing, making the web a better place and all that.
And there you have it, the 3 SEO myths /Â problems we hear of most often. You might be surprised at the number of clients we’ve seen over the years who budget for 6-12 months of SEO and then quit once they have the rankings they want.
If you own a business with an online presence and are considering SEO, please, do a bit of research beforehand so that you come to the table with realistic expectations. That way you’ll be happier, we’ll be happier, and things will just be peachy all around 🙂
Comments 2
Great thoughts, Sam. It is definitely much easier when everyone is on the same page. Miscommunicated expectations are definitely the killers in almost any relationship. The funny part about SEO is that there is still stuff online published from back a long time that is outdated. In an industry that moves so fast, you can’t believe everything you read. You need to stay current with reliable and up-to-date information.
Author
Amen to that 🙂 A big thanks to SEOmoz for keeping us current!