5 SEO Myths You Shouldn’t Follow

SEO was really my gateway into digital marketing. Learning SEO in the early days of my career years ago served as my introduction to marketing on the Web. It’s what opened me up to a new world that included analytics, HTML, user experience, and so much more.

It’s an incredible feeling to build a fantastic website, create great content, to see people find it, and ultimately have those visitors convert. In a nutshell, that’s what made me fall in love with digital marketing in the first place. The outcomes, feedback, learning, and constant refinement is addicting.

Today, this practice blends art and science, and being successful is more about the quality of content and UX than anything else. Unfortunately, SEO has gotten a bad wrap and myths continue to be perpetuated.

Here are just a handful of my favorite myths, in no particular order:

1. SEO Myth: Google Only Ranks ‘Fresh’ Content

Google wants to provide users with the most relevant content for any search query. That’s often been interpreted to mean that to have content rank it must be fresh, new and timely. In other words, the most recently published content has the best chance of near-term success, while older content is bound to decline in organic traffic.

‘Freshness’ is indeed an important signal, but it’s also query-dependent. That means that how fresh a piece of content is likely depends on the query. For sites operating in fast-paced news, fresh content may be key. But for the majority of websites, freshness is less of a factor. Consider the topic that you’re targeting. If it’s one that’s constantly evolving, then it could be important to refresh and/or republish that content regularly to ensure Google doesn't consider it stale.

2. SEO Myth: You Don’t Need Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are the snippets of content that can be found under a website’s title tag in the search engine results page. They are basically a short summary of the web page that gives users an idea of what they are potentially clicking into. In many cases, Google will develop one automatically based on the page content.

It’s true that meta descriptions by themselves are no longer directly influencing rankings. However, they play a huge role in the searcher’s behavior and in driving engagement with your page’s SERP listing, click-through, and on-site conversion. If users don’t find what they’re looking for in the meta description, or it doesn’t accurately describe the page, they’ll probably move on to a competitor’s listing.

3. SEO Myth: Google Will Penalize a Website for Duplicate Content

It’s widely believed that duplicate content is a website’s kryptonite, paralyzing it from visibility in search engine results. While it can influence what organic results Google shows, duplicate content doesn't necessarily bring ranking doom.

Instead, Google will just ignore the duplicate content altogether. Keep in mind: if you have instances of duplicate content on your website, those pages may be ignored by search engines, which won’t help or hurt your organic rankings. Luckily, there are some tools out there that can help identify duplicate content on a website, such as Copyscape, but know that some duplicate is not completely unusual.

4. SEO Myth: An SEO Agency is the Best Way to Get Fast Rankings

Always be weary of any promise from agencies of rankings or fast results. If you have the budget, there can certainly be good reasons to hire an SEO agency to help with a host of activities, particularly if you’re short on internal resources or want a fresh perspective on how to improve your search traffic. However, SEO needs to be considered an ongoing effort, not a one-time project or something to get a quick win. It’s driven by data and planned, periodic spurts of increased activity scheduled ahead of time.

Google handles over 100 billion searches per month, so no SEO can predict how or what people are going to search tomorrow, or be able to make any guarantee of fast search rankings. SEO is a long-term practice that’s impacted by the age and history of domain names, authority links, and in-depth, high-quality content, among many other factors. There are many websites out there that check these boxes, but still struggle to rank well. Know that playing the long game is what it takes to not only get to the top of results, but to stay there.

5. SEO Myth: SEO is Dead

Last but not least. Google is more sophisticated than ever and makes it more challenging for SEOs to crack the formula to higher rankings. Moreover, search engine results pages look much different now than they did a decade or more ago. Increasingly, Google is serving up its own answers to searchers’ queries, before they reach traditional website listings. Even voice searches are becoming the norm in our smart homes.

However, the truth is that as long as search engines still exist and show organic results for users hungry for answers—answers that can be influenced in some fashion—SEO isn’t dead. At its core, SEO is about finding ways to satisfy user needs, answer their questions, and it’s about tailoring a website’s architecture or content to meet a searcher’s expectations. That’s something that will continue to be an essential practice.

Digital Marketing Will Evolve in 2019. Here's How.

Keeping up with the latest trends in all areas of digital marketing including search engine optimization, social media marketing, web design, and user experience, is naturally essential for small businesses and large brands alike to reach consumers who are glued to their devices. But just because you’ve conquered digital marketing in 2018 doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re positioned for automatic success this year.

Digital marketing is in a constant state of flux; changing and evolving, shaped by new technologies and the habits of users. With this in mind, marketers need to be masters of adaptation.

By integrating these six strategies into your digital marketing plans this year, you’ll gain optimal traction with your customers while your competitors flounder in your wake.

Prepare for Google’s “micro moments”

We live in a fast-paced environment where we predominantly access digital content through mobile devices in short bursts on the train, waiting in line to get coffee, or (let’s face it) in the bathroom. The changing nature of our interactions with digital content is not making attention spans any longer. Today’s users don’t want, but demand instant gratification. They’re less likely than ever to take the time to scroll deeply or make dozens of clicks to navigate through your content.

Google understands this and its “micro moments” is a mental model for marketing that’s already changing the rules. This model distills user behavior into three distinct micro moments including:

• “I want to go” moments

• “I want to do” moments

• “I want to buy” moments

These are the moments in which a user will now instinctively turn to a device. They will do so out of a desire to “go” and learn something through a specific piece of content, to “do” something like signup or registration, or to make a purchase and “buy” a product or service. These are fleeting but critical moments which are ripe for opportunity. How will you capitalize on them in 2019?

Users have been conditioned to expect brands to deliver exactly what they want when they want it. It’s incumbent upon businesses to be able to meet users’ needs faster with fewer clicks. This means producing more content, prompt and responsive user assistance, real-time communication and a range of options for a more personalized user experience.

Embrace video marketing

It may have killed the radio star, but video can also be a kingmaker. In a time where users’ attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, long form written content still has its place. However, video is fast becoming the preferred medium for the kinds of time-strapped users upon whom you have your sights set. Video communicates ideas quickly, making them more effective than text and even infographics.

Video marketing grows more important with each passing year and it is expected to reach new heights of importance in 2019. Consider this: brands that use video get 41-percent more search engine traffic than their counterparts that don’t. Businesses with a wealth of competitors who need every inch of inside track they can get in terms of SEO are tempting fate if they don’t embrace video marketing.

Content is still king

 It’s as true today as it was when Bill Gates first said it in 1996. However, in a “mobile first” era, it stands to reason that the way in which your users consume said content will be different to how it was when the only way you could access the internet was from a desktop computer with a dial-up modem (go ahead and remember the sound of an old dial-up with fond nostalgia).

Mobile use has been the primary means by which users consume digital content since 2016, and as such it behoves marketers to consider how your content looks, how it feels, and how it is navigated through, on a mobile device.

Sure, this means that your web design will need to be responsive, but you must also consider how your content is laid out, how easy it is to navigate via touchscreen, and how long your content takes to load through a 4G or even a 3G connection. Remember that a page load time of just 7 seconds can increase your bounce rate by over 30-percent! 

What’s more, in the wake of Google’s “mobile-first” index, failing to keep mobile optimization at the heart of your content is SEO kryptonite.

Tell more social stories

In an era where brands are stepping over one another to get the attention of their audiences, a little authenticity goes a long way. Authenticity helps users to establish a personal connection to your brand and allows them to invest in it emotionally. It adds to the value your brand provides and ensures that users will consider you before your competitors.

Let users peek behind the curtain with behind-the-scenes content. Allow them to get to know your employees a little better. Use polls to provide a degree of interactivity and ensure that your users feel that they have a voice. Use instagram stories to give users a flavor of daily life in your business. While it’s understandable that you may want to save time and resources by outsourcing much of your content, make sure that you leave plenty of space for some User Generated Content to give your content marketing strategy the personal touch.

Social stories are quick, fun, and easy to consume, and they also help to add that much-needed human dimension to your brand.

Champion user-centered design

Gone are the days when web design was all about aesthetics. No longer is it enough to merely have a website that looks beautiful and professional. Everyone has that now! In 2019 the future of web design is about User Experience (UX). UX is especially important in the “mobile-first” era as your content must be easy and intuitive to navigate through.

Today’s users are web savvier than they would have been 15, 10 or even 5 years ago. They have been conditioned to expect polished and seamless UX, and failing to provide it could be damaging to your brand. In an era where 55-percent of users spend less than 15 seconds on a website, brands can’t afford to send their bounce rates through the roof with an impenetrable UX.

Think about natural language

Digital assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant continue to evolve, and as they become more sophisticated users are entrusting them more and more. Needless to say this is bound to impact the way in which people seek answers to questions, make purchases, and otherwise interact with brands.

With this in mind it, marketers should think about the natural language used via voice searches and how it differs from a traditional typed search engine query. Today 39 million people in the US alone own a voice operated smart speaker. As they grow more sophisticated and reliable, that number is likely to rise proportionately. With more and more users turning to voice search, it is increasingly considered to be the next SEO frontier.

These machines derive user intent from conversational voice commands as well as previous search queries, and the better you’re able to understand how they work the more luck you’ll have tapping into the vast and growing market of voice search users in 2019.

Closing thoughts

The year ahead offers some exciting opportunities and new challenges for brands of all shapes and sizes. However, when you keep this digital marketing checklist in mind, you’ll be perfectly positioned to respond to user demand in 2019 and beyond.

SEO is Dead. Are You Ready for Search Experience Optimization?

Search engine optimization has always been an exciting space full of changes and ever-evolving algorithms. Figuring out how to exploit those algorithms has been the main objective of countless SEOs.

These exploits have really given SEO a bad name in the process. Scaling the development of low-quality content, purchasing links, getting meaningless directory inclusions, and many other offenses that were focusing on optimizing for search engines, once made a difference.

That was then. Today, Google is much smarter and has refined its algorithm to better understand what makes a great website. In short, a great website — one that Google will rank higher — is one that can provide a great user experience. A website that is optimized for people, not just search engines.

What Changed?

Over the last few years, experienced SEOs have been calling for a rebranding for what we do. Many have settled on Search Experience Optimization (often abbreviated SXO).

The term search experience optimization better marries together a few disciplines, including search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization, and user experience. In addition to SEOs becoming more focused on optimizing for the user, search engines have made significant changes to how they evaluate content. Among the most crucial updates to Google's search algorithm was Panda, a series of updates that that includes real human evaluations (along with algorithmic assessments that mimic these human evaluations). These changes help Google gauge the quality of a website more efficiently.

While Google doesn't explicitly divulge much when it comes to their ranking factors, it's advised that SEOs and all web professionals adhere to Google's prescribed best practices to avoid any ranking penalties.

How to Optimize for Experience

Good SEO has always been about upholding a great user experience. Unfortunately, some unethical marketers have given the field a bad name, seeking to game Google’s algorithm while failing to consider the user.

Focusing on search experience optimization is really about legitimizing what good SEOs have been doing all along. This includes improving all aspects of the searcher’s experience, including:

• Building content that meets of expectations of the searcher.

• Ensuring that content loads quickly.

• Making content that speaks directly to its intended audience.

• Aligning on-page SEO elements with the topic so that Google and users alike know exactly what you’re setting out to communicate.

These are just some of the basic tenets of optimizing content to provide a search engine friendly website. But the evolving demands of good SEOs now incorporate aspects of user experience (UX) as well. These include:

• Making sure content is accessible across all browsers and all devices, ideally through a responsive design.

• Building a clear information architecture (IA) so that users can easily perform their task or goal with little friction.

• Taking a more active role in wireframing and prototyping processes to ensure the IA informs the content strategy throughout the website.

• Upholding the accessibility of your website, ensuring that all of your potential users, including people with disabilities, have a decent user experience.

User Experience and SEO

SEO still manages to play a significant role in search engine results and influences how websites get found online. But SEO has become much more than simply trying to stay ahead of Google and their algorithm tweaks.

These days, it's important to have a broader perspective. To better satisfy a user's needs, marketers might have to turn to focus groups, web analytics data, keyword research, field interviews, and usability tests. It's no longer enough to gather search data alone. Data on interactions, as well as finding insights direct from users, will be paramount.

Truth is, the search experience is just one part of the larger overall user experience, and SEOs need to adjust their thinking and processes to better address UX. Ultimately, introducing new designs, features, and structures will likely keep users more engaged. This in turn, will have lasting results on your rankings.

Google Debuts New UI Design Language for Android

Last week, Google's annual I/O developer conference gave developers and the media a chance to see where the future of Android is heading. Among new features bundled into Android L, the code name for the next generation OS, there will be a new design language called “Material Design” aimed at providing a more consistent user experience across devices.All of Google’s apps, such as Gmail and its Calendar app, will be redesigned to adhere to the principles of Material Design. However, this new design language is more than a visual refresh. It also brings about new animations and new ways for users to interact with content. Along with revamped typography and more color, Google’s aiming to make its apps even more consistent than they are today, lending a better overall user experience."Unlike real paper, our digital material can expand and reform intelligently. Material has physical surfaces and edges. Seams and shadows provide meaning about what you can touch," said Matias Durate, Google's director of Android user experience.Google also launched a new Design website to provide developers with all the guidelines needed to build apps that follow the Material Design principles. While Android will continue to employ elements of a flat design, the UI will also have incredible depth, thanks to use of shadows. Developers can even assign an elevation value to areas within their apps, letting Google's framework automatically generate virtual light sources. Nuances like these will give Material Design a greater sensation of depth and visually indicate where user interactions can take place.At the core of this new UI is the need to bring a seamless experience across devices. Different form factors has created a significant challenge not only Google, but also for Microsoft and Apple. With Material Design, Google has incorporated all of its apps and even Search, and the company is hoping that it cracked the code that brings mobile and desktop platforms closer together than ever before.Google’s new APIs are now available, so developers can begin making apps that take advantage of this new design language. For non-developers, you can take a closer look at the future of Android below.[themedy_media type="youtube" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8TXgCzxEnw"]