Google is continuing to evolve and becoming as intelligent as ever with a lot of recent updates to its algorithms. As their AI capabilities increase, so does the need for SEO gurus, such as GOOP Digital in Geelong, to adapt and stay on top.
There are so many resources online, in podcasts, blogs, and courses that give the wrong advice when it comes to SEO. Here are some of the common misconceptions and myths when it comes to SEO:
Myth #1: You should never remove content from your website.
It is not always good to leave stale content, including blogs, on a website that is not bringing in traffic. Removing content is totally fine. Even better is updating content and adding in new ones.
Low-quality content in one part of the site can drastically affect the whole site in a negative way. Quality, not quantity, is king moving forward.
Myth #2: Longer content is better for SEO.
Word count has no impact. It doesn’t matter if the content is short—if it is written well and is useful to the audience, it can make a big impact on SEO. Longer content is only good if it is quality content.
Additionally with Google’s recent “helpful content update,” Google is starting to determine if content on a website has been made just for the purpose of rankings, and not usefulness and giving value to the site’s audience.
Myth #3: All the headings on a page should contain keywords.
Stuffing keywords in headings for optimisation is not good. This may have been a good idea for SEO a few years back, but not anymore.
Putting in keywords in the H1, and maybe in one or two H2s is the way to go.
Myth #4: Alt text is for keywords.
It is important to have alt text on all images. You need to describe the image and not just go keyword-heavy.
It is important to be descriptive while putting in some keywords, and ending with a period to let the listener know that the description has ended. After all, alt text is for people with visual disabilities. And there’s nothing more annoying for the visually impaired (and Google) than hearing just a bunch of keywords and nothing to describe an image.
It is not optimal to write “image of” or “photo of” in the alt text. Short but descriptive is key.
Our advice
Ultimately, it is best to use common sense when it comes to SEO. As Google continues to get smarter, “hacks,” trickery, over-optimising, and overusing keywords will not work as they may have in the past, and will hurt your website instead. Remember to create content with the intent of bringing value and usefulness to humans, not robots (or Google).