The best place to hide a body is on the second page of Google as not many people look beyond the first page. SEO strategy has changed over the years and we often hear some outdated ideas about how to rank on Google. But do not fear! The Ingot team is here to debunk some popular SEO myths going around at the moment and help get your site ranking on the first page and away from all the dead bodies…
Content is King (Content is all you need)
Content is very important but it is not all you need in your SEO campaign. The other key components of a successful SEO campaign are: On page SEO and off page SEO optimisations. On page SEO refers to any changes you make on your website to improve search engine visibility. Some examples of on page SEO are updating the H1 tag, changing the title tag, adding the meta description or improving page load speed. Off page SEO refers to activities to help SEO ranking, this could be creating a link from another website or listing your website on an external directory site.
High keyword density helps you rank
This was true back in 2011-2012 but today Google’s algorithm is far more sophisticated than it used to be. Yes keywords are still important but you no longer need to stuff your page with the keyword that you want to target. Looking at other aspects of on page SEO such as Google’s core web vitals have a significant impact on rankings today.
More pages help my site rank better
It is better to focus on quality rather than quantity. Publishing five high quality pages is better than five hundred low quality pages. Google cares about user experience and if the experience of using just five pages is fast, intuitive and useful, then you are winning.
Page speed isn’t very important
Page speed is very important and is becoming more important every year. This is because it has a huge impact on the user experience. Google wants the best user experience possible for its users. Google uses a few key metrics to measure page speed and how this impacts the user experience:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
How long does a site seem to load from the user’s perspective? When the user clicks on the link to your website Google measures how long it takes for the first element on the page to appear. If it takes more than 4 seconds then users can become frustrated and hit the back button.
First Input Delay (FID)
This is the measure of how long it takes for the user’s first interaction with your site. For example the first user interaction could be clicking on a button or an image.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
This is a measurement of how often a webpage moves frame by frame. This is often caused by ads that load and make a webpage jump around. This can be very frustrating for users and create a poor user experience.
Time to first byte (TTB)
The time it takes for the first byte of data to load from the server. This is often slowed down by your website being hosted on a slow server, a bloated stie theme or complex and unused javascript.
So there you have it, some of the biggest myths about SEO that we have heard floating about recently. Google is changing the ranking algorithm constantly and to remain ranking high in the relevant search results requires moving away from some of these myths and outdated misinformation about SEO. Running an SEO campaign on a regular basis is key to getting the most out of your website. If you are interested in learning more about why organic SEO is valuable to your business then reach out to the Ingot team.