Top 5 SEO Misconceptions
Published: September 27, 2024
Cartoon smartphone character smiling and holding a stack of books labeled “Marketing” on the bottom one.

As SEO Specialists we analyse multiple websites a week. We also talk to clients regarding their SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and its importance to their website. Being SEO Specialists, we have a unique look on web development as our job consists of a deep analysis ofsearch engine results. We also work with the implementation of new SEO strategies to achieve specific goals our client has set.

When speaking to SEO Clients, there are often misconceptions regarding SEO that can frequently come up. In order for a successful SEO Campaign it is essential that a client understands what SEO is. Once they understand SEO they will generally have better expectations as to what’s to come in future. Clarifying any misconceptions is one of the first steps when beginning any SEO Campaign. Below we have listed a few misconceptions or objections that frequently come up:

Misconception #1 – SEO is not required

For those not used to the web they can often completely disregard SEO. This can be one of the biggest mistakes if they are planning on bringing traffic to their site organically. Improper SEO can also miss traffic from your intended audience.

Occasionally we see a beautiful, fast website that has the power to bring leads, increase brand awareness and organically develop good monthly traffic. Most websites fall short when it comes to being search engine optimised. Like we mentioned previously, this can be one of the biggest mistakes you can make for getting your business noticed online.

During the start of an SEO Campaign, experienced SEO Specialists will perform an in-depth analysis of a website and their competition to gather all relevant information needed. This includes gathering important keywords and phrases that will bring the most traffic to the website.

Misconception #2 – SEO is not worth the cost

Another frequent misconception is that SEO is not worth the cost. SEO is a digital marketing tool used to achieve online objectives. Whether it is worth the cost entirely depends on the business, it’s industry and the online objective. The two major divisions of SEO are Paid SEO and Organic SEO. Paid SEO is when you pay to have your website appear on ads. This includes Google Adwords, Facebook for Business, Bing Ads and any other form of paid website advertisement.

Paid SEO is used for situations where you would like immediate traffic towards your website with no long-term benefits. Paid SEO can be great for promoting events or pop-up shops as they do not have long-term objectives.

Organic SEO is when you devise a custom SEO Strategy to grow online traffic over time. Organic SEO will take longer to grow more traffic however it will have much better long-term effects than Paid SEO should you choose to keep investing in it.

Misconception #3 – Results are Immediate

Many people believe that organic search rankings can be bought however this is very untrue. Like we mentioned earlier, organic SEO takes time and is much more of a long-term strategy for bringing traffic to your website. To gain higher search rankings takes a lot of hard and continuous work. Google will only show the best content that is most relevant to a user’s search query.

Google gives each page it crawls a domain authority, measure from 1-100 with one-hundred being the best authority score possible. High DA (Domain Authority) cannot be attained easily. To gain a high authority it takes many years of hard work and effort. Any content from websites with high DA scores is likely to rank very high, if not first on search engines simply due to the fact that they have high DA.

Once you realise all the work required to have a successful campaign is can be quite daunting. This is why most people hire an expert SEO Company to do the work for them. By hiring an SEO Company, not only do business owners know that SEO is being properly done to their website, but it also gives them more time to focus on running their business.

Misconception #4 – You can rank for broad terms

When starting out, ranking for broad terms can be very difficult. If your content is not immediately relevant or not current Google will not rank it high. High rankings for broad keywords are often given to websites that are most authoritative, relevant, and respected. Ranking for broad keywords can be possible however like anything in organic SEO, it will take time and effort.

Misconception #5 – You can get results with a very small budget

This can be controversial however the harsh reality of SEO is that it cannot be properly done without proper investment. Technically, SEO can be done at any pricepoint however if you’re looking for the best results it will take a bit of time, but more importantly, it will come at a cost.

Charlie Martin
Charlie Martin

Author

Charlie leads the digital work at Ireland Online—designing, optimising, and making sure every client gets results that actually matter. He loves learning about businesses and helping them grow online.

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