Search engine optimization is constantly changing, quite often thanks to Google rearranging the 200+ signals that power its algorithms. Let us shed some light on 3 common SEO myths.
- Having a secure (https) site isn’t important for SEO.
- Https:// (versus http://) means that the connection to a website is encrypted so hackers can’t steal valuable data, like passwords and credit card numbers.
- In August 2014, Google announced the addition of https as a signal in their algorithms; if you continue to use the standard http, your rankings can suffer. If you haven’t made your site secure yet, now is the time – Google says that Chrome will flag http pages as potentially unsafe starting this month.
- Good user experience is a bonus, not a requirement.
- Look at it from the search engine’s point of view: although they didn’t create the page, they’re endorsing it by including it in their search results, and if Google repeatedly sends you to sites that offer bad user experiences, you might stop using Google.
- Focus on things like page load time, the use of a variety of mediums, quality of content and offers, ease of navigation, and aesthetics to improve your user experience; Google’s algorithms will find those elements and your site’s rankings will improve naturally.
- SEO is all about ranking.
- Ranking has never been a guarantee of success; you can rank well, get tons of site traffic – and never generate a lead. While there IS a strong correlation between your ranking and clickthrough rates, ranking isn’t the supreme goal it used to be.
- Instead, optimize your site with keywords, good meta descriptions, appropriate tags, and high-quality content. It doesn’t matter where you rank if your quality is sub-par – people may come to your page, but they’ll bounce quickly.
Capitalizing on the knowledge from these busted myths will allow you to be both more effective and more efficient with your SEO strategy.