One of the most challenging topics in the digital marketing world is how to increase your SEO rankings and why they matter.
These rankings matter because most people still only focus on what they find on the first page of Google. This means a user searching organically will only find you if you’re ranked on the first couple of pages of the search engine, they use every day.
Search Traffic Converts Better; Avoid the Myths
Some people that are so-called “experts” will try and tell you that SEO rankings don’t matter anymore because of the increase in social media. The fact is, search traffic converts nine percent better than social media traffic, which means you need to focus on both of them but put most of your energy into your search presence and how highly your website ranks. Let’s look at some myths you need to ignore.
Myth 1: Keyword Targeting Became Irrelevant after Google Hummingbird
Hummingbird was supposed to change the future of search and create less of a need for keyword targeting. While there are some differences since this addition was implemented, keywords still show on Google and help websites rank on the first page. This means keywords still matter when it comes to the SEO rankings you’re looking for in your digital marketing.
Myth 2: Having an XML Sitemap Will Boost Your Search Rankings
To have a crawlable site you need to have an XML sitemap. This allows Google to see what’s on your site and know where to index each post and page you add to your website. If every website that Google has access to includes an XML sitemap that’s not going to improve your SEO rankings on this search engine. Other factors mean much more to where your site ranks.
Myth 3: Meta Tags Don’t Matter
Meta tags are HTML tags that appear between the opening and closing tags. These show preview snippets for a webpage in the search results. Meta tags absolutely matter and your SEO rankings can be much higher if you include the keywords within the meta description. Put some time and energy into excellent meta tags and you’ll see your website among the first few listed for the products and services you offer.
Myth 4: You Must Use Meta Robots to Tag Your Pages
Unless you specifically need to have some pages be private and not searchable by the public, you don’t need to waste your time with a meta robot that will be told which pages to show and which ones to leave private. The time it takes to index your site this way can be better spent focusing on other activities that can improve your SEO rankings.
Myth 5: Top-Level Domains Don’t Matter
Most of the search results you find on any subject will likely have a .com or .net extension, which signifies a top-level domain. Does this matter to your SEO rankings? It certainly has an impact on it because Google recognizes these sites as being some of the most important on the internet. This doesn’t mean that you can’t rank high with a different extension, but the top-level domains show up more than any others.
Myth 6: Including a Target Keyword in Anchor Text No Longer Matters in SEO
Many industry experts fee that anchor text will remain a factor in SEO rankings forever. This means you should use your keywords as part o the anchor text and boost how high your pages show up in Google. Create clickable text with a hyperlink to another interesting page and you’ll see your pages move up the charts.
Myth 7: Google Will Find Your Fresh Content and Index it Automatically
While the search engine bots feed on fresh content and love to find new pages and index them once they are live, this can take a couple of days before it happens. It’s your job to help the bots find your fresh content with the Google XML sitemap generator plugin if you’re using WordPress. You won’t have to do anything but knowing your page can be found immediately makes a difference.
SEO Rankings Matter; Don’t Listen to the Myths
Creating content that matters and ranks high on Google and other search engines isn’t an easy job. It takes a lot of work and expertise to create pages that rank where they should on Google. Pay attention to the SEO rankings of your site and implement the marketing strategies that will get you to the top and keep you there.
