SEO professionals have known for years before the 2016 US Presidential Elections that the problem of fake news on the internet has turned into a menace. It takes less than a day to create a blog and start posting articles with unverified facts. So, it is only natural that many people are doing exactly that. They know that people in every walk of life, every industry, and every country are hungry for information that is not easily available. So, giving them any kind of information, factual or fake, immediately turns them into followers. The world of SEO is not immune to this either. There is no dearth of myths and fake facts propagated by self-proclaimed SEO experts who do not understand even the basis of the highly complex world that is SEO. Here are some of those myths debunked.
Google’s 200 Ranking Factors
This is one statement that is parroted by every unqualified SEO professional out there.
The origins of this myth lie in one of the press releases by Google in 2006, in which it explained to journalists that its search algorithm takes into consideration “over 200 signals for ranking”. The key word here is “over”. But, it got completely ignored and pseudo-specialists on the internet began to use this statement as a reference for claiming that Google’s search algorithm makes use of 200 ranking factors for ranking websites. No amount of clarification by Google’s own employee, Matt Cutts, helped curb the wildfire “200 factors” that had caught the attention of even seasoned SEO professionals then.
Google has never disclosed its list of ranking factors. Moreover, it continuously updates and changes them. Anyone who says they have the definitive list of all 200 ranking factors is barking up the wrong tree. You should stay away from such professionals.
More Social Media Means Higher Rankings
This is another most common mistake that many businesses and SEO professionals make. Google has stated clearly and in unequivocal terms that it does not use Facebook or Twitter as ranking factors. So, does that mean social media is irrelevant?
No. The truth is slightly complex. Here’s how it works. More social shares and likes means more eyeballs that will notice your content and website. This leads to higher traffic to your website. Google analyzes the behavior of this socially-induced higher traffic to promote or demote your ranking. Say, the audience is coming from Facebook to your blog, but are closing the browser tab right away because your content is irrelevant. Then, Google demotes your ranking. If you manage to engage your audience, then Google promotes you. So, no amount of tweets and shares are going to do the trick for you. It’s the engagement that Google focusses on.
If You Pay for AdWords, Google Increases Your Rankings
There are many forms of this statement spread across a broad spectrum of misinformation. While some professionals claim that Google deliberately ranks websites lower so that people spend money on AdWords, some others spread misinformation that AdWords is part of Google’s SEO strategy. In whatever form you hear this statement made, just run away from the person who makes them.
Your Google AdWords strategy has absolutely no effect on your organic SEO performance. However, analyzing your AdWords campaign performance, and scrutinizing the analytics reports from it can help you improve your organic campaign significantly.
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