SEO Blog - UK Search Engine Marketing News & Tips

The SEO industry is an exciting place to be; it has developed rapidly over a considerable period and it is still such a comparatively new sector that it is filled with entrepreneurs – people who saw the industry potential way back when. Many of our clients understand the sector or have researched all aspects of online marketing before they approach us.

However, a considerable number do not and will not grasp the finer points of SEO – and why should they? They have called in professional help and that should be enough. Except they also, understandably, want to know exactly where their budget is going - these people are company bosses for a reason - and you often find the same misunderstandings perpetuated around the web.

Number One: SEO is a one-off event

Very often, a firm fails to understand that optimising a website’s content is just the beginning. Even once the website has been re-designed, the new content has been implemented and the pay-per-click campaign begun, a website requires ongoing work, content and monitoring, either in-house or by an agency.

Number Two: Black hat tactics work indefinitely

The reason for this myth is that black hat SEO firms keep perpetuating it! Unethical tactics may well work in the short term but the search engine algorithms become ever more sophisticated and they will catch up. The main danger, of course, is that a high ranking website suddenly finds itself banished from the search results because they are being penalised for what their unethical SEO firm did to their site.

Number Three: If five keywords are good, 500 are better

Many bosses will take the time to really listen as their SEO firm explains how they will optimise the site’s content for a carefully chosen set of keywords and phrases. Unfortunately, having grasped the idea, they will then use those keywords endlessly, meaninglessly and until all human readers have run screaming from the site. Search engines help attract people to a website but if the content is useless once they get there, potential customers will quickly abandon it. Furthermore, the search engine crawlers are surprisingly sophisticated and will usually spot keyword stuffing.

Number Four: Agencies have deals with search engines

This claim resonates mostly from the more unethical SEO firms. No one can guarantee a place in the top ten overnight and, for more popular keywords, it can be a mountain of a task. Companies which claim to have agreements with Google or any of the main search engines which mean they can guarantee a high-ranking site are lying – it is as simple as that. These people do real damage to the industry by spreading such misinformation.

Number Five: One tactic alone can cause top rankings

There is no one solution to search engine optimisation. Links are not the only answer, keywords are not the answer, pay-per-click is not the answer, nor are any of the other tactics when used in isolation. The answer is to use all of these together to help move a website up in the rankings and develop its online brand.

To conclude

Professionals in the SEO industry may not agree with all of the above, or they may have their own collection of horror stories and widely-held, utterly wrong SEO myths. The problem with a developing industry is that what is true one day becomes obsolete the next. This means it is vital that any business which is considering hiring an SEO firm makes sure they choose carefully and research the sector fully.