Second of two parts
By Anastasia Stefanova, AVB Marketing
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important marketing tactics available for your business and long-term growth. Yet Google’s vague descriptions of what it looks for in ranking your business has led to many misconceptions about SEO.
Unlike other agencies, AVB Marketing has a department dedicated entirely to SEO, where we test, research, analyze and optimize on a large scale to see what truly works and what doesn’t. Based on that acquired knowledge, we present the five remaining misconceptions about SEO (see the first four here). These are the biggest SEO fallacies that are still accepted by many business owners and marketing agencies alike.
5. Technical SEO is The Most Effective
Although it is very important to have a technically sound website from an SEO perspective, many agencies use this as the basis for their SEO offerings. This leads to a misconception for businesses because they assume this is all there is to SEO. Not only is technical SEO more of a “one-and-done” activity (not necessarily a monthly tactic), but it fails to lead to true SEO growth or improvement in traffic.
Many agencies offer only technical SEO as their SEO offering because of bandwidth issues or an outdated understanding of how SEO works. True traffic growth results from custom content work, which is very time-consuming and expensive, and something smaller agencies don’t have the capacity to perform. As noted in Part I of this report, Google’s algorithm has grown to be much more intuitive over the last five years, moving technical SEO to the bottom-tier of ranking factors.
6. Ranking No. 1 is All that Matters
Picture this: your SEO agency hands you a list of keywords for which you ranked first. The terms themselves look good and there’s quite a bit of them! Looks great, right? The truth is, if those terms are not frequently searched in Google, then their top ranking is not all that valuable. What’s the point of ranking first for something no one ever searches? While the top-ranking spot still holds value, true SEO success lies in the growth of traffic that comes from the words you are ranking for. Sometimes you can get more traffic from ranking 10th for a keyword with great search volume vs. several low-value keywords that place you on top.
7. Focusing on SKUs in Blog Content
Your products and their SKUs will naturally rank online inside your catalog. However, many searches for SKUs are made by other industry personnel, not always customers. Some customers may search the SKU if they have already found the model they want, or are looking for recalls, reviews or product information after purchase. However, the typical consumer knows nothing of SKU numbers, especially when they first initiate a search. Although important, SKUs should not be the main focus of your blog content. If a nearby customer is searching for a specific SKU, your catalog should already show up for this search. You’d rather have your product pages rank for these SKUs than have to compete organically with other content; after all, your product pages are where customers convert.
8. I Can Rank 1st Quickly
Ranking requires traffic to hit your pages first. This puts growth in the hands of the searchers and Google. Your current SEO rank will also play a part, so the further down you are, the bigger the climb. Conversely, the better your current standing, the easier it is to achieve growth. A brand-new site can take over a year to see real traffic growth, as Google needs historical evidence to see how and what users do on your site.
Specifically, when you publish a new page, Google needs time to crawl and index it. From there, customers online must find it, navigate to it, and interact with it. Over time, Google evaluates how users respond to your pages and it will begin to rank you accordingly. As more people visit your page, your rank in Google rises. This, unfortunately, does not happen overnight. It can take several months for Google to even index a page.
The good news, however, is that your traffic will compound over time. As your rank improves, more traffic arrives and the snowball effect begins. The longer you cultivate SEO, the easier it is to get traffic and the more prevalent you become. And the more traffic you get, the better your chances of converting a customer.
9. I Only Want Local Website Traffic
There are no geo-fencing capabilities in SEO. Think about it: you can search stores 1,000 miles away from your home if you want. This is the beauty of the Internet. Because of this, no one has control over who visits your content. However, you actually want all the traffic. Let us explain.
Since the amount of traffic you get allows Google to rank you higher, we want to capture everyone potentially searching to improve your ranks. The great news is that Google always shows the most relevant results first for users. This means that if you rank in states outside your operating area, then it follows that you are already the number one result in your local area. It means that your content is so great that Google has determined that your page is the most relevant result for others in different areas (outranking their local businesses). This is one of the best results you can have in SEO.
Summary
Our list is just a starting point for the many misconceptions surrounding SEO. If you are already working with an agency on SEO, getting a second opinion is a great way to ensure you’re getting the most value for your investment. If you have never tried SEO, remember that it can help you bolster sales during slower months, ensure customers find you instead of your competitors, gain brand awareness and market share, and of course, generate more sales from the traffic it brings. Let AVB Marketing show you how to incorporate an SEO strategy for sustainable, long-term business growth.
For more information, visit AVBMarketing.com.
Anastasia Stefanova is SEO manager at AVB Marketing, the advertising, e-commerce and digital marketing arm of BrandSource parent and YSN publisher AVB Inc.
