SEO Myths Michigan Businesses Need to Forget

SEO Myth #1: Social Media and Search Have Nothing to do with Each other

Social Media and Search Engine Optimization are becoming closely intertwined. Consider Google’s plus one and Facebook’s like button. The amount of likes for a given piece of content can influence a website’s search results. These “likes” are votes from your online visitors and these votes show Google that your web site content was interesting or informative.

There is also the social search factor. This means that website content with a social connection to you will be listed above other websites in Google’s SERP(search engine result pages). For example, if you did a search for attorneys in your area, one of your friends from Facebook might show up in the search results before other lawyers that are not connected to you through social media.

SEO Myth #2: You Can Use the Same SEO Techniques on Any Website

Some might think that SEO is a “one size fits all” approach, and once the techniques are mastered, they can be used on any type of website.

Take a moment to think about this. Would you apply the same marketing mix for a small “ma and pop” clothing store as you would a chain restaurant? No. Not only are these two businesses completely different types, they are 2 different sized companies. Even a website’s design approach depends on the industry as well as size of business. Why would search engine optimization be any different? A company like Sony would use different strategies to improve their Google results than a Michigan small business that is relatively new. It is true that all websites share a few marketing techniques like social media and back links. However it is the way these SEO strategies are used that will vary.

SEO Myth #3: Buying Links or False Friends Will Help My Google Ranking

In most situations, cutting corners doesn’t pay off in the long run. The same is true when it comes to search engine marketing for your Michigan business. You may have heard of sites that offer false Facebook “Likes” and friends for a price. There are also sites selling back links. Although this might sound tempting, remember this: true organic SEO strategies will always outrank any black hat(cheating) techniques .

Even if your Google ranking improves slightly, chances are this will be short lived . Sooner or later, your ranking go down or even worse you could get penalized by Google.

SEO Myth #4: The More Links I Have, the Better

Here is something to consider. If Google rankings was only dependent on whoever had the most backlinks, the SERP(search engine result pages) would be much different than the way they are today.

Although the amount of links pointing at your site does hold some weight when it comes to optimizing, the key is what kinds of sites are linked to yours. Not to mention, there are so many other factors that Google considers when ranking your website and back links are only one of these many factors.