5 SEO Myths You May Be Wasting Your Time On

There is a TON of misrepresentation out there about digital marketing over-all, and specifically SEO. Because Search Engine Optimization is something that a lot of people don’t comprehend (or choose not), are stunned by, or can’t keep up with, it’s often something that is easily distorted by “experts”.

Don’t worry, today Eyecon has your back. We’re breaking down the 5 main SEO myths that are still fluctuating around in cyberspace and are giving you permission to STOP ruining your time on them!

1. WWW vs non-WWW is important.
   Every website owner has the decision to make their website URL “www” or to totally lose the “www” altogether. While there are some nominal differences in the both, Google has formally stated that there are NO SEO benefits of one over the other. The significant thing to remember is that once you select which one you want, stay coherent with that version. You can choose your partiality in Google Search Console. What IS important is having a secure site version (https) accessible and predominant over your traditional non-secure version (HTTP).
2. You have to fill out your Meta Keywords
   If you’ve looked at the backend of your site to do your Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions you may have noticed a predicament to put in Meta Keywords. These used to be very important for SEO and many SEO “experts” still think they hold weight. Though, in recent updates, Google has proclaimed that because of keyword stuffing (which is when a website is occupied with keywords that may or may not relate to the page) that Meta keywords now have completely NO bearing on Google search rankings. Like I said before, you can fill them out if you want, but since they don’t make any difference, what’s the point?
3. URL’s should be keyword rich
   There is still debate among many SEO experts about devising a URL with a lot of keywords in it. Here’s my take – creating long, keyword rich URLs may really hurt, instead of helping your brand. New studies have shown that Google is reliably ranking long URLs lower in the search. Latest analysis shows that the top 10 results on Google reliably have URLs with less than 37 characters. Also, after examining a random selection of 30,000 domains they found that those with a keyword in their URL ranked NO better than those that didn’t.
4. 301 redirects aren’t SEO friendly
   This one can get a little nominal and unclear so bear with me a little. When someone types in a URL in the top bar, it takes them to a website. It is up to us to tell the internet what site we want it to take someone to when they type in our URL. There are a few methods to do that. The 2 most popular are Domain Mapping and 301 Redirects. Domain Mapping is when you acquire a URL from an outside outlet and you want it to link fully to your site. During this process, you are altering the DNS and hosting settings so your URL is directly connected to your website. Because 301 redirected URL’s aren’t mapped and don’t carry as much SEO juice as mapped URLs, many people think they aren’t SEO friendly. Though, this actually can be a great thing for your site. If you map numerous URLs to your website they end up all opposing each other in SEO, fundamentally dropping you in search because not one URL will stand out.
5. You should use Google Authorship
   This one’s pretty easy, Google Authorship doesn’t exist anymore, so don’t even bother trying. Google Authorship was a test by Google trying to link content you generate with your Google+ profile. After multiple efforts, it never caught on, and Google shut it down. You may still see registered in some outdated SEO classes or articles. If you do, just ignore it and move on.