10 SEO Myths Debunked (and how to spot them)

Myths are easy to spread and hard to catch out. Especially when it comes to SEO - with so much advice reliant on the infamously tight-lipped Google and their representatives, it’s easy for misinformation to make its way into “expert” advice. 

That’s why it’s important to know what advice is fact, and what is fiction. That way, you can build your SEO strategy on the truths of search and ranking rather than focus on the wrong factors.  

How do SEO myths start?

The big truth in all of this is that we don’t really know for sure what goes into Google’s algorithm. And that in itself is the biggest cause of SEO myths. We get some information from Google themselves, such as core updates, major algorithm changes, and things like search quality rater guideline documents. Sometimes, we even see leaks but these are very rare and that rarity demonstrates just how tight-lipped Google is about its algorithm. 

What this means is that a lot of SEO advice is interpretation, extrapolation, and honestly a lot of informed guesswork. We go by a combination of what we know for sure about Google’s algorithm from their own information, alongside tried-and-tested methods for SEO. So what this means is that it’s quite easy for a myth to form for a few reasons:

• Outdated advice - Search changes constantly throughout the year, so it’s easy for some advice to be outdated without realizing.
   
• Misunderstandings - With interpretation can come misunderstanding. It’s common to perhaps interpret something Google has said in the wrong way.
  
  
• Focus on the wrong factors - With the information available, sometimes a more minor factor could be viewed as more important than it is.
  
  
• Lack of evidence or overly anecdotal evidence - Sometimes when you see advice it can be based too heavily on anecdotal evidence, or even a lack of. For instance, saying that a certain method of SEO doesn’t work because they didn’t personally see the results they hoped for.  

The internet is full of advice, and as we see in other categories of online information it’s easy for misinformation to spread. Oftentimes in SEO, this is unintentional, but myths persist nonetheless. 

The key to determining if advice you see online is based on myth or fact is to be vigilant and check any advice that sounds too good to be true. If the advice isn’t based on something you can directly link back to Google, then try to understand the reasoning behind the advice. Is it simply best practice? Or do they have some wider evidence that supports it? Just because there isn’t a hard quote from Google about something SEO related doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a myth - SEO in large part comes from interpreting what we do know about the algorithm.

So let’s get onto the myths and facts of SEO:

#1 - Traditional SEO is dead

The more common myth we see a lot is that SEO in general is dead, but more recently it seems more like “traditional” SEO is “dead”. By traditional, we mean search engine based SEO with tried-and-tested, often recommended techniques. With the rise of platforms like Tiktok and Instagram, search optimization outside of search engines has become a hot topic of conversation. This has drawn some attention away from traditional SEO, and this can often lead people to believe that perhaps search engine based SEO isn’t as important as it once was. 

Well, it’s not strictly true. In fact, Google is still growing in 2024 and still maintains over 80% market share of desktop search. It’s by and large still the most popular search platform in the world with over 8.5 billion searches per day. SEO is still a major asset to any business with a website, especially in ecommerce. Brand discovery is still strong in search, and that won’t change any time soon. 

Now that doesn’t mean we can wipe our hands and say job done, Google and SEO is still relevant. We still want to keep in the loop with what is happening outside of Google. While they still maintain that huge market share, it has been on the decline if only by a small margin. That is due to the changing nature of search and the tools users now have. ChatGPT, for example, is a very useful tool for users that is now being used for what would previously have been satisfied by Google. Understanding how these new forms of search influence and impact users is important in order to future-proof your strategy. 

#2 - SEO takes months or years to yield results

Search engine optimization is a complex task, so many will say it takes at least 3 months to see results. Or 6 months, or a year, or even longer. That’s because it takes time for changes to be implemented, for the site to be crawled, for it to slowly work its way up SERPs and so on. However, that’s not necessarily the case. There is no set amount of time after which you’ll “see results”.

There are a few ways to prove this is inaccurate. The first is that it entirely depends on the “results” you’re hoping to see. Is it to climb up rankings? Rank for a new term, or improve ranking for an existing target? Find a new audience? Improve click-through rates? The results will entirely depend on the goal of an optimization. Some goals will take longer to yield results than others, that’s true. But some will be faster. SEO success isn’t purely down to climbing higher in SERPs, but it is often what people mean when they say “SEO takes a long time to see results”. 

Secondly, it can also depend on things like how recently a page has been crawled and indexed. Sometimes, a page might be recrawled the same day you make an improvement or change, and that means you might see results sooner. It can depend on the type of change made how quickly those changes translate to SERPs. 

Finally, it depends on the content. Evergreen content is going to perhaps take longer to rank than seasonal content due to the nature of the search intent it aims to satisfy. For example, if in November you publish an article called “30 cozy gift ideas for Mom this Christmas”, it’s obviously going to be relevant at that time of the year. That means it’s more likely to rank higher, faster than an article perhaps titled “30 cozy gift ideas for Mom’s birthday” which isn’t season dependent. 

#3 - Google prioritizes well-known and big companies in SERPs

This has always been a contentious idea, that Google purposely prioritizes larger publishers/companies in search. In fact in the August 2024 core update, they specifically addressed that they received feedback from smaller and independent publishers which led Google to make it so their content would be more easily surfaced in search. However, that doesn’t stop people thinking that big brand prioritization is still rife in SERPs.

So is it a myth? Yes and no, in a way. No in that we can’t verify 100% that the Google algorithm doesn’t have some kind of preference for bigger companies. After all, part of why myths form is due to how we don’t know the ins and outs of the algorithm. But it is a myth in the sense that we can draw some logical conclusions from why it may seem at times like bigger sites dominate SERPs.

At its core, search ranking will be determined by content, technical optimization, competition, search intent and audience. And the level of content and optimization will depend on a site’s resources. A large brand or site will have the resources to put a lot of effort and time into content and optimization compared to a smaller site. They may even have a team of people dedicated just to SEO. So it will take them less time to do more than a smaller site with a smaller team. 

These sites will also likely have a larger audience, and may have more “house name” appeal. For example if you sell sneakers, you’re still competing in search with big brands like Adidas, Nike, and Allbirds. People recognize those names, so they’ll typically get more traffic. More traffic along with satisfied users equals better search ranking for whatever terms led users to that site. If you want to compete, you need to do more digging into lower competition keywords, getting more granular with your audience targeting, and ensuring that your site’s content is exactly what your target audience is looking for. 

#4 - It’s all about getting backlinks

Backlinks are valuable, and they’re important to building your SEO, that is true. But it’s not the be-all-and-end-all of improving your site’s ranking. Are backlinks important? Yes, of course. Are they the magic key to shooting up SERPs? No, not by a long shot. 

Let’s start by talking about what does matter when it comes to backlinks and that is quality. Quantity isn’t important - having lots of sites linking to your products or blogs isn’t relevant, because the sources might be low quality. Google constantly takes aim in updates at preventing and penalizing spammy sites and content, and there are plenty of spammy link farms out there. But having a few backlinks from trusted sites is highly valuable. It helps to signal to Google firstly that your site is also trustworthy, and second that it might be relevant to audiences that also find that higher authority site useful. 

And it isn’t enough to get high quality backlinks - you need to have a well optimized site and great content for those backlinks to matter. Focussing all your efforts on backlinks will ultimately be for nothing if you don’t also give time to making technical optimizations or improving your content.

#5 - Only long-form content ranks highly 

The longer the content the better for SEO, right? After all, more content means more space for keywords which surely will only boost rankings. This isn’t necessarily the case, however. The type of content that will rank for a search term is going to depend on a combination of search intent, expectation, and content type. For example, a how-to guide will differ in length depending on the complexity of the project. If it’s a simple how-to then the user will expect the guide to be concise, so if it’s drawn out it will be confusing and overwhelming therefore not satisfying their search intent. Equally, if they’re looking for a deep-dive on a specific topic they’ll expect that article to be longer and more in-depth, so a shorter, surface level piece of content won’t suffice. So in some cases, longer pieces of content may actually be harmful to your SEO.

The appropriate length for a piece of content is what will rank. And that will depend on the type of content, and what a user’s expectations are for it. In ecommerce, users have certain expectations of what a product page should look like and include. They want enough detail to understand the product without getting an essay length description. But they also have additional expectations - they want to see reviews, materials or ingredients, information about shipping and delivery, and so on. If those elements are missing, then that content isn’t satisfactory.

Therefore the key to creating content that ranks isn’t making sure it’s long-form, it’s anticipating and meeting those user expectations. 

#6 - Fresh content published every day is all that matters

This myth stems from a misunderstanding of what Google is looking for in terms of “fresh” content. Back in 2011, Google announced that fresh content would be used in part to determine page ranking. What they meant by this is that for topics where recency is important to relevance, they’d prioritize content that was considered “fresh”. So they would surface more content if it was about a recent or upcoming event, something that recurs frequently, or a topic which changes often requiring updates. An example of this in ecommerce would be Black Friday - if a user searches for Black Friday they probably want content about the current year’s sales not last years. 

Where this has become confused is with the idea of content frequency. It’s good for SEO to publish content frequently, as it shows that a domain is regularly updated. But that doesn’t mean you need to be constantly publishing content and that it all needs to be “fresh”. In fact, many search terms don’t require fresh content. If you produce flavored olive oil, for example, you may publish recipes using your products. You don’t need to find a way to make those recipes “fresh”, because people search for recipes year-round. However if you want to publish content that targets seasonal SEO, then fresh content will be more relevant and make sense. 

The best strategy is to publish content regularly that incorporates a mix of fresh and evergreen content that makes sense for your brand.

#7 - AI doesn’t have a place in SEO

AI has been a hot topic across lots of industries for years now, and SEO is no different. As tools like ChatGPT and SearchGPT become more sophisticated, the conversation only grows and continues as to what AI means for search, content, and SEO. And as those tools develop and become more commonplace, the question becomes whether or not AI should have a place at all in search engine optimization. 

The complication comes from the nature of generative AI and how it’s used in content and search. The technology is at such a level that it can write entire pieces of content, complete with keywords, tone, audience and more in mind. That inevitably leads to content published online that was either entirely or in-part written by AI and not by a human. And Google has made it clear that AI content for the most part won’t cut it. 

Google’s March 2024 core update in part sought to crack down on low-quality AI content, penalizing it and domains that used it. They also added an extra “E” to E-A-T - “experience”. This essentially means that AI content in many cases simply can’t satisfy Google’s threshold for good content. 

Now all this might sound like it supports the notion that AI has no place in SEO. However, you can still use AI tools to aid your search engine optimization strategy. You need to think of it as an aid though, and not as an all-in-one content tool. For example, having an AI tool review your writing, give you a starting point, help with keyword research, aid in writing meta descriptions and so on. There are plenty of ways that AI is actually an extremely useful tool in SEO, so long as you’re still creating original, engaging content. 

#8 - Local SEO isn’t worthwhile

People around the world use search for a variety of reasons every day, and according to Google 46% of those searches have local intent. So, why does the myth persist that local SEO isn’t worthwhile? 

This has manifested for a couple of reasons. The first being that many think if they don’t have a physical storefront, there’s no point in investing in local SEO. However, what if you’re a candlemaker based in Seattle, and someone is searching for candles made in Seattle for a gift? That’s a new customer and a new sale, all because you happen to be in Seattle. And because you optimized your store for local SEO, you’re higher up the SERP for that person’s search. Not having a physical storefront or a local presence doesn’t necessarily mean that local SEO is completely irrelevant to your business. 

The second reason for the myth is that increasingly, search users aren’t using local qualifiers when they search. These are terms like “near me” or adding in specific cities or areas. This is because Google will prioritize locality for certain search terms. For example if someone is searching for a repair specialist, they don’t necessarily need to say “repair specialist near me” for Google to understand that they probably want to see specialists from their local area. So the lack of qualifiers and Google’s built-in surfacing of local businesses may make it seem like optimizing is pointless. 

However, if you maintain an up-to-date, engaged Google Business Profile, and make other local optimizations on your site, you’ll benefit from local search. It’s simple to do, and can be a big boost for your store in SERPs.  

#9 - LSI keywords are/aren’t important to ranking

Let’s start with a definition of what exactly LSI keywords are. LSI stands for “Latent Semantic Indexing”, which is a technique whereby the relationships between different concepts in text are analyzed and identified. They are semantically linked within an index/text, where the relationship might be hidden/latent. For example, “apple” on its own without context could refer to different things but with other words you can infer the meaning based on its relation to other words in an index or text e.g. “apple” with “smartphone” in the text might imply you’re talking about the technology company Apple.

So what does this mean for SEO? The idea is that LSI keywords help search engines better understand your content, and potentially rank for those LSI keywords as well as your target keywords. If you want to rank for “running shoes” you might also include words related to the materials, activities where you’d use them, terrain, etc. We’ve included in this myth that some people say it’s a myth to suggest that LSI keywords are important for ranking, and others say the myth is that they aren’t important. 

The truth is that LSI keywords are not a ranking factor, so they alone won’t improve your page’s ranking in search. However, they can still provide valuable context and they may surface keywords you can rank better for than your original target. To use the previous example, you might be targeting “running shoes” but then by including some semantic keywords you discover that you’re ranking better for “all-terrain running sneakers”. The key to using these keywords is they should feel natural and genuine within text, otherwise you fall into a trap very similar to keyword stuffing. 

#10 - Bounce rate is a ranking factor

In SEO, we’re always trying to figure out what goes into Google’s ranking system for SERPs. Inevitably, some things either get blown out of proportion or misconstrued, and bounce rate is one of them. In short, bounce rate is the percentage of users who click on a page and then take no further actions, they simply leave. The idea that it is a ranking factor stems from the fact that a page with a high bounce rate may mean that page isn’t useful or relevant to a search user. So the higher the bounce rate, the less likely it is to rank highly. 

Bounce rate as a ranking factor is something that others in SEO have claimed, but has never been verified by Google. Google actually says that they use a variety of anonymized and aggregated interaction data to help with ranking. However they’ve never said exactly what that interaction data is, many have assumed bounce rate is part of that. Over the years, various Google representatives like John Mueller have said it isn’t a ranking factor. It can be manipulated, and depending on the page or the content it might not even be relevant. 

That doesn’t mean though that bounce rate isn’t important in your SEO efforts. For example, a page you may not expect to have a high bounce rate might mean it’s worth looking into improvements. Why are so many users only interacting with that one page? Perhaps it’s a blog article, and you haven’t included any internal links so they simply read it and left. Or maybe your product page has a poorly placed CTA. By identifying these, you can improve the page, lower the bounce rate, and those improvements will have an effect on SEO.

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SEO is a valuable tool for marketing your site, but it’s also complex due to the ever-changing nature of search engine algorithms. By understanding where myths come from and the truths behind them, you can better spot good advice from misunderstandings.