5 common SEO myths you should know about

5 common SEO myths you should know about

Search engine optimization(SEO) is a set of rules for optimizing the website to achieve higher rankings and search visibility on the search engine results page. Every webmaster needs to understand SEO for the success of any online business. SEO helps website owners to perceive what users are searching for so that they can create quality content to satisfy their intent and get more traffic. Following good SEO practices make it easier for webmasters to increase the usability of a website and provide the right signals to search engine crawlers.

On the other hand, even today some SEO myths continue in the marketing industry tricking digital marketers, webmasters, and publishers as the need for SEO continues to rise. To ensure that you stay on track, here are the five most common SEO myths vs realities you should know about.

 SEO Myths Debunked

5 common misconceptions you should know about SEO

1.If you have optimized for Google, you don’t need to do for all other search engines

Myth: If the page content is optimized for Google then you don’t need to worry about optimizing for other search engines.

Reality: Google search comprises the highest share in the search market, however, Bing is improving steadily. If you are targeting 100% web traffic, then you should optimize your website for at least the top three search engines.

Unlike Google, Bing works differently and deserves your attention. So it is clear that if you optimize only for Google then it doesn’t mean that you are covered for other search engines like Bing.

2. Longer content boosts your SEO rankings

Myth: Create high-quality long-form content to improve search engine rankings or to rank well in search results.

Reality: Publishing timely, relevant and well-researched long content is great but it alone will not help you to get to the top of Google search results. As far as SEO is concerned, various other factors contribute to a high-quality website.

People consider in-depth content as valuable but in reality, most long content is not so valuable for the user. However, if you keep in mind a few tips like focusing on the user’s intent, experience and gaining quality backlinks then long-form content does rank well and can improve your traffic.

3. Repeating keywords is very important in SEO

Myth: We often hear that SEO is all about repeating targeted keywords frequently in the content to get noticed.

Reality: This is a myth that marketers hear the most but it is partly true. The SEO process involves other much deeper activities than just repeating the targeted keywords in the content multiple times to get noticed. Just repeating the keywords will not make your site rank higher as search engines no longer use search keywords alone to rank pages.

4. Social signals don’t affect rankings

Myth: Social signal is not a ranking factor and doesn’t impact your rankings

Reality: According to Google’s John Mueller social signals don’t directly impact your site rankings probably because social signals are easy to manipulate. But both Bing and Google use data from social networks to determine where to rank and how useful your site is. Social metrics play an essential role in bringing your brand on social platforms where you can get thousands of likes and shares which will increase your search traffic.

5. Google penalize for duplicate content

Myth: If you have content on your website that is duplicated elsewhere on the web then Google will penalize you.

Reality: Essentially, having content that is taken from another website might not help you outrank the other page. The search engines may determine the original copy that is more relevant to the search query and as there is no benefit of having both your site gets suppressed. Thus this is not a penalty but the algorithm doing its job. However, some other issues might land you in trouble if you don’t have the legal right to use that content.

Conclusion

In our blog, the most common SEO myths are debunked for you. SEO is a challenging and ever-changing process. Understanding the facts about SEO will help you to create a more effective and efficient SEO strategy for your website which in turn will boost your search rankings.

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

1. Most common SEO myths, Neilpatel
2. High-quality long-form content, Search engine journal
A complete guide on broken links and ways to fix it

A complete guide on broken links and ways to fix it

Have you ever experienced a situation when you clicked on a link to visit a particular site but the page ended up with a 404 error message? These links are referred to as broken or dead links.

When users follow links from or to your website, they expect certain content to be available to them on the page but instead if they point to a page that cannot be found or no longer exists then it makes the user experience very unpleasant.

Therefore, it is essential to understand what broken links are and their impact on your SEO. Our blog is a complete guide that provides everything you need to know about broken links and the ways to fix them. So, let’s get started!

What are broken links?

Broken links, also known as dead links, are hyperlinks on a webpage to another webpage that is no longer accessible due to various reasons. Broken links can either be outbound links or internal links. Having excessive broken links on a website is often termed as ‘link rot’. There are various reasons why some links may no longer work, the common causes include:

  • The linked page does not exist anymore (error 404).
  • The webmaster incorrectly entered the URL address like misspelt or mistyped etc.
  • The external website has been permanently deleted and is no longer available.
  • The webpage access is restricted by the website owner.
  • The website may have server issues.
  • The webpage was moved but was not redirected to the new page.
  • The website is blocked by a firewall or any other similar software

Effect of a broken link on your SEO

Broken links will not impact your overall SEO but will affect your Google search results. When you have dead or broken links, it will cause low-quality search engine results and user experience. Therefore, your SEO rankings will lower and your website traffic might decline significantly. Hence, fixing broken links will help you retain viewers and boost traffic flow from search engine hits.

Let us see how to check for broken links on your website and repair them.

Tools used to find and fix a broken link

The simplest and best way to check for any broken links is through the Google search console. Once the Google bots have crawled your site, the search console will show any issues with your site including URLs of the broken links on your website but not external links.

It will be painful to check every single link on your website manually, so you can use any of the online tools available to monitor and check for broken links such as SEO pressor connect, Site checker, Semrush, Google analytics, W3C link checker etc.

If you don’t run a large site then you need to check your site each time you update or make any changes to your site. But if you run a large site with more external links, then there is a high possibility that a larger amount of broken links can be created, so you should check the entire website at least once a week.

Here are the fixes for broken links:

Few ways to fix broken links

  • Redirect (301) the broken webpage to the new page location.
  • If it is an external link, reach out to the linking website and request a fix.
  • Find out the broken page and replace the content at the broken URL.
  • Redirect the broken page to another relevant page on your site.

Conclusion

Broken links are not only annoying but also equally make the user experience unpleasant. When visitors stumble upon a broken link they wouldn’t like to continue to explore the other web pages of your site, therefore spending less time on the website will impact dwell time and can be harmful to your SEO rankings. Depending on the content you produce, dedicate time to check for any broken links at least once a month. User experience is an important factor for a successful website so make sure you avoid linking to broken content and also having broken pages on your site.

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

1. Broken links, Iconquerors
2. Fixing broken links, Ahref
Top 3 non-core web vitals that act as page experience ranking factors

Top 3 non-core web vitals that act as page experience ranking factors

Page experience should be given a major thrust as it is integral in providing a seamless user experience. Thus, users are engaged more deeply and less likely to leave a website with a good page experience. To provide a holistic picture of page experience, core web vitals are incorporated with other existing page experience signals such as mobile-friendliness, intrusive interstitial guidelines and HTTPS security to further align with evolving user expectations. In this blog, we will discuss the basics of core web vitals and also how non-core web vitals impact SEO. Let’s dive in!

Core Web Vitals are a set of user-centred measures that help website owners evaluate key aspects of the user experience on the web. They measure elements of web usability related to speed, visual stability and responsiveness as the page loads.

According to Google page experience ranking factors are categorized into core web vitals and non-core web vitals. It recommends that webmasters and publishers should check the core web vitals and also must check whether their website meets all the non-core web vitals page experience factors to deliver a superior experience for their users.

Below are the top three non-core web vitals among the essential factors that provide users with an optimal user experience and also help in improving a site’s search traffic.

 

Non-Core web vitals that influences ranking

 

  • Mobile-friendliness

Mobile-friendliness is one of the essential factors to consider because in recent times most people are using mobile devices to surf the internet. Thus, developing a modern, responsive website design ensures that the site performs well on all devices.

Google suggests some tips to ensure a site is more compatible with mobile devices:

  • Make sure to set a minimum height and width for tappable elements like buttons, menu dropdowns, etc.
  • Ensure that the content ascends to the right size when users visit the website.
  • Optimised the site to create a smoother navigation experience for users.

Besides the Google recommendations, webmasters can also work on other parts of mobile-friendliness like removing outdated plugins such as Flash, checking if URLs meet the criteria using mobile-friendliness test tools, etc.

Along with the Google search console, while checking the entire website, it is best to use a mobile-friendly checker tool to manage how their content is displayed on the SERPs.

  • HTTPS security

A website that uses HTTPS secure protocol for sending and receiving information on the internet will have an additional authentication. Websites that collect sensitive data should always use HTTPS. HTTPS improves user’s overall security and privacy and thus it is a positive ranking factor for websites.

HTTPS security check is a direct and easy check. It checks whether a site uses HTTPS or not and a website that uses it will pass the check. In addition, it is essential to confirm thal rel=’canonical’ is set to the HTTPS version of the domain and also ensure that all non-HTTPS URLs are redirected to the HTTPS versions.

  • Absence of intrusive interstitials

This factor can also be referred to as an absence of annoying pop-ups. There is no tool to check but we can quickly assess if the website passes this check by examining whether the website has automated pop-ups or not. If the site has pop-ups then it has intrusive interstitials.

Google recommends that the website owners should avoid covering the overall content with ads or pop-ups irrelevant to the page. Also, the ads on the website should not interrupt the user from interacting and they need not dismiss an interstitial before they can interact with the webpage.

However, note that the below requirements are recognized as fine by Google and don’t apply to interstitials used for:

  • Cookies
  • Legal reasons like age verification
  • User logins
  • Subscription paywalls

Conclusion

Page experience is an important ranking factor for SEO. To reap the benefits of this ranking signal, all you need to do is simply make the web experience better for users. Google believes that the above-mentioned factors are fundamental to provide users with a superior user experience and to improve your SEO rankings.

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

Durga

Durga

About The Author…

Durga has a master’s degree in engineering. Technological advances in digital space interest her a lot. Digital marketing is her forte and she passionately follows latest trends in the digital marketing space. She has written many trending articles on various social media platforms. Her areas of interest include SEO Optimization, structured data, SMM, Keywords research and analysis etc. She is focused, resourceful and dedicated.

Factors that trigger Website wide quality Re-evaluation

Factors that trigger Website wide quality Re-evaluation

At certain times when webmasters make major changes to a website, such as restructuring a website, change in content, change in site appearance, change in URL and internal links or a CMS, then a sitewide re-evaluation is needed. At this point, the publishers or webmasters have to submissively wait for the search engine to crawl their website and come across considerable changes during the process.

Therefore, here comes the question of how webmasters or publishers can let Google know that there were significant changes to their website and they require a quality re-evaluation. Is there any way to trigger a re-evaluation when the entire website has gone through a rapid change?

Google’s John Mueller has recently answered this question in the latest Google SEO office-hours on August 6, 2021. He also talked about how re-evaluation works and its impact on the SEO of the website.

John Mueller explained that there is no technical approach for the webmasters to trigger a re-evaluation and it is also not required because if Google’s systems see any significant changes in the site, then from a quality or technical point of view Google would definitely consider re-evaluating the site as everything on it looks different now. Mueller also added that publishers or website owners would have to perform many incremental changes to keep their website re-evaluated.

Here are some factors that a webmaster can improve so that it might probably speed up Google to notice your website and trigger re-evaluation from a quality point of view.

Factors of content quality that can trigger sitewide re-evaluation

  • Content quality

Improve sitewide quality by publishing high-quality content with correct spelling, grammar, and depth. Ensure that the content is useful and implement EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) which is an important thing considered by Google when crawling and indexing pages.

  • Natural and quality backlinks

To build high-quality links for your site, you need to develop quality content. PageRank is an algorithm developed by Google that gives each page of the website a score of authority and importance by evaluating the quality and quantity of its links.

  • Mobile experience

In recent times all users prefer to use mobile devices to find information on Google. Hence, website owners should consider developing a responsive and adaptive website design with the fast loading speed, easy navigation, and shorter forms to provide users with the best mobile experience.

  • Page experience

The page experience or the user experience of a website is more important for Search engine optimization. The speed and ease of navigation of a website provide a better experience for users. Engaging content with images and charts improves dwell time.

  • Content freshness

Update your website with valuable and up to date content to provide necessary information for visitors. Make sure to use relevant keywords and new content as Google favours fresher results in their SERPs.

Take away

An SEO expert doesn’t need to trigger re-evaluation manually because if there are any significant changes in the site Google systems will essentially consider re-evaluation.

An interesting idea revolves around the discussion that if Google should consider a re-evaluation tool or rather recommend a manual way to trigger a sitewide re-evaluation because there are many instances where webmasters make changes to their websites. Therefore, it may be helpful for them to set off a re-evaluation if their website has gone through any major change.

Watch John Mueller’s answer the query in this latest Google SEO office-hours video below:

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

1. Sitewide re-evaluation, Search engine journal
Is your website deindexed by google? Here is what you can do

Is your website deindexed by google? Here is what you can do

Website owners make all possible efforts to get Google to index their web pages. They try hard to get high ranking, visibility and enough traffic to their websites. But suddenly your ranking and visibility are lost in a moment. This indicates that the website is de-indexed by Google due to some reasons. In this blog, we will discuss some of the reasons that can push Google to de-index your website along with some remedial actions. To get started, let us first discuss what is the meaning of de-indexing?

What is de-indexing?

De-indexing is an SEO process of pulling off a website, or a webpage, or some content of the page from the search engine’s index and therefore it does not show up in the SERPs of any search portals like Google and Bing.

How do you know if a website is de-indexed?

To identify whether your website or certain pages are de-indexed by Google is by checking manually on Google search. The other best way to keep track of the errors on your domain is by using online tools like the Google search console where you get useful information such as server errors, number of indexed pages, backlinks to your site, and affected URLs, etc.

How will de-indexing affect the website ranking?

If the pages where most of your content is posted are deindexed, it will hurt your site’s overall quality and rankings. Users can find your website online through search engines and so if your website does not show up in search results then this will have a severe impact on your SEO rankings. However, if low-quality pages are de-indexed then it might help too.

Why does Google de-index certain pages and How to recover from it?

Google may permanently or temporarily exclude some websites or certain pages from its index and search results if the sites do not meet Google’s webmaster guidelines. Below are some of the main reasons why Google might have de-indexed your WordPress website from search engine result pages.

  • Keyword stuffing
  • Duplicate content
  • Page cloaking
  • Unnatural backlinks or improper link building practices.
  • Poor quality content
  • Server issues

Important recovery steps to deal with de-indexing issues

To recover from de-indexing issues your first reflex should be to check the cause of the errors. Once you have identified the reasons, make sure you take the necessary steps to rectify them. Here are some of the recovery steps to be implemented.

  • Perform an audit to identify the list of natural and unnatural or spammy links. Once identified, disavow the unnatural links. The best strategy for building natural links organically is to provide quality and unique content.
  • Uncover low-quality, thin and duplicate content pages by using an SEO crawler. Check your spelling and grammar, improve the quality of the content and make sure you keep consistency.
  • Check with your web host server for any crashes recently. If any, determine the bottleneck that is impacting and stabilize them. Also, include a website monitoring service to get alerts about server crashes.
  • Check for any new algorithm updates or guidelines and modify your website accordingly.
  • Never buy links or use linking software to generate artificial links.
  • Identify spammy links redirected to your site and clean up the malware.
  • Use link checker tools or Google webmaster tools to identify broken links and make sure you fix them.

Finally, make sure you follow the guidelines while crafting your site and submit a sitemap or reconsideration request to Google along with steps that were taken to resolve the issues to get your website re-indexed.

Take away

Search engines like Google’s bots crawl through every WordPress page or post that is available on the web and is indexed. Therefore, if your site or certain pages of your site are de-indexed then there seem to be several reasons to be considered. Check the above-mentioned factors and review your entire site SEO.

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

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