Natalie will talk through common SEO myths and misconceptions. This talk is designed to quash some of the weirder SEO rumours, answer some of the common queries that SEO suppliers/managers receive from clients and stakeholders, allay fears about mysterious penalties that Google may or may not inflict on your site and help you make informed decision about how to best proceed with your SEO project.

2. Myth: SEO is a dark art

3. Only as much as other marketing
channels

4. Myth: You need to keep creating new
content because Google values
freshness

5. Fine, but the content needs to be good

6. Myth: SEOs need to chase the algorithm

7. Only the bad ones.

8. How to respond to Google Updates
Negative impact Neutral Positive Impact
No SEO Get an SEO Still consider doing SEO
Two schools of thought:
1. If it ain't broke…
2. SEO can help you capitalise on
your position further
Existing
SEO,
question
marks over
strategy
Review strategy, check for clear
red flags such as: Bought links
Spammy links
Thin content
Poor quality content
Technical errors
Review strategy, check for
anything that may be
holding you back
Review strategy also. It's possible a
site can be ranking well in organic
search in spite of itself, particularly
if a low competition vertical or if
the site is a well-known brand.
Existing
SEO,
satisfactory
strategy
Monitor the effects of the
update and look out for possible
gaps in the strategy, otherwise
"keep calm and carry on"
Keep doing what you're
doing
Keep doing what you're doing

9. Myth: Link building is dead
and…

10. Myth: Link Building is all Digital PR now

11. There is still a lot of merit in prospecting
sites that are not blogs or news sites

12. 1. Partnerships
2. Unlinked mentions
3. Link reclamation (404s)
4. Link lists

13. Digital PR campaigns can be
impressive, however many links
obtained are often nofollow*, and their
direct impact on SEO can be minimal
*Recent changes to nofollow may affect this standpoint

14. It is usually the amplification of a PR
campaign across these platforms to
sites that offer follow links that lead to
organic growth

15. When making multiple changes on an
SEO campaign, it is often difficult to
assess the impact of an individual
change or action

16. However, your digital PR partner should
be able to demonstrate the impact of
their campaign on your SEO
performance, in context

17. 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
Mar-19 Apr-19 May-19 Jun-19 Jul-19 Aug-19 Sep-19 Oct-19 Nov-19 Dec-19 Jan-20 Feb-20
Keywords and Linking Domains Correlation - SEMRush
Total Keywords (SEMRush) Referring Domains (SEMRush)

18. Myth: The more you spend on Google
Ads, the better your SEO will perform

19. Google still loves brands
**or entities at least

20. Anything you can do to build your
brand will have a knock-on impact on
your SEO in the long run

21. Brands will typically have more
marketing budget to invest in PPC

22. https://www.slideshare.net/EmilyPotter7/final-
women-in-tech-seo-emily-potter-2020-229598481/47

23. Myth: Social Media has a direct impact
on SEO

24. Like PR that leads to unlinked mentions
and nofollow links, social media can
have an indirect impact on your SEO, by
building your brand and putting more
eyes on your content

25. Myth: You’ve been hit by a duplicate
content penalty

26. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/09/demy
stifying-duplicate-content-penalty.html

27. However…
1. Duplicate content can cause your
preferred content to be ignored
2. Large amounts of thin content can
deplete crawl budget
3. Unique content (e.g. product pages)
allows you to differentiate

28. If you believe you have a duplicate
content penalty, it’s more likely that the
algorithm has identified higher quality
answers to the queries your site is
supposed to be answering

29. Myth: Tech Audits have to be massive

30. Is this familiar?

31. There is no need.

32. (Roughly) 80% of technical
improvements will come from 20% of the
issues that could be at play

33. 1. Canonicals
2. Hreflang
3. Internal linking / XML sitemaps
4. Redirects
5. Index bloat
6. Robots.txt
7. JavaScript caching & rendering
8. Site speed

34. An audit that omits these key areas
should be viewed with suspicion

35. Here are some of the less important
factors in a tech audit

36. 1. Missing or duplicate meta descriptions
2. Page titles / meta descriptions too long*
3. Multiple H2s
4. Too many on-page links
5. Too many parameters in URLs
6. Low text to HTML ratio
*The implication of overly lengthy titles and meta descriptions is that they will
either be ignored, truncated, or less effective

37. Myth: You can delete redirects after a
certain amount of time

38. NO

39. Also, sort out your redirect chains

40. “But 301 redirects pass 100% of link
equity now. So do 302s”

41. IT DEPENDS. But redirect chains are a
definite no because of:
•Impact on PageSpeed
•Real world evidence of PageRank / link
equity decay despite Google’s view

42. Myth: Writing content for search engines
is different to writing for the user

43. You need to develop a clear
understanding of your audience’s needs

44. Keyword research will provide you with
a lot of that picture

45. Meet your audience’s needs by
applying the findings from your
keyword research

46. This is NOT the same as writing for
search engines. Use search data and
insights to write for people

47. If you can’t reasonably reference a
keyword without compromising the
quality of your copy, leave it

48. https://www.google.com/about/philosophy.html

49. Myth: Visibility scores from third parties
are an accurate measure of your SEO
performance

50. They can be useful in conjunction with
your own proprietary Analytics data, but
do not be fooled…

51. Myth: “Keyword density”

52. NO

53. In summary…

54. SEO as dark art
“Freshness”
Chasing the algorithm
Link building vs digital
PR
Google Ads
Social signals
Duplicate content
Massive tech audits
Redirect issues
Writing “for search
engines”
Visibility metrics
“Keyword density”

55. Thank you
@njmott