Search Engine Optimization is a field that is constantly shifting and changing, which makes it difficult for many online business to keep track of what works and what doesn’t. SEO has become so confusing because Google is always updating their algorithms. It’s important to keep yourself up to date with what SEO practices are working today because the wrong kind of SEO can lead to your website getting penalized. Here are some SEO misconceptions that can be affecting your Lakeland web design.
Misconception: Meta information isn’t important
Ever since Google announced that meta information like meta keywords and descriptions are no longer integral factors in getting your site to rank, many people have begun disregarding the need to use meta information in their content. After all, Google can take the first couple hundred characters of your first paragraph, and use it as your meta description.
While it’s true that using meta information will not help your website rank better by search engines, meta information serves another purpose, which is to help you rank better through gaining user click-throughs from SERPs. Using keywords and an original meta description is a great way to let users know what content can be found on your site, encouraging them to click on your site.
Misconception: You can use images to hide information
Before Google started tightening their belts in regards to SEO practices, many people thought that they could get away with using all of the elements on their website to put in as many keywords and key phrases as they can. Nowadays, it’s important to remember that using images for your written content is weak SEO practice because search engines do not consider images for written content when they send out bots to crawl through websites.
However, these bots are still smart enough to detect if users are hiding text or stuffing keywords into images to try to boost their on-site SEO, and can penalize them accordingly.
Misconception: All you need are keywords to rank
Keywords used to be the most important thing that a site needed in order to rank, up to about ten years ago. Before Google did a major re-haul of their algorithm, all site owners had to do to get their pages to rank was to put in as many keywords and phrases into their sites which, which helped them rank better on search engines.
Nowadays, while not as much importance is being placed on keywords anymore, these are still relevant in letting search engine bots learn what your website is about. The most important thing you need to get your site to rank in good quality content, which compels people to visit and return to your site.