Top 10 SEO Myths to Avoid to Get Better Search Rankings in 2023

We change our thinking towards SEO after every update from Google. Over the last couple of years, SEO has changed completely. By stuffing the same keywords again and again on their web pages, people used to rank higher in the search engine results, but now keyword stuffing is doing more harm than good.

If you want to succeed in the game of search engine optimization, you need to take care of a lot of things and hone your SEO skills to master at driving more search traffic to your blogs or websites.

Let’s discuss about few top SEO myths that you need to avoid at all costs in 2023.

Top 10 SEO myths to avoid in 2023

1. Don’t worry about SEO, just create great content

Whoever said that “create great content and everything will take care of itself” is the biggest SEO myth.

I mean, how can you say a piece of content is great? I know, problem solving contents always help your target audience, but what’s the use of posting great content if it doesn’t reach more people? Your great content will get no exposure and your blog traffic will never see any real growth from search engines.

Key takeaway: Creating great content is not enough, you also need to outreach other bloggers to increase your overall social shares, blog comments and incoming links.

• Read: SEO vs OSO [It’s time to optimize for OSO]

2. Google loves fresh contents

Really? Yes, we all know Google loves trending topics. But it doesn’t mean it will send you thousands of search visitors every single day if you post daily on your blogs.

It really doesn’t make any sense. To get more traffic from search engines, you have to get top rankings for certain keywords you’re targeting for. And by posting daily, you can’t get top rankings by keyword stuffing or by using blackhat SEO spam strategies.

Key takeaway: Write content that is naturally liked by people, not search engines. Instead of pleasing search bots, make your blog audience happy and they will share your stuff on social media which improves your overall search traffic at the end of the day.

3. SEO can be done once and the rest will take care of itself

First of all, let me make one thing clear after doing search engine optimization for a long time. SEO is not a one-time solution where you can simply bring you long lasting results. SEO changes after every single update from Google.

So how are you supposed to bring search engine visitors for the rest of your life? If you’ve used some really good SEO strategies 2 years ago and if your site is not optimized for mobiles, then you’re gone. You won’t be able to get good results after the mobile-friendly update from Google. So don’t take SEO for granted.

Key takeaway: Keep an eye of latest updates from Google. Make sure to hone your SEO skills whenever you’re creating new contents for your blog. And also focus on being everywhere by connecting with influencers in your niche.

4. Link building is dead

If someone says that link building is dead doesn’t understand SEO at all.

Links are still one of the major rankings factor considered by Google. If you get a link from an authority site in your niche, it will definitely increase your overall search engine rankings and hence traffic.

When building links through guest posts, make sure to use contextual links as much as possible. It’s always better to link to your sites within the guest posts than just getting a link or two from the author bio.

Focus on relationship building and you will attract links naturally. Use this guide to build ethical backlinks to your sites without getting penalized by Google.

Key takeaway: Link building is not dead and every link that you get from other blog counts. Focus on attracting natural links from top blogs in your niche and you will soon start attracting small blogs as well.

5. Keyword research is a waste of time

If you are not getting as much traffic as you deserve from search engines to your sites is perhaps you probably forgot researching the right keywords for your blog posts or web pages.

Keyword research is one of the best ways to boost organic traffic to any website. If you’re not using the right keywords, you’re not targeting anyone and you will get no traffic from search engines. So make sure to perform the proper keyword research if you want to increase your overall search rankings.

Key takeaway: Performing the right keyword research is not a rocket science. Even if you’re a new blogger, you still can find the most profitable keywords in your niche by using few free tools like Keyword.io, Google’s keyword Planner, WordStream etc. Focus on finding long tail keywords instead of going for short tail keywords that are usually hard to rank higher in Google search results.

6. Using repeated keywords can increase your search traffic

Thanks to Hummingbird update from Google. Google is no longer giving best rewards to the web pages that performs keyword stuffing.

If you’re thinking that you can get more organic traffic from Google to your blog posts by repeating the same keywords again and again, you’re going to get penalized by Google sooner or later. So stop keyword stuffing and focus on using long tail keywords that will double your blog traffic.

Key takeaway: LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords usage is the surefire way to increase your blog traffic without stuffing the repeated keywords. Also focus on finding what keywords your target audience are using on Google.

7. Google favors top brands and authority sites

This is one of the most common SEO myths especially considered by most beginners. Yes, Google considers top blogs and authority sites in any industry while ranking a keyword phrase. But it doesn’t mean Google will ignore ranking the new sites. If you have what your targeted audience are searching for on your sites, even by having a fairly new blog, you still can rank higher in Google search results.

For instance, my blog BloggersPassion has a Domain Authority of 39 and I’m ranking in the 5th result of Google search result for the keyword “Google sitelinks”. If you’re doing SEO for a while, you’ll understand that getting a top result for a highly competitive keyword like Google sitelinks is really hard. And I’m still ranking above most authority sites out there including “Search Engine Land”, “Moz”, “Yoast” etc.

Key takeaway: Focus on finding highly popular blog content in your niche and write exceptional content around it to get rewarding results from Google. This strategy is known as Skyscraper technique which is explained in detail here.

8. Social media can have no impact on SEO

This is the most overused SEO myth throughout the blogosphere. If you’re really aware of the power of social media, you’d by now know that social media is the new SEO.

Google released some major updates in 2015 alone and after analyzing these major updates from Google, it’s likely that social media shares are becoming vital to rank for a keyword.

If you are searching for proven ways to increase your search engine traffic, focus on getting more social shares on your blog posts as they act like positive votes in the eyes of Google bots.

Key takeaway: Social shares impact your overall SEO. Increase your social shares on each and every single post to boost your search rankings.

9. You can pay an agency $100/month and rank #1 for any keyword

This is one of the dumbest Google ranking myths to avoid. Want to rank for any keyword in the top results of Google? Try our SEO services and you’ll be guaranteed to outrank your competition. Never ever fall for those spam agency tactics.

Key takeaway: Make sure to create a consistent blog posting frequency instead of paying for fake SEO agencies that claim to get your keywords ranked in top results.

10. Linking to other sites can kill your PageRank and authority

Linking to other sites can pass out link juice, that’s true but it won’t give your competitors an additional advantage to outrank your keyword competition.

Most beginners are afraid of linking to other sites because of one reason: they are afraid of losing their rankings. If you observe any top blog that is getting huge amounts of traffic from search engines, you’ll notice one thing that they link out to others frequently from their posts.

So whenever you find some really good stuff that is related to your blog post, link to it and email the blog owner saying it. If he really like it, he’ll either share or even link to it.

Key takeaway: Whether you know it or not, linking to external sites that are relevant to your blog topic can actually increase your search rankings. Start linking to others smartly.

Browse more SEO Tutorials:

• YouTube SEO Tips: How to Get Your Videos Noticed In 2023
• Everything You Need to Know About Meta Tags SEO in 2023
• Keyword Density: Does it Matter at All in 2023?
• Top SEO Tips and Tricks That Works in 2023
• Top FAQ’s around SEO Answered
• Most Effective Google Search Tips & Tricks for 2023

Final Thoughts

Whether you agree it or not, most of the SEO myths for 2023 mentioned in this guide are completely pointless. If you are blogging for getting more exposure, focus on building loyal readers instead of feeding search engine bots.

Give top priority to connecting with people through blogger outreach, link out to other bloggers frequently and create better content that solves your audience problems. You will definitely get reaping rewards from search engines.

So what is the one SEO myth you hate most?