Search engine optimization is a continually evolving approach to getting in front of the right audience and is an essential component of a successful B2B content marketing strategy. However, there is a lot of information floating around out there that isn’t necessarily true or effective. In this blog, we take a look at common SEO myths, what you should be doing for optimizing your website, and why you should let go of those old, outdated SEO habits.
B2B Content Marketing & SEO Myths
Myth #1: More Is Better
More pages and more content on a website is not always better for optimizing a website. This myth is predicated on the belief that search engines reward sites with lots of content. What makes this is a myth is that search engines have evolved over the past few years and reward sites with quality content, not just a high quantity of content.
What you should do instead: Rather than shove a bunch of sub-optimal B2B content onto a website, focus on creating quality content that will resonate with your target market.
Check out our infographic: What’s the Story with SEO?
Myth #2: A Page Can Only Rank for One Term
Yes, there should only be one or two primary keyword phrases for each page. However, that does not mean that a page can’t rank well for multiple keyword phrases. Again, search engines have started to learn and understand the relationship between semantically similar keywords. For this very reason, a well-crafted page in a B2B web design will often have related keyword phrases appearing on a page. As such, that page can start to rank in search engines for multiple keywords, provided they are similar in nature.
What you should do instead: Just like a well-written essay has a central theme, a well-crafted web page should have a primary focus on one keyword phrase. However, it’s ok to include secondary keyword phrases that would naturally be relevant to the central theme of the page.
Myth #3: SEO Is All About Keywords
Many marketers and business owners still believe this myth. While keywords are certainly an important part of your SEO efforts, there are a number of other factors that Google looks at when determining how to rank your page. Page load time, inbound links, user experience, indexing, the age of your URL, and site structure are just a few other things that can affect your search engine ranking.
What you should do instead: Learning about all the ins and outs of SEO can be a time-consuming process, even more so because it evolves constantly. Enlist the services of a B2B marketing agency who understands ALL the moving parts of SEO or assign the responsibility to someone at your company who has the time to dedicate to it.
Myth #4: Use the Keyword as Much as Possible
This is an old SEO tactic that no longer holds true. In fact, Google will penalize sites it suspects has been “keyword stuffing.” In the early days of search engines, B2B websites could simply include the keyword in the title and a number of times on the page, regardless of whether the keywords fit naturally in the content. But Google became wise to this practice and realized it led to a poor user experience. It now considers this a “black hat” SEO technique – a big no-no.
What you should do instead: Rather than using keywords repeatedly on your web page, create content that satisfies the user’s intent when they search the keyword. Use the keyword naturally in key places in the copy and create great content that will answer the “question” the user was asking when they typed in that keyword.
Myth #5: There Is Only One Approach to SEO
This one is especially frustrating – particularly when coming up against less business-savvy organizations who make unrealistic promises about SEO. There is no one “best way” to implement SEO on a B2B website design. Why? Because we have a general idea of what search engines are looking for but, often, we don’t know exactly! Due to the uncertainty of search engine algorithms, there are often different schools of thought in how to approach SEO.
What you should do instead: There are still best practices and several confirmed certainties about SEO – so be sure to follow these tactics. The only way to know what works for optimization of a site is to test it out and track the results.
Myth #6: SEO Is for Search Engines
Ok, while SEO is short for search engine optimization, the optimization is not for search engines. It’s for getting the right people to your website via search engines. The purpose of SEO and B2B content marketing is to make your website as transparent and easy to locate as possible so your brand is visible to the people who are looking for your products or services.
What you should do instead: Never lose sight of the fact that SEO is done for the end user and not Google or Bing. It’s a means to an end.
Myth #7: Only Link from Keyword Phrases
Only using keyword phrases to create anchor links to other pages and blogs makes for a dull, repetitive experience for the end user and can make a page or post look spammy. Instead, the focus should be on linking to relevant pages or articles as they make sense for the user.
What you should do instead: Put yourself in the reader’s shoes when including links to a blog or webpage. Does linking to that page at that spot make sense? Will they click on it to get more information?
Why You Must Ditch Old SEO Habits
Search engine optimization for B2B content marketing is continually evolving and adapting. SEO is essential to ensuring a website is visible and easy to categorize, so it should not be ignored. However, as people get to be more and savvier in their web searches, it’s critical to create a great user experience both in finding your website and navigating around on your website. It’s crucial to stay current on what is working in SEO and to continually adapt and update your SEO strategy. What worked last year for optimizing a website may not work well this year.
