Decoding SEO Myths
Why is it so difficult to learn SEO? The answer is simple. The Web is as much a goldmine of information as it is of misinformation. And that SEO is SEO.
Throughout this blog, I try to avoid sharing false information, and I try to minimise what I say. Yet that is unfortunately the opposite of an article that performs well. Everyone loves partial information. And yet, the explanation of something always carries a degree of doubt, of uncertainty, even more so when trying to decipher the mysteries of Google. And no matter how many case studies confirm a hypothesis, an SEO professional cannot claim that something is not merely a correlation of something else.
If an article talks about the importance of design for SEO, is it because the site is more likely to obtain links (linkbait)? That people will be more inclined to talk about it because it reflects a halo effect? On Google’s side, saying that Google examines your design to give weight to your page is an exaggerated shortcut. Yet that is what people will understand at first glance. That is why moderating and explaining things is paramount, and I hold this against the majority of blogs that talk about SEO.
This is why I decided that the majority of my articles would come from patents I have read or from Google engineers’ theses. Such as Document ranking using web evidence by Trystan Upstill. Or drawing inspiration from fantastic work such as that of Bill Slawski.
While authority sites are generally good since they verify the accuracy of their information, there will always be false information everywhere. Here is one method of identifying false information.
Biases in Natural Search Engine Optimisation
The human brain is excellent at recognising patterns. Throughout history, we have relied on this ability to make better decisions and ensure the survival of our species. Unfortunately, we are so good at spotting patterns that we also manufacture them.
If someone exaggerates something, others might mistakenly interpret it as a fact.
It is well documented that people accept information that supports their beliefs and reject information that does not. This is a primal trait that evolved when we began forming social groups. Early humans surrounded themselves with others who thought and acted the same way to ensure their survival.
One of the most famous studies on confirmation bias comes from Stanford. For the study, researchers segmented students into two opposing groups based on their beliefs about capital punishment.
One group supported capital punishment and believed it reduced crime. The other opposed it and believed it had no impact on crime.
Each group was asked to react to two studies, one that supported their views and one that contradicted them. Both groups found the study that matched their beliefs far more credible, and each became more entrenched in their original beliefs.
We need to be right so much that we can accept myths that confirm our beliefs rather than admit failure.
Example of popularity bias: if everyone thinks it, then it must be true — counter-argument: everyone or the majority believed the Earth was flat.
Far too many SEO articles, unfortunately, are stuffed with synonyms and scatter words everywhere even though they mean nothing and mention a technology before ending up talking about something completely unrelated. The kind that talks about LSI keywords and ends up saying “look at Google autocomplete”.
As if nothing changes, SEO optimisations quickly become obsolete as Google changes every day.
That depending on your level, writers may omit details. Like at school. At first you are told one thing and then you are told the opposite.
The best way to perceive SEO myths is to apply good practices such as Occam’s razor.
When there are two or more explanations for something that happened, the one that requires the least speculation is generally correct.
If something does not seem logical to you, it generally is not.
10 Persistent SEO Myths
1. Yoast SEO
One day, a friend asked me if Yoast optimised their SEO. I instinctively answered “no”. Because, based on their skills, I judged that they should not develop tunnel vision about what SEO is. But yes, Yoast does optimise your SEO.
For example, it prevents GDPR from destroying your online visibility.
For copyright reasons, by default you cannot have rich snippets on your pages.
Yoast SEO therefore automatically applies to all your pages the meta tag: <meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1" /> to remedy this.
Yoast does many things. Let us say it improves your SEO in the technical SEO pillar, namely crawling and indexation. And a few other things too.
Will installing Yoast get you on the first page of Google? Absolutely not. Practically everyone has Yoast — it would be like believing in Father Christmas, but that does not mean you should not have it.
And so, yes, for someone building a site by hand or using an unknown CMS, their efforts to rank will be much longer, much more complex, and on top of that very poorly documented.
In short, install Yoast.
If you want a better tool, I strongly recommend RankMath Pro.
2. The Silo
The thematic silo, semantic silo, siloing — these are all outdated concepts.
Why?
Because the person who invented the silo did so in 2014, and the algorithms have changed. And the siloing — the structure of a semantic silo, a semantic cocon, and a silo — has changed.
Nowadays their respective inventors create links between their silos. When a link truly makes sense, the link is created and properly in href.
So since page groupings should no longer be siloed, you should create clusters instead.
What a shame…
3. Long-Tail Keywords
What is your definition of a long-tail keyword?
Long-tail keywords are dead.
In the past, it made sense to create hundreds of different pages… each optimised around a different keyword.
For example, you would create a page optimised for “best keyword research tool”. And another optimised for “keyword research tool”.
And the old Google would rank each of them for their respective long-tail keywords.
Today, RankBrain understands that these terms are fundamentally the same thing. They therefore display almost identical search results.
In short, optimising for long-tail keywords no longer makes sense.
Well, it depends on your definition of long-tail.
Because if we are only talking about a long keyword that has no parent topic, then that strategy does make sense.
4. Social Networks
Once again, something complicated. Social networks are not a ranking criterion. But they can optimise your SEO through EAT algorithms, “freshness” algorithms, and because every eyeball can talk about you on their own sites and thus have an impact on a real ranking factor (PageRank).
What should you tell a beginner? It is useless.
What should you tell an intermediate? It does carry weight.
5. Google ADS
Let us be clear: paying Google for advertising will not influence your ranking in search results.
However, that does not mean that PPC cannot help you indirectly rank higher.
That is because PPC ads can help attract backlinks.
Ahrefs tried this strategy and spent $1,246 on Google ads with the goal of building links to one of their blog articles. They then obtained eleven new backlinks.
Now, this does not mean you can launch any old PPC campaign and watch backlinks roll in. It requires a well-thought-out strategy and the results can be very disappointing.
6. Toxic Links and Backlink Disavowal
It is not only SEO blogs that say anything. Even tools offer useless optimisations. Probably a story involving the sunk cost bias.
John Mueller has also reminded people on Twitter: “Since Penguin 4.0, Google ignores bad links”. There is therefore no point worrying about toxic links from SEO tools. It is even possible that removing so-called toxic links could cause your rankings to drop.
7. Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is a sensitive subject. Yes, duplicate content is important to consider. On the internal duplication side, if you always repeat the same CTA between each page and your tool tells you to pay attention to it — well, in fact it is unnecessary. The real problem would be to repeat entire article excerpts in another article.
On the external duplication side, this is also detected by Google, without a doubt. Except for e-commerce product sheets, definitions (detected but more permissive), and other similar cases.
8. LSI Keywords
When someone provides a tool they call “LSI Keywords” but tells you nothing about how that tool works, or when elsewhere on their site they describe a process that has nothing to do with the pre-web technology Latent Semantic Indexing, one wonders why they gave their tool a name that might lead people to believe they are using a technology they are not. Why do they deliberately mislead people with a name that implies the use of a technology that is not being used?
If you want to use semantic keywords, look instead at Google’s patents.
9. Semantic Field and Other Aberrations
SEO web agencies churn out articles left and right like “the importance of the semantic field in SEO”. Which, to my great regret, ranks for “semantic SEO”.
Quick breakdown of the semantic field:
In lexicology, the semantic field of a word is the set of available meanings of that word depending on context. A semantic field is the set of meanings of a polysemous word.
Example: Strawberry: the fruit / the dentist’s drill / the collar of 14th-century dignitaries / the drill bit
SEO optimisation? None. If you are talking about the strawberry fruit, why would you put drill in your content?
Conversely, having a lexical field around a word is relevant. It helps disambiguate an idea.
10. Google Is Capable of Understanding Content
That depends on your own definition. But Google is a probabilistic model. Yes, NLP technologies help, but it is a minimal understanding of the complexity of our language, which even we ourselves sometimes do not fully understand.
Summary:
I have spared you the obvious things such as, “my site has seen a drop in position. It must be because of Google.” It is generally because there is more competition than before.
In fact, there are countless SEO myths such as keywords in the URL, the meta description, or that SEO does not need to be constantly improved to stay on page 1. That SEO is easy. That SEO is natural and merely a question of UX. And many others.
If you really want to know how Google works, this blog has an entire section devoted to this topic because in the end it is the only way to become a good (factual) SEO professional.
If you want to obtain a list of Google’s ranking factors, that is also possible.
If you notice a typo, there is a review module on the right for you. It is possible to click the small icon to select an element that does not suit you for whatever reason. If information is missing, it is not comprehensible, or it seems incorrect, feel free to send us the information:
