Everyone that learns about search engine optimization is familiar with keywords. They are very important in SEO but there are actually countless misconceptions about keywords that people still think and that you should never believe. Unfortunately, there are more misconceptions than realities in numerous online articles.
While we can talk about several keywords-related misconceptions, let’s just focus on those that really need to disappear. They have been around for way too long and you should just dismiss them as soon as possible.
Myth – You Do Not Need Keyword Research
It is such a shame to see keyword research neglected by most site owners from around the world. The belief is it is unnecessary since people tend to think they fully understand and know their users simply because they own the business.
The truth is that you cannot simply rely on assumptions and logic when choosing keywords for your SEO campaign. In order to get the best possible results, you need actual data. There are not many things that are more important than keyword research when you start a campaign to optimize your websites for the best possible results.
Oftentimes, not doing proper keyword research leads to choosing keywords with either too much competition or too few searches.
Myth – You Rank Better With More Keywords
SEO is not a hypermarket where you can simply add more products since someone will surely buy them. In SEO, using too many keywords can actually hurt your website as Google and other major search engines will see you as using spam. In fact, in black hat SEO, such techniques are very popular but they are known to damage the website in the long run, with only short-term gains observed.
You need to be careful and learn how many keywords to use for SEO. A failure to do this means you break Google guidelines and the website will not be useful for your visitors. Keyword stuffing is one of the worst things you could so make sure to avoid it at all costs.
Myth – You Choose The Correct Keywords So Content Does Not Count
Way too many believe SEO is simply keyword targeting. Because of this misconception, they focus too much on targeting correct keywords. They just do not worry about the published content. Sometimes, there is even a recipe followed that leads to publishing low-quality or mediocre content just with the goal of hitting some keyword densities and similar things.
The problem with such an approach is that it makes it impossible to rank high in search engines. Your content needs to be high-quality. Just think about landing on a page with bad content. What do you do? You close it and look for the answer to your questions somewhere else. Google notices that and sees that the bounce rate of your pages is high. As a result, your rankings go down.
At the end of the day, keywords are a huge part of SEO but they are not enough. Always think about both user experience and your marketing efforts when you make any choice.