If you are handling the search engine optimisation of a website you will probably have read up extensively on the subject to try to improve your results. But you should beware that, like every subject, there are countless myths floating around about best practices that may actually end up hurting your results rather than improving them. Here are 3 SEO myths debunked.
1: Meta Descriptions Are Worthless
It’s commonly thrown around that meta descriptions are useless for search engine optimisation purposes. While it is true that they don’t directly affect your ranking in SERP’s, they do have a significant impact on click through rate. The better your CTR, the more likely Google is to think that your page is relevant for particular queries, improving your rankings.
2: Keywords No Longer Matter
Google’s Hummingbird update changed the way that the search engine delivered it’s results entirely. Google now works by trying to match search results to user intent. Google now uses profile information about different users to try to match their search queries with the best results for that individual without relying entirely on keywords. This does mean that keywords aren’t quite as effective as they used to be, but they are still a hugely influential force in SEO.
3: Keywords Should Be Capitalised
When uploading content to your website it really doesn’t matter to search engine bots whether or not your keywords are capitalised. For example you could write the following phrase as both “SEO Cork” and “seo Cork” and see no difference in your results. You should concentrate on making your content clear for users, if you think capitalising some keywords will help a user to grasp your content then you should do it. This myth isn’t particularly damaging, but it can save you time searching through content for keywords to capitalise.
If you are completing any SEO work on a website remember that meta descriptions aren’t worthless as they directly affect your CTR, keywords aren’t as important as they used to be but they are still a crucial factor in determining page ranking and it doesn’t matter whether or not you capitalise your keywords within your content, the results will be the same.