Upon discussion with numerous business owners, entrepreneurs and marketing managers prior to launching SEO campaigns for their business. From Fortune 500 brands to local dentists, doctors, plumbers and accountants, questions were asked from people in many different industries. The persons are having common misconceptions about search engine optimization.

The some of the myths are given below:

Myth No. 1: Blogs will help your SEO.

For some reason, everyone thinks posting a blog on your own website will magically increase your SEO presence and make your website stronger.

When you have a reputed website to begin with, internal blogs can help drive more traffic to your site.

Domain authority is a score (on a 100-point scale) developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. We would always prefer to choose domain authority for comparing one site to another or tracking the “strength” of your website from time to time. If you have a website that has a high domain authority, internal blog posts can be great. If you are in a line of work where there is not a lot of competition, you can rank well with blog posts as well.

Some Tips:

Try and write blog content for external websites, which will link back to your website and boost your domain authority. Backlinks are the foundation of Google’s algorithm.

If you start writing content on your own blog, run a Facebook advertising campaign to promote your blog to drive traffic to the piece of content. It frustrates the heck out of me when people write a great piece of content and don’t get any eyeballs on it because it doesn’t have any exposure.

Myth No. 2: All backlinks are created equal.

Many people believe that if you hyperlink on Facebook, Twitter or your email newsletter, this will help you rise in the ranks of Google.

This is not the case. On powerful social media sites, the hyperlinks you include in your posts don’t get counted as a link that will help improve your backlink profile. Also, on a lot of websites, they’ll have what’s called a “no-follow” link. According to Google, "no-follow" provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines "Don't follow links on this page" or "Don't follow this specific link." This helps websites prevent untrusted content or paid links.

The backlinks you want pointing to your site are natural, authentic, industry-related and authoritative. Don’t get suckered into believing that all backlinks are created equally. Spammy backlinks can actually cause more harm than good.

In a prior Entrepreneur article, I listed out a step-by-step beginners guide on “How to Build Backlinks.” Make sure to read this article carefully as it will help you formulate a solid back linking strategy.

Myth No. 3: You can get on page 1 of Google for $99.

I know that everyone reading this article has received constant email pitches and phone calls about “1st Page Google Ranking for just $99.” There is a lot of B.S. in the SEO industry. There is no “quick solution” to get onto the first page of Google.

I’ve helped many businesses recover from Google algorithm penalties because they signed up with some oversees company for $99, and this “company” built spammy backlinks to their site, resulting in a Google penalty. (You can read a prior article on “what your business needs to avoid the wrath of Google.”)

If you are really interested in improving your SEO, a strategy needs to be formulated. An expert will need to identify the services or products that drive the most revenue for your business so he can deploy an SEO strategy based on your actual business model. Keyword research is involved, as is onsite SEO optimization.

If anyone guarantees you page 1 ranking on Google within a three-month timespan, run for the hills.

Myth No. 4: Stuffing keywords is going to help me.

Long gone are the days where you could buy a domain name like SEOCompanyDenver.com and rank at the very top of the search engines in the Mile High City. Google is looking for authoritative sites that are actual businesses that are getting legitimate visitors to their site.

This situation can be viewed as a spammy tactic that Google can pick up on, when you have too many keywords stuffed into your domain. Including a keyword within your company is a good practice though, if it is a natural fit, of course. Let’s say I wanted to start a commercial roofing company. “JP Roofing” a name like this would be a good option because it has a personal connection based off of my initials, and the keyword “roofing” will allow Google to clearly understand that I own a roofing company.

I’ve also seen many instances where a company will create a URL structure similar to the example below:

jpoofing.com/roof-replacements-denver

jpoofing.com/roof-replacements-boulder

jpoofing.com/roof-replacements-centennial

They created a number of pages trying to rank for every single suburb in their area. Again, a big no-no. Google can view this as duplicative content and a deceptive practice, which can do more harm than good for your site.

Also Read: How to Improve SEO for Your Small Business