So you have a couple SEO concepts under you belt now.
Let’s dive into some myths.
We hear this often in the digital marketing space.
SEO is Dead.
Only in the SEO industry will you hear stupid myths that are literally like those myths your parents tell you just so you wont do something they don’t want you to.
As you are probably just getting started on your SEO journey, you will find yourself reading a ton of crap online. You’ll meet people that will talk about crap as well.
At the end of it all, you’ll end up confused and not taking action.
Worst of all, you might end up quitting, and that’s what THEY want you to do! Less competition, less of the business being exposed to more people.
In a way, the SEO business is pretty much like the business of professional wrestling.
It’s a grind, people don’t want you to expose the business and there are a ton of myths. (Besides being an SEO geek, I’m also a wrestling geek.)
So, let’s get started with Myth #1.
Myth #1 - SEO is DEAD
Every single f’n year. Articles about how SEO is now dead will continue to pop up.
Year after year, I meet and literally see people give up because they see “news” talking about it.
SEO is not dead and it will never be.
SEO has been around since the internet first showed up and it has evolved over time. It’s not dead at all.
Sure, things aren’t as easy as it used to be in terms of fooling the system, but it’s there and if you know how to utilize it the right way, then you’ll win.
The people that spew out this crap are either
1. They are making a ton of money off it and they want to keep you away OR
2. They just suck ass and failed when they “tried” it. So they are proclaiming it to be dead.
Personally, I failed a lot back when I first started BUT I didn’t give up and that’s how I learned what things worked and what didn’t. So, yeah, SEO is not dead.
Myth #2 - “SEO is Easy, I already Did it but It Doesn’t Work”
You might have friends or follow people on the internet that says SEO is easy! Then proceeds to saying they did it and it doesn’t really work too well or at all.
This is a myth. Why?
As with anything in life, nothing is really easy.
It’s just like that magazine article you read recently about how a startup guy made millions overnight. THAT’S NEVER THE CASE. It took years (even a lifetime) to get to where it was possible to make millions overnight.
The lesson here: people like to exaggerate and focus only on the successful parts to make it look impressive. In SEO, you will often see success stories like that as well.
My take, SEO is not easy because it takes work, knowledge and understanding of what you have to do.
Once you have the basics down, things will start to fall into place. Combine that with consistent learning and your work ethic to test what works, then you have the recipe for online success.
Myth #3 - SEO only Works if You Have Money
People often tell me that it’s not possible for them to do SEO because they don’t have the money to start with it.
I’ll be honest with you here: SEO is expensive to get done for clients because of what’s involved.
They are paying for:
1. the years of experience and the multiple people involved
2. the connections to build links for off-page SEO
3. and the work to put in to optimize thousands of pages for on-page SEO
That’s why it’s expensive when agencies create their quotes.
But you are probably in this business venture on your own or have a small team in place already.
You are not a corporation that’s weighing the costs of hiring your own in-house SEO team versus getting an agency to do it. You are running your own awesome business!
You probably have a new, growing website and you are probably doing most of the online things on your own.
You bought this course to understand on-page SEO, so you can create a process that you can follow or make your team follow.
You don’t have to worry about costs like a corporation does when it gets pitches from agencies. You don’t have to shell out thousands of dollars each month just to get SEO done. There’s just no red tape.
Though I understand your personal time is expensive, I’m expecting that you are going to sacrifice some of your time to put in the work for this course.
Myth #4 - SEO takes too much work
I have friends that came to me and told me that SEO takes too much work. I have subscribers and people Snapchatting me about it as well.
You know what? I don’t answer them most of the time. Why?
Because they are lazy.
So, be honest with me. What doesn’t take any work?
Tell me about it and I’ll be glad to do that instead!
Just for kicks, I ask them… “what’s easy?”
They usually will reply Facebook ads or say social media posting is better and easier.
These are the same people that proceed to chase the shiny objects each time there’s a new platform or the new craze of the month. They have to relearn it and once it stops working, they have nothing. That’s assuming it did work for them.
Come on, tell me honestly.
When was the last time posting on your social media page garnered you traffic throughout the week? How many posts did it take to get you consistent traffic? How much time did you spend doing everything? Even influencers can’t get their posts to consistently bring in traffic after just a few days.
I’m in no way saying that they don’t work, all I’m saying is that SEO is consistent and pairing it with other online marketing strategies will put you over the top.
Make that advantage yours and don’t be lazy.
You should always see which channel works best for your business and in most cases, SEO will always be left standing when Twitter or Facebook fails your business.
Myth #5 - SEO is just Link Building, which Google HATES
Possibly the most popular myth on this list, the topic of link building will always be brought up when SEO is discussed.
To quickly explain what this is, let me explain.
This course is specifically about on-page SEO. Basically, it’s about what you do with your website and how you tweak and optimize it to make it as relevant as possible for search engines.
There is also a thing called off-page SEO. This involves doing things that are not directly on your website. For example, the most popular off-page SEO signal is link building. Ever read an article online and you see a link in the body linking to another website? That’s called a backlink.
People build links like those back to their websites to tell Google that “Hey! I’m here!! Look at me! I’m relevant to this topic!”
Early on, it has been a very powerful part of Google’s algorithm. It’s why a lot of people relate SEO to link building.
It’s also why it has been abused like crazy, hence why Google released algorithm changes and penalties that killed millions of websites.
But as I mentioned in the previous myth, you need to make this part of your overall strategy.
That means, you need to do great (or perfect) on-page SEO besides putting in the work for off-page SEO.
Alone, on-page SEO works, but when done together, on-page SEO amplifies everything you do outside to promote your website. That’s why I want to teach you how to do perfect on-page SEO first.
As for Google hating link building, it’s a myth as there are proper strategies to do it but we won’t be diving into that in this course. (Hit me up at the end of the course if you want to learn it.)
Myth #6 - I dont have time to write for my business blog. I need a blog right?
No, you don’t need a blog but it can definitely help.
Not every website needs a blog. Heck, I have sites that don’t have blogs but they work perfectly fine.
It usually depends on what niche you are in but a blog will help you get more visibility in your space. It also builds relevance to Google’s eyes.
If your niche requires you to educate users, then you’ll need a blog but if you are just running a site to sell your service or maybe gather leads, then a blog is a luxury that you can utilize sometime in the future if you want to.
Myth #7 - I have a blog but I don’t know what to write about and to be honest, I just cant write!
My answer: It doesn’t matter!
I didn’t know what to write about and I certainly couldn’t write but I just kept at it and I got better.
Sure, I might not be a literary genius but I’m at least passable nowadays. You should see what I churned out back in the day.
This is just another lazy excuse.
If you don’t want to write, have somebody else write it for you. I can suggest places that can do the writing for you but nothing is better than having your own voice on the website, especially when you are just starting it out and if it’s related to your personal brand.
If it’s not, then having somebody else write it is fine but be sure you give them the instructions that you’ll learn in Module 3.
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I could go on and on with more technical myths, but for the mean time, the 7 myths I’ve mentioned are enough.
We’ll take care of the other myths as you go through the rest of the lessons.
If you read something fishy recently or something that’s just too good to be true and “aren’t sure with a statement” if it’s really fact or just a myth, then the best way to know is to test it yourself.
Again, that’s the perfect example of how some people will blurt out anything to keep you away from what’s working for them.
Less competition, right?
In the next newsletter, I’ll be talking about how SEO can be a core part in your journey to success.
You and I operate in different ways. We have different niches, different SaaS targets and we serve different markets. But you and I can both benefit from SEO.
How? I’ll see you in the next newsletter.
Drop me a DM and say Hi. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.