SEO Expectations vs. Reality : 5 Myths About SEO To Get Over

Almost every business owner around the world know what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is, especially if they own a website on the World Wide Web. If you ask these business owners what SEO is, most of them will say, "it helps your website to show up on Google."

While the answer is not wrong, it is just a basic understanding of what SEO does. Along with this basic understanding, SEO is surrounded by false misconceptions and interpretations.

In this article, we will take a look at a few of these misconceptions that clients generally have when opting for an SEO campaign.

Misconception #1 - SEO delivers the desired results overnight

This is a widespread expectation that every client has when they think of running an SEO campaign for their website. This is because they see what's above the surface, i.e., high rankings. However, the clients are not the ones to be blamed. Every day, they are bombarded with so many advertisements and emails stating, "we can get your business rank on top in Google in a week!". SEO agencies make such faulty promises for their selfish gains!

The Reality -

To simply put it, SEO TAKES TIME! Based on where your website stands on the search engine rankings currently, it usually takes around 4-12 months for the SEO campaigns to show positive results. Google itself explained SEO and gave suggestions on hiring an Best SEO Agency in Gurgaon.

In contrast to the popular beliefs, SEO is a long term investment for your company, so make it count with a proper SEO strategy.

Misconception #2 - Internal Links are not beneficial

Many clients and even agencies perceive internal linking as a sheer waste of time. Many times, you will come across people saying, "if the objective behind an authority building campaign is to get external backlinks, What is the use of internal linking?".

The Reality -

Internal linking creates an absolute path for your visitors to navigate through your website. It also helps the mighty Google search engine crawlers to understand your content. Google identifies an internal link by anchor text you use in an internal link.

Misconception #3 - Your website requires a lot of keywords!

Years back, the websites that ranked on the first of the search engine results pages back then had keywords stuffed throughout the site. Many SEO guys back then used to hide these keywords with white text on a white background, or down in the footer where no one would notice them.

The Reality-

Yes, at that time, such strategies did work, but not today! Today, such strategies are regarded as "black-hat SEO strategies" Google warns against. Today, practices like these will straightaway worsen the rankings in Google. As Google keeps the focus on user experience, it is the content quality and the user's trust that determines good rankings for a website.

There is no such exact number or ratio for the keywords in a content piece. It is always good to keep its density to 1-3% in comparison to the content.

Misconception #4 - Authority Building is not worth the expense

Often, clients feel unsettled when the SEO guys suggest authority building campaigns at the cost of a few extra bucks. Many times, the clients and the agencies alike keep authority building at the end of their priority list.

The Reality -

Authority building is one of the crucial parts of a successful SEO campaign. Your website's authority determines how authentic and trustworthy your website for Google. Authority Building includes strategies like publishing quality blog posts, generating backlinks from other websites, and citations.

Backlinks are the links that third party blogs or sites put up on their web pages linking it back to your website. This usually happens when people visit your website, read something they like, and then later put its link back to your site. If your website gets backlinks from high authority websites, it will boost your domain authority.

Misconception #5 - SEO is a one time service

Many believe that once websites achieve a good ranking on the search results, SEO services come to an end. Many clients don't renew their SEO contract with the agency but pay to the experts for a one time service for a few months.

The Reality -

Not a one time service, SEO is a continuous process. The process does not just end after your website begins to rank better. This is because your competing sites are regularly working towards outranking you on the search engine. If and when you stop working on your SEO, most likely you will be outranked by your competitors.

Therefore, your website will continuously require fresh content, authority and link building, and regular monitoring.

FINAL WORDS

SEO is a fantastic concept that will help your business grow manifolds and bear all the fruits that the internet has to offer. Getting the SEO right is not an easy task. It requires specialized SEO experts and professionals who spent the maximum amount of their time in staying updated with the frequent changes that the SEO world experiences. If you really want to rise and shine on the search engines, it is always better to hire the Best SEO Company in Gurgaon or around the world that knows the ins and outs of the SEO process.

SEO 2020 : Voice Search vs. Conversational AI

As the internet continues to evolve, what information people search for is also changing. Therefore, the way people conduct their search must also change.

SEO plays a crucial role in providing relevant information on the search results by highlighting the piece of content based on what keywords the user used and the search intent behind those keywords.

At the basic level, SEO is the process of optimizing the websites to make them more visible on the search engines. However, in Google's scenario, where the algorithms are widespread, the SEO professionals have to stay on their toes. As you must have witnessed, people are adopting voice search as a way of looking up information.

How Google algorithms will adapt to this new advancement and how SEO will affect it - the SEO experts will need to figure out.

Apart from voice search, the entire cone[t of artificial intelligence (AI) behind the voice search itself is becoming smarter by the day. You know the trending Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and more. Such advancements are getting better at handling more complex queries and conversations.

Also referred to as conversational AI, this might have an impact on the future of SEO.

Let's dive further into the topic.

Voice Search

It is a speech recognition technology that allows the users to make a query by speaking the search terms aloud instead of typing them into the search engine.

With virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa, iPhone's Siri, Google's Home, more and more people are becoming comfortable with voice search. Everyone from the young to the seniors is enjoying the convenience of having such gadgets at their disposal.

Many webmasters firmly believe that voice search is the future of SEO. This belief has further lead to the emergence of Voice Search Engine Optimisation (VSEO).  The idea behind VSEO is to optimize the content and keywords for voice searches because of the increasing penetration in the smartphone market in the last few years.

Considering that the virtual assistants are already popular in the market, it is high time to take voice search seriously. The way people search for something as simple as "shopping malls near me" will change over time because people talk faster than they type.

Conversational AI

Elaborating further on the fact that people speak faster than they type, the market is already finding itself on the periphery of conversational AI.

With conversational AI in the picture, as machine learning continues to progress, there soon will be a time when the technology will be able to talk back to us in a more personalized way. To put, you will quickly be able to interact with Siri like you usually do with your friend.

Now you must ask how does conversational AI affects SEO. We are already aware that Google uses machine learning to come up with the most relevant results on the search results pages.

Conversational AI means virtual assistants and search engines can pick up the language the user is speaking, translate it with the help of speech impediments, deliver future search results based on past searches and conversations, and also factor in emotions and vocal tones.

In simple words, conversational AI is the more advanced version of voice search.

Why does the difference between the two matter?

The SEO experts need to differentiate between voice search and conversational AI because it will determine the future of their jobs. This does not mean that SEO experts will soon go out of a job. Instead, the scope of SEO will depend on which of the two you choose - voice search or conversational AI?

Many experts believe that one should choose between the two. When you talk about voice search, it has a minimal scope. It is just a mode through which the users engage with the search engines.

Whereas, conversational AI covers a broader area, enabling gadgets and technologies outside the search engines.

Voice search is the mark through which people have to go before getting to the conversational AI. Before the general public completely adapts to conversational AI, they do need to grasp and catch up on voice search fully.

FINAL WORDS

If you are looking to get more visibility for your website and services on the internet, it is suggested that you begin to start focusing on voice search and conversational AI as early as possible. Because when conversational AI becomes mainstream, your presence will already be on the top.

Therefore, to keep up with the lightening speed at which the technology is advancing, it is better to hire the top SEO agency in Gurgaon that already has the vision to focus on the techniques of the future.