10 SEO Myths That Are Costing Your Business Growth

You’ve read the articles, you’ve heard constant salesman pushing SEO, you’ve even taken a couple of classes. But with all of the conflicting and ever-changing information out there it is hard to stay well informed. So even though this article is written in March of 2025, please do not use it 5 years later, as the information will be outdated and useless at that point. Which is what Google tries its best to do, keep the new information at the top, so information, just like this article, won’t lead you astray 10 years down the road. Look for factual and current information from reputable sources. So, if it is March or April in 2025 and you are a small business owner or Marketing professional, this article is for you! If it is 2026 or later, look for something more current please!!
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10 Common myths on SEO:

1. SEO Is a One-Time Task
🚫 Myth: "I optimized my website once, so I’m good."
✅ Reality: As stated, SEO is forever changing, this is because information changes, new ideas and new industries and technology emerges. So, if you write an article that ranks you number 1 and then don’t write anything for 5 years, you will not be ranked number 1 anymore. Make sure to keep your content current and consistent.

2. More Keywords = Better Rankings
🚫 Myth: "Stuffing my content with keywords will help me rank higher."
✅ Reality: This is something that has changed, so if you read an article from 5 years ago you would see sneaky SEO techniques such as putting invisible keywords throughout your website, or writing in as many keywords as you could in articles. This is something that changed over the years as Google and Search engines always want to provide the best and most accurate content to their users so they will now flag these websites because they are not providing this in their content or articles.

3. SEO Results Happen Overnight
🚫 Myth: "If I optimize my site today, I’ll be ranking #1 by next week!"
✅ Reality: We all wish this was the case, while you can rank fast if you provide a killer article or content, but it is based on how useful the user finds the information. So search engines will be watching how long the user stays on and reads your article, if they stay on your site, if they look else where for content, etc. Because of this, it can take time to rank number one because search engines are trying to determine if your content is the best.
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4. Link Building Is Dead
🚫 Myth: "Google doesn’t care about backlinks anymore."
✅ Reality: Backlinks (links from other websites to yours) are still one of Google’s top ranking factors. However, quality matters more than quantity. A few high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites are far better than hundreds from spammy sites.

5. You Only Need SEO for Google
🚫 Myth: "If I optimize for Google, I don’t need to worry about anything else."
✅ Reality: There are many different sources for information out there, and many of them are not conflicting, so while you might rank very well for Google, don’t ignore ChatGPT, Bing, or YouTube as all of these channels generate a lot of visitors and revenue.

6. Google Prefers New Content Over Old
🚫 Myth: "Fresh content always ranks better than older content."
✅ Reality: This will contradict a little of what we said above. As new content is not always better. Timeless articles, that remain helpful will rank better because they have had a longer time to attract new users and see if people find the content useful. It is important to make sure the content is current though, for example, putting DON’T READ THIS ARTICLE AFTER 2026 will help users determine that this is not going to be relevant then and so will no longer rank. However, writing about a historic or scientific purpose might remain relevant forever as long as better or new information does not emerge.

7. Social Media Doesn’t Affect SEO
🚫 Myth: "Posting on social media has nothing to do with my Google rankings."
✅ Reality: Just as we shared above about trying to rank on all search engines such as ChatGPT and Bing, you also want consistent content on your social media as this content will help you show up better and give customers a different understanding of your business.

8. Paid Ads Improve Organic Rankings
🚫 Myth: "If I run Google Ads, my website will rank higher organically."
✅ Reality: This is a completely separate ranking, for paid ads you are simply paying for the customers, while if you have good content and the paid ad customer remains on your site and finds value in your content it can improve your rankings, however, it is separate as you need that good content for the paid customer to find value in your content.

9. SEO Is Only About Ranking #1
🚫 Myth: "If I don’t rank #1, SEO isn’t working."
✅ Reality: It will take time to rank, moving up the list is the goal but no site is going to rank number 1 for everything. Everyone starts at the bottom, but SEO is about moving slowly up the list to get to the first page for as many keywords as possible. While ranking number one is great, you only want to rank number one for things relevant to your business as if a plumber ranks number one for new construction many people will not find the content valuable and leave their site, making their site rank lower.

10. AI and ChatGPT Have Replaced SEO
🚫 Myth: "Now that AI can generate content, SEO is dead."
✅ Reality: AI tools rely on a lot of the same information and quality that SEO does, so SEO is in no way dead, though ranking for AI users has become important as well. AI users focus more on questions rather than statements so improving your FAQs and question related keywords among other things has become more important due to AI.

What Should You Do Instead?
✅ Focus on user experience – Make your site fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate.
✅ Create high-quality content – Answer real customer questions with valuable information.
✅ Build authority – Earn high-quality backlinks from reputable sources.
✅ Track your results – Use Google Analytics and Search Console to measure what’s working.

Using the SEO basic principle of providing content that benefits its user is going to provide you with the best rankings, if you always maintain that principle and are organized, you will end up on tip. Partner with a Digital Marketing company such as Scribe Startups that can help you accomplish your marketing strategy or if you have one off tasks that you cannot figure out, try our Buzzy Work program as well!