1. SEO is easy.
Most people nowadays insist that SEO is very simple and so easy that even someone without any experience can do it. Needless to say, this is not correct. In the SEO industry, you are always learning new concepts every day, and there are so many variables to learn and remember along many essential directions that could take even years of practice to master them before truly calling yourself an SEO pro. Not to mention the constant updates and changes in the industry that you must keep learning to stay relevant.
2. The process always remains the same.
A lot of people in the SEO industry seem to think that the process is always the same. However, this is a big misconception. Clients are always expecting the best and most reliable procedures and results from SEO agencies. It is true that getting the same results you delivered to a client won't be the same you got for a different client in the same time frame. It is a task that is nearly impossible to achieve. SEO is not only a science it is an art that requires different strategies, investment levels and execution methods to aim for a comparable result.
3. Keyword rankings are all that matter.
When we talk about SEO, it is true that one of the top priorities is getting the highest possible rank in different search engines, but this will more often lead to an error when it comes to prioritisation. Keyword ranking is, in fact, necessary, but there is a dozen different key performance indicators and metrics that must be measured to achieve a campaign’s success. Keyword ranking is just one of them.
4. The less spent on SEO, the better.
SEO is widely known as a useful technique that is cost-effective, that in addition to it, is highly ROI (Return on investment) that is why it is known that the more you spent, the better service you will get when it comes to strategic execution. Low investment often leads to minimal and amateur work as they are constantly trying to avoid taking any risks and aim for long-term results and this could end in bad outcomes for your company.
5. SEO is too technically complicated.
Nobody will deny that the first time seeing things like canonical tags and robots.txt file editing can be intimidating as SEO has too many technical components. However, you are not required to have any coding experience to learn many of the essential areas with proper time. The greatest thing about SEO is that remains highly learnable to anyone as long as the appropriate time and dedication are spent to master it.
6. Penalties by Google constitute a significant threat.
The most severe Google penalties are actually handed out as a result of manual action in response to outrageous behaviors most webmasters are aware to stay away from. It is a common misconception to believe that Google penalties are handed out more often than parking tickets. Temporary ranking drops and automatic penalties are far more common yet a lot less severe. However, if you are correctly following the best practices, there is nothing to be worried about.
7. It is a scheme, trick or gimmick.
White hat SEO is in no way trying to deceive Google’s algorithm or force their way to the top. It is true that most people who speak about SEO often think it's some kind of trick to take your site to the ranks above other companies in the search results. However, that is not correct. White hat SEO is instead trying to figure out what content and website features are the most important ones to the users and search engines to collect and provide it to them, resulting in clean, well-intentioned website improvements and not some dirty trick.
8. Link building is spam
When executed without any strategy link building can, in fact, be spammy. However, competent link builders won't be going around and placing the links in all the pages they can find. Building links are all about creating valuable and relevant content that people are looking for, continually boosting the search relevancy for your website correctly. When link building is done correctly, it will result in adding significant value to your site.
We know that some of the people reading this have often thought and held many of these assumptions, but you are not to blame. A lot of content is constantly circulating, and there are few opportunities to even learn the basics of strategy correctly. So it is only natural that your vision might have been blurred on how SEO truly works, and do not worry even people with a tight grasp on the fundamentals have something new to learn every day.