SEO has been around for years. You'd think we'd have cleared up most of the nonsense by now.
We haven't.
There's still loads of outdated SEO advice floating around. Mention your keyword a certain number of times. Publish a blog every week. Get as many visitors as possible. Fix your technical SEO and watch the rankings fly up.
The problem is these SEO myths don't just cause confusion. They can send businesses in completely the wrong direction, wasting time on things that look like SEO without asking whether they're actually helping.
So, let's sort a few of them out.
Myth 1: Ranking number one is the goal
"We want to be number one on Google."
We hear this a lot. Our next question would be: number one for what?
You could rank first for a broad keyword that sends thousands of visitors to your website without generating a single enquiry. Meanwhile, a more specific search with much lower volume could bring someone who's actively looking for exactly what you sell.
Rankings matter. We're an SEO agency, we're hardly going to tell you they don't.
But the right rankings matter more. Because more website traffic doesn't necessarily mean more leads if the people finding you aren't potential customers.
Myth 2: The more you use a keyword, the better
Please don't write the same phrase 20 times because an SEO tool told you to.
Keywords still matter. They help us understand what people are searching for and make sure a page matches that search. But there's a point where optimisation becomes really obvious.
You've probably read those pages before. Every heading contains the same phrase and every paragraph somehow squeezes it in again.
Use keywords where they make sense. Cover the subject properly and answer the question the person came looking for.
If a sentence sounds ridiculous when you read it out loud, rewrite it.
Myth 3: More traffic means your SEO is working
Traffic goes up 40%. Everyone's happy. Lovely graph on the monthly report.
Then someone asks the awkward question.
Did we get any more enquiries?
Suddenly, that 40% needs a bit more context.
If you sell specialist equipment to UK manufacturers but most of your new traffic is coming from people in America looking for DIY repair advice, your organic traffic might be flying. Commercially, it's doing very little for you.
We'd take 100 visits from the right potential customers over 10,000 from people who were never going to buy.
Traffic matters. Just make sure it's the right traffic.
Myth 4: We need to publish more blogs
Maybe.
But we'd want to look at the 86 you've already got first.
Creating something new can feel more productive than sorting out what's already there. Meanwhile, you've got old articles still attracting traffic, three blogs covering basically the same subject and important service pages that haven't been touched in years.
Sometimes you absolutely need new blog content. Other times, you're better off updating an existing article, combining weaker content or improving the pages that actually generate enquiries.
If you're going to create something new, understanding how to write SEO content that answers a genuine search and has a reason to exist is far more important than hitting an arbitrary number of blogs every month.
Publishing something isn't the same as making progress.
Myth 5: We've done SEO already
This usually comes up when we ask what SEO has been done previously.
"Oh yeah, we did SEO when we built the website."
SEO isn't really something you finish.
Your competitors improve their websites. Your services change. Search behaviour changes. Content becomes outdated and new opportunities appear.
That doesn't mean fiddling with the website every week just so something's happening. If a page is performing brilliantly, leave it alone. It means keeping an eye on things and knowing when there's a reason to act.
If your SEO hasn't been looked at for a while, understanding what an SEO audit is and what it can uncover is a good place to start. It'll give you a much clearer idea of what's still working, what isn't and where the opportunities are now.
Myth 6: SEO is just Google.
Google is still a massive part of how people find businesses online, but the way people search is changing.
Someone might discover you on social media, search your name on Google, read a Reddit thread, watch a YouTube video, ask an AI tool about your service and then finally land on your website.
That doesn't make Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) irrelevant. It means we need to think a little wider about how people find and research businesses.
The goal hasn't really changed. You want to be visible when the right person is looking for what you do.
There are just more places they might look.
Myth 7: SEO should work straight away
You've changed your website. It's been four weeks. You're still not number one.
Time to panic?
Probably not.
SEO often gets compared with paid advertising, where you could start seeing traffic the same day. But SEO doesn't behave like that. You're trying to compete with businesses that might have been investing in their websites for years.
You can start seeing encouraging signs within the first few months, but meaningful SEO results often take around six to 12 months. Sometimes it's quicker. Sometimes it takes longer.
We've covered how long SEO really takes in more detail, including what you should expect to see during those first few months. The important thing isn't expecting everything immediately. It's knowing whether you're making progress along the way.
Myth 8: Fixing technical SEO will fix everything
Technical SEO matters. If Google can't properly crawl your website, pages aren't being indexed or the site is painfully slow, those problems need sorting.
But you can have a technically brilliant website that nobody wants to use.
Every technical box could be ticked while your service pages still don't explain what you do or give anyone a reason to get in touch.
That's why SEO can't sit in its own little box. The technical side, content and website all need to work together.
Myth 9: You need to keep Google happy
This is where people can tie themselves in knots.
"How many words does Google want?"
"Have we used the keyword enough?"
"Will Google like this?"
Meanwhile, there's an actual human being on your website wondering whether you can solve their problem.
That's who we'd start with.
Of course, there are things we do to help search engines understand a website. But if you're creating rubbish content purely because you think an algorithm wants it, you've probably taken a wrong turn.
Before worrying about hitting some imaginary SEO score, ask something simpler:
Would I actually find this useful if I searched for it?
If the answer's no, getting the little light in your SEO plugin to turn green probably isn't going to save it.
So, what should you actually believe about SEO?
SEO isn't magic. It isn't stuffing keywords into pages, publishing blogs because it's Tuesday or getting excited about a traffic graph without asking where those visitors came from.
It's about understanding what your customers are searching for, making sure you can be found when it matters and giving people something useful when they reach you.
There's technical work behind that. There's content, research and ongoing optimisation. But the thinking behind it doesn't need to be complicated.
Are the right people finding you? Are they landing on the right pages? Are those pages actually helping them? And is any of it helping the business?
Those are the questions we'd rather spend our time answering.
If you're not sure whether your current SEO is doing that, take a look at our SEO services and see how we approach it at Surge.
