Five Major Myths About Google’s Mysterious Algorithms

Search engine optimization is a complex concept. For starters, Google admittedly changes its algorithms—however small or large—around 500 times per year on average. SEO agencies and marketers must always be on top of the latest trends to ensure their websites remain relevant. SEO providers such as Marco research, are also critical in terms of SEO, especially if you don’t have the required skills in-house. If you don’t understand who your market is, your chances of targeting the right keywords and audience are slim. Research and SEO go hand in hand but with so much dynamism, this is easier said than done.

Google and its SEO practices have been notoriously shrouded in misunderstanding and myths. Although lately they have worked towards being more transparent, there are plenty of people who still assume false best practices. With that in mind, here are five myths about Google’s mysterious algorithms you should be aware of:

“Top 3” Ranking Factors Don’t Exist

This one gets a bit confusing. Back in 2016, Google strategist Andrei Lipattsev announced that Google’s top three ranking factors were links, content and RankBrain. This sent the blogosphere spinning. Up until that point, Google had been quite hush-hush about which factors were the most important.

Since that announcement, the “top three” ranking factor theory has been woven into the Web. The following year, however, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller said during a Google Hangout, that this was not exactly true. Instead, he said it was impossible to say which three factors were most important, as the answer changes from query to query, and from day to day. Focusing on a phantom order of ranking signals, according to Mueller, is not a realistic way to appeal to search engines.

PPC Myths

Pay-per-click is another common marketing tactic that many people fail to understand. This traditional form of marketing hasn’t been at the forefront of marketing blogs lately (compared to, say, influencer marketing), but it’s still an effective tool that many marketers rely on.

Despite this, there are plenty of PPC myths people still fall for. One of the biggest myths is that small and medium-sized businesses cannot compete with corporations because of lower budgets. Altering your keyword strategy however, to include longtail keywords and complementary keywords can help you remain competitive.

Another myth is that you can set up a campaign quickly, and then forget about it. PPC is not as passive as most people think—you need to analyze your campaign regularly to see what is working and what is not. This does not mean it has to be a fulltime job, but it is certainly not something you should set and forget.

Duplicate Content Penalties Don’t Exist

If you’ve been reading up on SEO, chances are you’ve come across the myth that Google penalizes your website for duplicate content. This is a myth, however, and the Google Webmaster blog published this to clarify:

“Let's put this to bed once and for all, folks: There's no such thing as a ‘duplicate content penalty.’ At least, not in the way most people mean when they say that. There are some penalties that are related to the idea of having the same content as another site—for example, if you're scraping content from other sites and republishing it, or if you republish content without adding any additional value.”

Google’s Matt Cutts also went on to say that roughly 25% to 30% of the website is comprised of duplicate content. Google understands that having duplicate content is a natural part of the Web and doesn’t penalize publishers for it unless the duplications are clearly deceptive—i.e., several pages, posts, or entire sites are duplicated. Generally speaking, however, they tend to simply show the most relevant version if there are duplicates out there.

High Authority Backlinks Matter Most

Yes, it’s true that links are important to Google—in some cases, inbound links are more important than others. This is why so many people emphasize getting links from high-quality sites. Google understands the difference between a link from a low-quality, spammy site, and a reputable, high-quality site.

However, many marketers think high-authority links are the end-all, be all. The truth is that context matters when it comes to links. If Google crawls a high authority post where your link exists, this doesn’t mean it’s automatically a win for you. Instead, Google also searches for relevance. How relevant is the content to your website? If the high-authority link strays too far from its destination URL, it could have an adverse effect. Therefore, link relevance matters more than link placement.

Guest Blogging is Dead

Guest blogging goes hand in hand with links. When you guest blog, you publish an article on another website, which provides a backlink to your site or vice-versa. Many people believed guest blogging to be dead because Matt Cutts published a blog post stating that if you were using guest blogging as a way of acquiring new links, you should stop.

Context is important here, however. Cutts also went on to say that many of today’s guest posts have become spammy, and this is something Google is picking up on. Google has long since pushed low-quality content to the bottom of the results, but this doesn't mean guest blogging is dead—in fact, it’s far from dead. A huge chunk of today’s publishers rely on third-party authors and guest contributors to write for their site. Furthermore, Cutts later went on to revoke the context of his former statement and endorsed guest blogging in a tweet.

Renowned marketer Neil Patel said of guest posting, “When it comes to guest blogging, it’s neither the guest nor even the content that’s the problem, but the context: the type of article, its uniqueness, the anchor texts and the links pointing to and from the site. Personally, I believe that guest blogging is not dead. And, it’s never going to die.”