Here are 10 Internet Marketing Myths
Internet Marketing Expert is the key for any online business to survive and thrive. With so many different sites online, how can you expect your customers to find you? Are you really doing the best marketing possible or are you still following the common myths of internet marketing? Our free Internet Marketing Questionnaire provides a comprehensive overview of the questions to assess your instant messaging strategy.
Internet marketing is constantly evolving and changing with technology. Previously, a high ranking on Google only required the right keywords in the right places. People were coming to your site and sales were skyrocketing.
Now, Google and users are more demanding on online content. They became connoisseurs of web content.
What place does design have in all of this? Design welcomes the researcher, but to capture an audience, a website needs meaningful content. Design can augment content or distract great content. Make sure your design is not a distraction. Don’t fall for these internet marketing myths.
Internet Marketing Myth 1: Content is not important for design.
These two images have the same design, but the content adds meaning to the design and makes it clear what we want to communicate.
Many designers create the initial design with the fill text “lorem ipsum”. It allows you to get started quickly and create an aesthetic design, but can be unrealistic. The design will draw people to your site, but if there is no content, they will not stay. Content and design work together to create a message for the user.
Internet Marketing Myth 2: The title (H1) is the most important on-page element
It was important a few years ago to have proper H tags on your website, but people spammed it, filling it with all keywords (even unrelated keywords) in order to attract an audience . But search engines have evolved to become much smarter now.
H1 is a part of CSS (custom style sheet) that helps a designer to reference the font style and size that will be applied to a specific content item.
H1 was king. It’s still the key.
Because people have misused it, Google has changed things so that if your H1 element does not match the rest of your page, the search engine will ignore it. While H1 is important, it can’t be the only thing you do.
Internet Marketing Myth 3: People don’t scroll
Scrolling may have been a problem in the early days of the Internet, but today it is very natural to scroll. Especially in the mobile world. Scrolling is now second nature to users. For long pieces of text, scrolling provides better usability; it’s much better than clicking and loading a different page.
Internet Marketing Myth 4: More links are better than more content
Linking is not a numbers game anymore (far from it, actually). You should focus on having relevant and diverse sources that link to relevant pages.
Internet Marketing Myth 5: SEO is all about ranking
While there is a strong correlation between the location of search results and click-through rates, ranking is not the ultimate end goal it was before. Metadata is also very important, as people tend to scroll through their options to find the best fit.
Studies of click-through rates have shown that users prefer the best search results, mainly the first 3 ads. But with rich text / snippets added to search results, results below the first three also get much higher click-through rates.
Internet Marketing Myth 6: Your homepage is the most important page
A user’s browsing and search behavior has changed over time and the data shows that inner pages can have higher page views than the home page.
The percentage of page views for the home page rose from 39% in 2003 to almost 5% in 2010 and continues to decrease.
Focus on your other pages. Who knows when one of your blog articles or informational pages will be discovered, shared and shared.
Internet Marketing Myth 7: Your homepage needs to have a lot of content
Think of your home page as the gateway to your business. Visualize it! This is your chance to make a first impression and convey what you are. Invite your guests, don’t leave them on the doorstep with a monologue of unnecessary content.
For some marketers, however, there is a need for a little more content and context.
The content of your home page should be long enough to clarify who you are, what you do, where you are (if you are local), your value proposition, and what visitors should do next. These visitors should leave satisfied, not overwhelmed or underestimated – and certainly not confused. It is always important to have content. Give it meaning.
Internet Marketing Myth 8: The more pages I have, the better
Logically, you’d think the bigger your website’s footprint, the better you would rank – but that’s just not true. You may be penalized for having duplicate content on multiple pages.
First of all, everything you publish is not indexed (and rightly so). Second, pages are sometimes indexed, but do not stay in the index. And thirdly, just because your pages are indexed doesn’t mean they will generate traffic and qualified leads.
Internet Marketing Myth 9: Internet Marketing is not a usability issue
Internet marketing has gone from simple discovery to improving the way users interact with your content. Internet marketing is much more than search engine optimization, one of the persistent myths of Internet marketing. Above all, you need to optimize for users, so that they actually click on your ad to your website and – once they click – stay there.
To keep visitors on your site, make sure to post personalized and relevant content. You also need to make sure that your website is intuitive and easy to navigate (in other words, accessible by robots and users).
Internet Marketing Myth 10: I must submit my site to Google
While a brand new site can submit its URL to Google directly, a search engine like Google can still find your site without you submitting it. And remember, a submission does not guarantee anything. Crawlers will find your site and index it in due time, so don’t worry about this idea of needing to “tell” Google about your site.
Internet Marketing Myths Conclusion
As you manage your SEO and web presence here are some takeaways:
- Think of content and design as a team.
- Build a framework around meaningful content.
- H1 is no longer on the throne.
- Scrolling is now second nature.
- Keep links relevant and to a minimum.
- Having strong metadata descriptions can override being ranked top in Google searches.
- Your homepage should be kept tidy for visitors, but recognize people may come through your back door.
- If you need multiple pages on your site, they should enhance (not endanger) the user experience.
- Make your content intuitive, not ignorant.
- Last, but not least, no need to send Google a postcard to say, “We’re here!”
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