Search the Internet for SEO tips and you will get a whole list of well-meaning hints, tips and tricks from an array of different sources. Unfortunately, some of these tips are based on misleading, occasionally flat-out incorrect information.

Here are the top three SEO myths you should definitely not fall for.

Keywords are dead

Google’s Hummingbird (an algorithm tweak enabling natural language queries for searches) and the ‘death’ of the company’s keyword tool had many SEO blogs announcing that keywords are dead. In reality, keyword research is still important, but it is necessary to bear in mind that the main focus now is on semantic searching, or LSI. This means that rather than looking for a single phrase or word, searches involve engines looking for related words and synonyms. In other words, keywords are not dead; they are simply taking a bit of a break by giving similar words a chance to surface and do some of the work for them.

Size Matters

Varying studies carried out in 2014 suggested that longer content performs better in terms of search engine rankings and conversion. While providing audiences with relevant information is obviously important, this does, however, not mean that the longer your posts/ articles are, the better your position in search results will be. Google does not count words, but will search for and index short Twitter posts as happily as 2000+ word articles – as long as the content therein is compelling and unique. Long winded, potentially hard to read articles designed purely to increase word count can, as a matter of fact, be more detrimental than helpful when it comes to rankings. The key is to provide as much detailed information as possible without compromising on quality, readability and uniqueness of your piece.

Alt Tags and Image Descriptions

A great deal of tips involves the importance of alt tags and descriptions for images used on your Website when it comes to search engine rankings. The use should be seen as best practice only, while these tags/ descriptions will undoubtedly make it easier for images to be shown in Google image searches, as well as making them easier to access for users, the sad truth is that they have little to no impact on search engine rankings.