10 SEO Myths to Avoid: Bad SEO Advice That Won’t Go Away

A few years ago, I was on a flight seated next to a woman who ran a small business. We got to talking, and as soon as she found out I was in digital marketing, her eyes lit up. She leaned in, eager to share what she’d been told by her SEO guy.

“He said I needed to publish a new blog post every day, or I’d lose all my rankings.”

I nodded slowly. “Did he say why?”

She shrugged. “Because Google likes fresh content.”

Then she told me she was writing every night. Skipping sleep. Skipping family dinners. Her traffic hadn’t changed — but the guilt was eating her alive.

Bad SEO advice doesn’t just waste time — it hurts people. It drains small business owners already running on fumes. It replaces clarity with confusion. Confidence with self-doubt. And worst of all, it makes them think *they’re* the problem — instead of the advice they were sold.

You know what? I’ve had enough of that. Let’s clear the air.

Myth #1: “Change All the Dates on Your Blog Posts to Today”

Let’s just start with a classic.

I had a highly experienced, but panicked editor call me recently. The SEO agency she was working with told her to change the publication dates on all blog posts to the current year.

Every. Single. One.

Her gut reaction? “That feels dishonest.”

She was right. Because it is dishonest.

The date on a blog post isn’t a throwaway detail. It’s a signal. To your reader, to your brand’s integrity, and yes, to Google. If you’re slapping today’s date on a post from 2011 without actually updating it, you’re not just misrepresenting content… you’re erasing a decade of SEO credibility.

Want to update old posts? Great. Improve them. Add clarity. Then mark them as refreshed. But don’t fake the freshness. Google’s not dumb. Your readers aren’t either.

Myth #2: “High Bounce Rates Hurt Rankings”

This one just won’t die. It’s a confusion of behavioral factors.

Bounce rate is simply the percentage of people who land on a page and don’t click to another page. That’s it. It doesn’t mean they hated the content.

Real story: I worked with a company that sold sugar substitutes. They had a conversion chart page that explained how many packets replaced a tablespoon of sugar. That page had a 99.5% bounce rate.

Why? Because it worked. People searched, got their answer, and went back to baking banana bread.

That is success. Not failure.

High bounce rate ≠ bad page. Sometimes it’s exactly what the user wanted.

Myth #3: “H1 Tags Don’t Matter Anymore”

Wrong. Still matters. Always has.

H1 tags are your headline. They help users and search engines figure out what the page is about. Ditching them is like publishing a newspaper without a title.

Good SEO is like good journalism: headlines (H1s), subheads (H2s), and context. Google still reads pages like documents. So write like a human. Structure like a journalist. Use H1s — and use them well.

Myth #4: “Link Quantity Beats Link Quality”

If your SEO plan sounds like a pyramid scheme, it probably is.

Backlinks matter. But quality trumps quantity. Every time. A single link from The New York Times will outshine a thousand links from forgotten blogspot pages.

Link farms? Dead. Private blog networks? Not worth it. You want backlinks that come from real mentions in relevant places. That’s marketing. That’s PR. That’s SEO.

Myth #5: “Just Follow What Google Says”

Google’s guidelines are a decent start, but they’re vague on purpose.

“Create helpful content.” Thanks, Google. Got it. But what does that mean for your site? Your niche? Your audience?

The truth is, SEO is more like carpentry than code. Learn from others. Test. Tweak. Build. Experience is still the best teacher. Google doesn’t reward checkbox thinking, it rewards relevance and usefulness.

Myth #6: “You Can Learn SEO by Googling It”

Irony alert: Googling SEO will often get you the worst advice about SEO.

The web is full of old tips, bad takes, and rehashed content from 2012. Why? Because Google doesn’t always know what’s good — it just knows what gets clicks.

So if you want to learn SEO? Find voices with experience. Case studies. Podcasts. Experts who’ve shipped real work and seen the results. That’s where the real gold is.

Myth #7: “Keyword Stuffing Still Works (Just Hide It!)”

This one is experiencing a resurgence as AI answers can’t tell if content is hidden in the background or not. Just great.

Stuffing keywords into every paragraph (or worse, hiding them in footers or white text on a white background) isn’t clever. It’s spam. And Google has been wise to it for years.

Focus on clarity. Context. Topic depth. Write for people. That’s how you win — and stay winning.

Myth 8: “SEO Is Just a Technical Checklist”

SEO is not a checklist. It’s a strategy. And it’s marketing.

Yes, audits and page speed matter. But they’re not the main course. Great SEO includes:

• Clear messaging
• Audience research
• Compelling content
• Useful architecture

Search engines don’t reward technical wizardry alone. They reward usefulness, and that takes creativity, not just code.

Myth 9: “SEO is Dead”

SEO isn’t dead, and AI won’t kill it. As long as people search, it won’t go away.

Every few years someone declares SEO dead. Usually, it’s after a Google algorithm update, or because TikTok is trending, or because someone mistook a dip in traffic for the apocalypse.

But here’s the deal: SEO isn’t dead. It’s evolving.

It’s changed, sure. The debatable tactics that worked in 2010 (stuffing keywords, gaming backlinks, exact-match domains) are gone. That’s not death. That’s growth. SEO today is smarter, broader, and frankly… more aligned with good marketing than ever before.

And the numbers? They tell a different story:

• Organic search still drives the majority of trackable website traffic.
• People search before they buy. Across industries, devices, and age groups.
• Google’s still the front door to the internet. Whether it’s typed, tapped, spoken, or AI-summarized.

So when someone says SEO is dead, what they usually mean is: “The SEO I used to do doesn’t work anymore.”

Exactly. And good riddance.

SEO isn’t about tricking algorithms. It’s about earning visibility by being genuinely helpful, trustworthy, and relevant. That’s not dead…that’s marketing finally growing up.

Myth #10 “SEO Will Deliver Immediate Results”

This one’s tricky, because it plays on hope. Especially for small businesses. Especially when money’s tight and visibility feels urgent.

But here’s the truth: SEO is not instant. It’s not a vending machine. It’s not a faucet you can turn on and off. It’s a pipeline,  and pipelines take time to build.

If someone promises you “first page rankings in 30 days,” ask them two questions:

1. Which keywords? (Because ranking for “affordable wellness retreats in western Nebraska” doesn’t mean anyone’s searching.)
2. How? (Because cutting corners might get you there fast… but it won’t keep you there.)

Solid SEO work shows up over time. Not overnight. The benefits are real. Iincreased traffic, trust, and long-term growth, but only if you treat SEO like a garden, not a lottery ticket.

That means:

• Investing in content that answers real questions
• Structuring your site so users (and bots) don’t get lost
• Earning backlinks by being worth linking to

Do those things consistently? You’ll win.

Chase shortcuts? You’ll burn out. Or worse, get burned by Google.

So next time someone offers you 10,000 backlinks for $99, or tells you bounce rate kills your traffic, or wants to change every blog date to this year…

Smile. Nod. And back away slowly.

Then go build something worth finding.

So… What Should You Do Instead?

Easy. Start with your audience. Think like a reader. Then ask:

• Can they find what they need?
• Does this answer their question?
• Is our expertise clear?
• Do they trust us?

That’s SEO. It’s building something useful, one page at a time.

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