Many people in the past believed that the earth is flat, and as time moved on and discoveries and science evolved it become clear that that was an outdated fact. We indeed live in a different world and universe.
Surprisingly there are a still some people in the world today believing in the flat earth myth.
But this is nothing compared when it comes to what businesses and people believe about SEO. It is shocking that especially language school owners fall for those 5 myths about search engine optimization.
While believing in a flat earth might have no significant impact on your language business, believing in the wrong things about SEO will certainly create unnecessary problems and obstruct your online marketing success.
SEO Myth 1:
SEO Is A Marketing Trick Or Short-Cut
Decades ago when search engines are still in their infancy many smart marketers came up with tricks to manipulate the search engines in order to trick them into listing websites higher above others. These times were known for companies using repeating phrases in their websites over and over again, using misleading titles and headlines in their pages and other manipulative elements in order to get more attention from potential customers.
Those times are long, long gone.
First of all: all of those \”tricks\” were only short-time fixes and despite costing a lot of time and money to \”work\”, they always stopped working after a few weeks and months and were soon worthless.
Second: SEO means \”search engine optimization\” not \”search engine trickery\”. The only people profiting from those \”SEO tricks\” were companies selling dubious software and tutorials and memberships to people that were misled by false hope and promises.
Remember: search engines these days are very, very smart. Technology evolves so fast and has come up with so many anti-cheating security updates, that is next to impossible (and unnecessary!) to \”force search engines\” to move your website up on the results. The search engines do this by themselves now, measuring how interesting and relevant your website is to potential clients based on how long people stay in your website, how many natural referral links lead to your website and how up-to-date and unique your content is compared to other similar websites in your (language) industry.
Insight: SEO Marketing is not a trick or a short-cut, but an essential marketing strategy that is necessary that your website is correctly found in search engines and helps search engines proactively to match potential customers with your company and services.
SEO Myth 2:
SEO Gets Your Language School Business Customers Faster
First of all: This myth goes along with the first myth of thinking of \”short-cuts\”. It plays into the belief that SEO is some sort of magic marketing instrument that instantly makes you known to the public. In fact, the only way to get \”instantly known by the public\” is to use paid traffic strategies such as Google Ads or Bing Ads.
Second: To get more and more customers over to your website always takes time. Creating a highly useful and interesting language school website itself and then listing it with the help of search engines is the most important and essential thing you need to do – but it is like opening a store on a street. Just because you opened a new business and created a new website, doesn\’t mean people will come to you instantly. It will take time, no matter what you do.
Remember:
SEO means that you optimize your website in such a way that all search engine list you in the most beneficial way for your business. The job of a search engine indeed is to help your potential customers to find you \”as fast as possible.\”
Being listed on search engines, however, is a process that takes time and effort.
Insight: If you are looking for a fast way to get customers, then consider to start a pay per lead marketing campaign. SEO itself positions your website for months and years to come. Strategic language school pay per lead marketing gives you new language customers within a very short period of days and weeks.
SEO Myth 3:
SEO Will Save You Money Or Is For Free
First of all: This myth comes from thinking that if you are on a tight budget and that you need to save money and skip on doing paid advertising. The error in thinking is that SEO is actually a marketing activity. SEO is a necessary public relations activity such as having business cards or having a website and is not optional, it is a necessary and the most important Internet activity you need to keep your eyes on.
Second: SEO is not a one-time thing to do. Nor is it something done for free, lots of hours that need to be paid to someone (writers, programmers, consultants). SEO is an online activity that you need to do to keep doing for as long a company exists. It is an ongoing process.
Remember: SEO is not a marketing strategy that competes with other online marketing activities such as social media or pay-per-click marketing. It is simply a necessary online marketing activity that ensures that the right customers find your website as fast as possible.
Insight: SEO could actually save you money if you do it right and combine it with all other online marketing activities necessary. Yes, SEO itself costs money to be done correctly, and all your other paid marketing activities will benefit from a correct SEO strategy for your online presence. Optimized web pages and websites usually support you with long-term benefits that will help you save money and multiply your efforts.
SEO Myth 4:
SEO Will Help You To Become #1 In Google
First of all: Another \”dinosaur myth\” about SEO there is. Once upon a time, there was such a thing that something like a company website could be #1 in search engine results. People would type something like \”best language school\” and no matter on what computer you would perform such a \”search\” you would always end up with the same search engines results, hence they believed that \”your company\” is #1 in a specific search engine.
Second: The fact that something could be #1 is long gone with all the new smartphones and all kind of new devices that connect to the Internet. Every online search results now in PERSONALIZED search results. A search on Google on your smartphone will give you different results than the smartphone of your coworker.
A search on a laptop computer will give you different results than one a smartphone. The location of a smartphone will give you different search results, too! Someone looking up a search that is 20 miles or kilometers closer to your language school will get your language school ranked \”higher\” and more prominent than to someone who is browsing from another country.
Remember: It is no longer possible to be #1 for anything. The closest you can get is that you are shown within the first search results of the preferred device you target (smartphone versus desktop/laptop).
Insight: In order to be shown to the right customers for your business you have to start thinking in marketing budgets. The times where you could create a website and hope that people will accidentally discover your company without you paying for this are long gone.
SEO Myth 5:
SEO Can Be Done By Everyone
First of all: This myth comes from the old irrational belief to underestimate your own abilities in comparison to what is needed. Many people believe that they would be great actors just by watching movies. Little do they know how much talent is needed, including memorizing text lines quick and reliable (which can be exhausting!). Being an actor takes more than a pretty face and the luck to be found by a producer that desperately wants to hire you.
But yet, the same happens to people being on the Internet. Just by looking at websites and search engines many people think they figured it all out what needs to be done to be successful online.
Second: just because people online present themselves to be able to perform specific work and compete with each other for the lowest possible price doesn\’t mean they are able or qualified to do this work. Unfortunately, it is very easy online to pretend \”to be an expert\”.
Remember: Quality work done by expert comes at a price. Hiring unqualified, untalented and inferior service contractors comes with a price, too. If you think you can cut corners and save money, think again. You will need to pay more to fix mistakes and errors done by such people soon afterward.
Insight: SEO can\’t be done by everyone. If you want to avoid wasting time and money, hire professionals only that bring along a solid background. Their experience will be worth the money spent that will put the right customers for years to come in front of your online language websites.