32 SEO Myths That Even Marketers Believe
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32 MYTHS ABOUT SEO EVEN MARKETERS BELIEVE IN

Here are 32 of the most common myths about SEO. We tried to fit them into a round number, but form shouldn’t come before content, so we decided not to leave anything out.

What This Is About

SEO works instantly

Well, if we consider the theory of relativity, a year on Earth is like a camera flash—just a quick moment compared to a whole day. So, ask yourself: what does “instantly” really mean? Would a bank give you a loan without a credit history? Google works the same way. 

First, you need to build trust and fix your website: page speed, content, meta tags, microdata, backlinks, indexing etc. For a small website, this setup usually takes 1 to 6 months. So, think about how much time and money you want to invest in SEO. 

With an unlimited budget, results come relatively fast.

Your website will be at the top in a month

Your website will be at the top in a month. Growth doesn’t start in the first month. It begins only after all technical fixes are done and Google fully rechecks your website. Good news: You can manually request page indexing in Google Search Console. Bad news: You can only send a few pages at a time—fewer pages on your site mean fewer you can send manually. So, be ready to spoon-feed Google a little each month. Or get more backlinks so Google scan your website faster.

SEO experts can’t fully control indexing. So, if someone promises fast growth in the first month, they’re probably lying. Be realistic about your website’s chances.

You’ll get your money back if your website doesn’t hit the top

People don’t like giving money back. That’s the first thing to know. But if the work is bad, they have to. So, what happens next? SEO costs money that can’t be refunded. Backinks, content—you already paid for them, so… no one will return that money. Maybe you’ll get a small part of the agency’s fee, but it won’t be much. And you’ll spend more time trying to get it… than it’s worth.

The best guarantee? A good expert with real results, reviews, case studies, and years of work in SEO. Just don’t expect a miracle—be mindful of sunk costs.

The more expensive the SEO, the better

Here’s a secret: We love clients who think this way. SEO, just like good PR, is always “free” but very expensive. Let me explain. Only you or your employee can create great content because a copywriter doesn’t know your topic as well as you do. The same goes for videos, infographics, and photos.

That’s why an expert needs two key skills: deep knowledge in your field and the ability to write, speak, and create great content. And this expert—you or your employee—costs nothing extra for SEO.Same with link building. Big industry websites will write about you for free—but only if you’ve spent years building your reputation. So, yes, SEO is expensive, just like PR. But thinking it’s “free” is pure fantasy.

SEO can be cheap

But in reality, this just means your website will get bad backlinks from shady websites—nothing more. Always ask what’s included in the service and why the price is lower than others. Most likely, these backlinks cost nothing. If you stop working with the agency, they’ll just remove them.

And here’s another problem—AI-generated texts. Pages with this kind of content don’t rank well, especially on new websites. Sometimes, they don’t show up in search at all. Cheap SEO is like—cheap fish—bad soup.

Free SEO if KPIs aren’t met

Best case? Your project will just sit and wait. Maybe in a few months, the backlinks and content will start working, and you’ll get the promised results. But… let’s be real—no one will be working on your website all those months. Worst case? You’ll get fake traffic and won’t even notice. Google Analytics 4 doesn’t show bots. If someone promises results by a set date, they can just fake the numbers. It’s cheap and easy. For example, they can buy traffic on any ad platform and use a trick with UTM:

?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic

This makes paid traffic look like organic. And you’ll never know the difference.

Free SEO as a gift

Oh, we all love gifts. But… let’s be real—these services are already included in the price of something else. In the end, you’ll likely pay even more than with companies without these “gift” charges. For a company to offer something free, they either made a big mistake or have been working with you for years. Some agencies promise “two free articles.” But the next two will cost as much as ten.

They might offer a “free technical audit,” but fixing the issues will cost money. A “free content plan” sounds nice, but writing the texts… won’t be free.They can even give you a “free link-building strategy”—and you can guess what happens next.

Set and forget SEO

Only if Google stops updating its algorithms forever. But in reality, Google changes them at least once a month. And small updates? They happen every single day—several times. And that’s not even counting personalized search results. Some SEO tasks can wait six months or more—like updating meta tags, improving old content, or running a technical audit.

[Even for small websites, it’s best to do an audit every two months.]

Google keeps raising the bar.And SEO isn’t just about Google. New platforms pop up all the time.

Yes, Google does care about a website’s age. But that website needs to stay active—not sit frozen like a bear in hibernation. If a website has been inactive for too long, bringing it back is tough. So don’t just look at age. Other factors matter too.

Buy an expired domain with a bad history, and you’ll get nothing. More DR is better. More quality backlinks are better.Age is something you build, not just something you have.

No difference between AI and human-written texts

This myth is half true. Yes, some AI-generated pages do get indexed. But just as often, they disappear just as fast. If your website has a high DR, lots of strong pages, and you mix in a little AI content, nothing bad will likely happen.

[Fun fact: we checked Google’s own blog, and guess what? Some articles there are AI-generated. Ha-ha.]

But if you plan to fill your whole website with AI content… well, good luck. Send us your success story when your AI website stays indexed and gets stable traffic for at least a year. And we’ll redo this text.

More pages = higher ranking

More optimized pages help ranking—but not always. The main goal? Be better than your competitors. On the other hand, ranking a single landing page is tough. So find a balance. Big websites do have an advantage: in Search Console, you can manually send more pages for indexing than a small website. That’s it.

Well, one more thing: large websites also avoid keyword cannibalization better than single-page websites.Build based on what you can handle, not just what you want.

Google understands dynamic URLs

Yes, that’s true. Google understands them. It also understands that your website is poorly optimized and should be ranked lower. Create URLs that make sense for people first—not too short, not too long, no keywords spam, no dates. Clean URLs won’t guarantee success, but they help with indexing. And don’t forget about your sitemap—that’s important too.

?id=123&cat=456 is worse than /category/product/.

SEO is dying soon

Oh, my favorite myth. SEO has been “dying” every year for the last 20 years—then rising again like a phoenix. Let’s remember: SEM (Search Engine Marketing), SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management), ASO (App Store Optimization), LSO (Local SEO), Voice SEO, Video SEO, AI-driven SEO, SMO (Social Media Optimization)… Should I go on? So which SEO exactly is dying?

One fades—another appears. Maybe it will “die” the same way theater did when TV came along—by staying alive and doing just fine.

SEO can be automated

That’s not a myth. Some tasks can be automated and actually help—like generating meta tags, publishing content, running technical audit (like parsing), or creating reports in Looker Studio.

Other things can be automated too—but with no benefit or even harm. For example, automated outreach, bulk directory listings, or AI-generated content.This kind of automation can damage your website’s reputation. You can’t fully automate link building, strategy, or deep analysis. We support automation, but… full automation? That’s still a myth.

Oh, they still work! Google still looks at domain rating, and backlinks help improve it. The difference is, they don’t work the way they used to. Now, you have to choose them much more carefully. Check relevance, traffic, domain rating, and region of the donor.

So no, you can’t just buy backlinks and expect results.But link building is still one of the best ways to build trust for your website.

Not really. It’s better to have one Wikipedia baclink AND 10 regular ones because link building is about creating a natural backlink profile.

A website can’t just have a single link from a super-authoritative source and nothing else—that looks suspicious. But I get the point of this myth. A big fish is better than a bunch of small ones. And yes, a Wikipedia backlink is definitely a great catch!

SEO success means being top on Google

I could argue about “the top” since search results are personalized. But let’s be honest—rankings don’t pay the bills. What you really need are leads. And what brings leads? Traffic and mentions.

People might not even click on your website—they can see part of your content right in search results. Or the opposite—you might not be in the top, but your page still gets steady traffic. And if it’s well-optimized and your product is great, you’ll get leads. So, the main KPI for a business owner is leads. For an SEO specialist, it’s traffic.And… let’s be real about that.

Google indexes pages automatically

Yes, but mostly on big websites. For example, Forbes publishes dozens of articles daily, and Google indexes them in minutes.

But if your website updates content less often than news websites or marketplaces, automatic indexing will also be much slower. How to speed it up? Manually submit pages in Google Search Console.And don’t forget to check old pages there too—sometimes, they disappear from search for no reason.

Ads are better than SEO

Sometimes, yes. If you need to quickly test how people react to your product, don’t wait months with SEO—run ads and spot the issues right away. But ads don’t last. The moment you turn them off, sales disappear.

SEO works differently. The effect builds over time.Of course, if you stop working on it, competitors will catch up or Google updates might drop your traffic. But it won’t happen overnight.

SEO is a long-term game, and the results stay longer. Ads give fast results, but only while you’re paying. Not a second more.

Ads don’t affect SEO

This myth is tricky. On one hand, ads don’t directly impact SEO. But on the other—more visitors mean better user signals, and Google does consider those. Pages get indexed faster. Brand searches grow. Google starts noticing your brand.

So yes, ads do have an effect, just not in a direct way. If you’re running ads just to boost rankings—don’t bother, it’s not worth it. But if you need leads, ads can be a great way to hit two goals at once.

Google ban AI content

Maybe yes, maybe no. We checked Google’s help pages and blog, and guess what? Over 50% of the content looks AI-generated. So no, if you mix AI with human writing, it’s not a problem. But if you fully automate your content, chances are those pages won’t get indexed—or if they do, they won’t stay long.

The higher your website’s domain rating, the more you can get away with. So don’t be afraid to use AI. As long as it’s mixed with real content, it won’t stop you from ranking.

Internal linking is useless

No way! It’s super important. It helps spread page authority, so pages get indexed faster. Plus, visitors click links, stay longer, and Google sees better user engagement.

Internal links also reduce bounce rate—people don’t just visit one page, they explore more. And Google sees your website as one big happy family where every page is connected. And… who doesn’t love a happy family?

If a page has a Noindex tag, Google no index it

If only it worked that way! But no—Google still sees everything. Even in incognito mode, you’re already identified.That’s the bad news. The good news? Google won’t use Noindex pages against you—as long as you’re just hiding harmless stuff like: duplicate content or technical pages.

But if those hidden pages contain something illegal, your website will be penalized.So yeah—there’s no real way to hide anything from Google.

Old pages rank better

Not really. If we’re talking about evergreen content, pages older than five years rarely rank well—especially if they haven’t been updated. Google loves fresh content. Not just new, but a constant flow of new. It quickly gets rid of old things—remember Analytics Universal? Where is it now?

So, if your competitor updates their page and optimizes it just as well as yours, they’ll outrank you simply because their content is fresher. Sure, you can change the publish date, but that doesn’t always work. Welcome to Brave New World!

AI makes SEO a waste of money

I get why you feel that way. Yes, AI works faster and sometimes even better than people. But SEO isn’t just for Google—so don’t worry. Your competitors will come and go, tools will change, but SEO isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.If you don’t start investing in SEO now, you’ll regret it—just like not buying Bitcoin 10 years ago.

A domain name must have a keyword

That’s a myth. Back in 2012, Google launched the EMD update (Exact Match Domain) and started ranking down domains with exact keywords—if they weren’t quality websites or didn’t help users.

So yes, you can pick a domain that matches your topic—it’ll be easier to remember. But it won’t help with rankings. What does matter? The Google Venice update (also in 2012). Since then, websites with local domains rank better in their regions.

Too many redirects hurt SEO

Not really. The problem is redirect chains and loops. For example: A page А redirects to В, then В to С. It’s better to link the first page directly to the last one. Or loops: page A redirects to B, then B to A—it’s bad for SEO.

Also, don’t redirect everything to the homepage. It’s better to send visitors to a similar page instead. And be careful with 301 permanent and 302 redirects—mixing them up cause problems.But if you change URLs, merge pages, or move to HTTPS, redirects help, not hurt.

Changing the date makes an article fresh

Google still checks the content and remembers it. You can’t turn back time. But you can update the text, add new facts, and include fresh links. And use dateModified markup to show real updates. Just changing the date won’t help. It won’t hurt either—but… it’s not worth it.

Redesign matters for SEO

That’s true. A good redesign can boost SEO if it makes the website better. Cool page speed, easy navigation, smart internal links, a strong mobile version, and—most importantly—cleaner code. Google loves that.Just don’t forget to check redirects and technical settings.And don’t overdo it—no need to redesign every month.

Blocking content copying will protect it

That’s a total myth. Nothing online is 100% protected. There are many ways to copy content, and if competitors want to, they will. At best, you’ll stop beginners who don’t know how to use “Inspect” mode. So yes, there’s no real way to block copying—that’s the bad news.

The good news? Google remembers the original source. If someone steals your text, Google knows who wrote it first. Also, your pages should get indexed before the copies. So don’t believe myths—focus on SEO.

So, should we block them with nofollow? Mark them as sponsored? Just in case Google thinks we’re a spam website? Maybe even block links to social media, just to be safe? That’s the myth.

Google actually wants to see at least one outbound link—to a source. And it’s the best trusted source. So don’t be afraid to add links. Just don’t overdo it.Two or three per article is perfectly fine.

Google knows the difference between regular links and social media links. And it expects businesses to have social profiles. What’s worse? Not having them at all. So, should you block these links with noindex? That’s up to you—but we wouldn’t recommend it.

That’s all 32 myths—thanks for reading. Myths help you understand the field better, spot weaknesses and opportunities. Thanks again for your attention. I hope it was helpful and interesting for you—it was hard but fun for me. Keep collecting and busting myths—and read Marketing Link—it’s always interesting here.

Julia Sotnikova

Julia Sotnikova
Chief Visionary Officer, Marketer of Marketing Link

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