Why You Shouldn’t Believe Everything You Read About SEO

This might seem to be an odd post for someone that works in the SEO world to post and who relies on people believing what he says when getting new clients, but bear with me…

SEO. Three letters that cause excitement, confusion, and sometimes panic. Everywhere you look, there’s another article promising you the “secret trick” to rank number one on Google. Sounds tempting, right? But here’s the truth: a lot of what you read online about SEO is out-of-date, misleading, or just plain wrong. And if you follow bad advice, you can waste time, lose money, and maybe even damage your website in the long run. Let’s dig in and cut through the noise.

SEO in a Nutshell

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. In simple terms, it’s about making your website easier to find on search engines like Google, Bing, or even DuckDuckGo. The aim is simple: when people search for something you offer, you want your website to appear as high up in the results as possible. That’s it. Nothing magical, nothing sneaky. Just making sure people can actually find you.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But then you search “SEO tips” and suddenly you’re drowning in jargon, hacks, and “ultimate guides” that all claim to know exactly what Google wants. The problem? Google changes how it works all the time, and many of these guides are stuck in the past.  For example this Google major update page shows the major updates but there are many, many, minor Google changes in a year.

The Problem with Old SEO Advice

The web has been around for decades, and search engines have changed massively since the early days. But bad SEO advice lingers like a bad smell. You’ll still find people swearing by tactics that stopped working years ago. Even worse, some of these old tricks can now hurt your rankings. Let’s look at some of the big offenders.

Example 1: Keyword Stuffing

Once upon a time, you could write something like this on your page:

“Looking for cheap shoes? Our cheap shoes are the best cheap shoes if you want cheap shoes because cheap shoes are what we sell.”

Back then, search engines would see the phrase “cheap shoes” repeated ten times and think, “Ah, this page must be about cheap shoes.” And yes, it worked… in 2002. Today? It makes your content unreadable, looks spammy, and search engines are far too clever to fall for it. Instead of ranking you higher, it’ll drag your site down.

Example 2: Meta Keywords Tag

Remember the <meta name="keywords"> tag? Years ago, you could list all the words you wanted to rank for in that tag and search engines would happily use it. For example:

<meta name="keywords" content="cheap shoes, affordable footwear, discount trainers">

But that tag hasn’t been used by Google for donkey’s years (since at least 2009) and BING stopped using them in 2012. It’s pointless now. Search engines ignore it completely. Yet you’ll still find SEO “experts” telling you to fill it in like your life depends on it. Save yourself the bother—it does absolutely nothing.

Example 3: Submitting Your Site to Search Engines

Back in the early days, if you wanted Google or Yahoo to know about your website, you’d submit it directly. You’d literally fill in a form that said, “Here’s my website, please add me.” That made sense in the late 90s when the web was new. Today? Search engines are crawling billions of sites automatically every day. They’ll find you without being asked as long as you have a link or two to your site. Submitting your site is about as useful as sending Google a postcard saying, “I’ve moved.”  Having said that, if you have a new website it’s worth signing up for the Google Search Console and submitting your home page, and maybe a few other more important pages, and your xml sitemap.

Example 4: Link Farms and Reciprocal Links

There was a time when building links meant swapping them like football stickers. “You link to me, I’ll link to you.” Then came link farms—dodgy networks of sites linking to each other purely to boost rankings. For a while, it worked. Then search engines got smarter and started punishing sites for it. These days, link farms are toxic. Buying or swapping links at scale is like asking for a penalty card—it won’t end well.

Example 5: Hidden Text

Some old-school SEO tricks were downright sneaky. One favourite was stuffing keywords in white text on a white background so visitors couldn’t see them but search engines could. That might have fooled AltaVista back in the day, but modern search engines spot it instantly. It’s not just outdated—it’s a fast track to getting penalised.

Tags and Bits of Code That No Longer Matter

When SEO was in its infancy, lots of HTML tags and tricks were seen as gold dust. Let’s bust a few myths:

• Meta keywords: As we’ve already said, useless now.
• Meta refresh redirects: Once used to trick search engines. Now a red flag.
• “Revisit-after” meta tag: Some believed you could tell Google how often to check your site with something like <meta name="revisit-after" content="7 days">. Total myth. Google ignores it.
• Meta robots “index, follow”: Technically harmless, but pointless since “index, follow” is the default. Only use robots meta when you want the opposite.
• Keywords in the domain name: Once a golden ticket. “bestcheapshoes.com” might have ranked well in 2005, and “best-cheap-shoes.com” may have ranked better. Today? Google cares more about quality content and branding than keyword-heavy domains.

Why Outdated SEO Advice Sticks Around

You might wonder why bad advice doesn’t just fade away. A few reasons:

• Old blogs stay online forever: An SEO article from 2008 can still turn up in search results today.
• Copy-and-paste culture: Some “experts” just recycle old content without checking if it’s still relevant.
• Snake oil salesmen: Some people like sounding clever. SEO jargon sells courses, even if the advice is rubbish.
• It used to work: And because it once worked, people cling to it.

What Really Matters in SEO Today

So if all these tricks don’t work anymore, what does? The good news is that the basics are simple:

• Good content: Write stuff that people actually want to read. If visitors like it, Google will too.
• Clear site structure: Make your site easy to navigate. Don’t hide pages three layers deep.
• Mobile-friendly design: Most searches happen on phones. If your site’s clunky on mobile, you’re losing visitors.
• Speed: Nobody likes waiting. Faster sites keep visitors happy and rank better but but it’s one of many signals. A blazing fast page with poor content won’t outrank a slightly slower page that answers queries better.
• Legit links: Quality links from trusted sites are still important—but focus on earning them, not gaming the system.  You don’t need 100’s or 1,000’s of links though, with Google saying that links are not as important as they used to be.
• Fresh, useful content: Regularly updated sites tend to do better than ones left to gather dust, but don’t change valid content for the sake of it.

Common Myths Still Floating Around

Even today, myths spread fast. Here are a few you might hear:

• “You must update your meta keywords.” Wrong. Ignore them.
• “Google prefers longer content no matter what.” Quality beats length every time, but you do need to have enough content for both Google and human visitors to appreciate that you know what you are talking about.
• “Social signals directly affect rankings.” Social media can drive traffic, but likes and shares don’t directly boost your Google ranking.
• “Exact match domains guarantee success.” Not anymore. Branding and trust matter more.

How to Tell If SEO Advice is Outdated

So how do you spot dodgy SEO advice? Here are a few clues:

• • It talks about meta keywords. Huge red flag.
  • It mentions AltaVista, Lycos, DMOZ or Yahoo Directory. Run away—it’s ancient history.
  • It promises instant results. SEO is a long game. Anyone promising overnight success is selling snake oil.
  • It sounds too good to be true. Because it probably is.
  • Secret recipes or “black box” shortcuts — if it’s secret, it might be dodgy.
  • Asks you to hide stuff from users — that’s deceptive and risky.
  • Overfocus on one metric like keyword density or backlink count without context.

Realistic Expectations

SEO isn’t about magic tricks. It’s about steady improvements, testing what works, and keeping your site healthy. You won’t rocket to number one in a week, but with consistent effort, you can climb steadily. Think of it like getting fit: crash diets don’t last, but regular healthy habits pay off over time.

Why Critical Thinking Matters

The most important SEO skill isn’t coding or writing—it’s thinking critically. When you see advice, ask yourself:

• When was this written?
• Does it sound too easy?
• Does it come from a reliable source?

If the answer is shaky, move on. Better to ignore bad advice than waste months chasing ghosts.

What the Future of SEO Might Look Like

Search engines are always evolving. Artificial intelligence, voice search, and personalised results are shaping the future. But one thing won’t change: search engines want to give people the best possible results. If you focus on genuinely helping your visitors, you’ll always be heading in the right direction.

Quick reference: SEO myths and short answers

Use this as a rapid guide if you’re skimming.

• Meta keywords matter? No.
• Exact-match domains give a big boost? Not like they used to.
• Buy links and rank fast? Dangerous. Not recommended.
• More pages = more traffic? Only if each page adds real value.
• Speed = #1 ranking factor? Important, but not the only factor.
• Schema = instant rich snippets? It helps, but only when accurate and used correctly.

Practical examples of modern, safe tactics

Here are some things you should actually try if you want steady, sensible SEO improvement.

Create helpful hub pages

Pick a topic and create one excellent hub page that covers the topic broadly and links to focused articles for specifics. Hubs are easier to maintain and share better authority.

Make content skimmable

Use short paragraphs, bullet points, images, if relevant, and clear headings. People scan — help them find the answer fast.

Link to content on other pages

Add some links between pages, as you may have noticed, further up the page we linked the bit about how long SEO can take to a page that explains that in more detail.  This helps the search engines get around the site, but more importantly helps visitors to the site find out more about the subject.

Use analytics to find what works

Look at which pages attract visitors and which keep them. Double down on what works and improve what doesn’t.

Biography: John K Mitchell

John K Mitchell has been working in SEO since before Google even existed. Back in 1997, when most people were just discovering dial-up internet, John realised that his programming background gave him an edge. He could look at search results, analyse patterns, and start making educated guesses about why certain sites ranked where they did. It was part science, part detective work, and he loved it.

Over the years, John has worked on thousands of websites across all kinds of industries. His experience spans from the days of meta keywords and link farms to today’s world of artificial intelligence and mobile-first indexing. What makes John stand out is his ability to adapt. He doesn’t cling to old tricks—he spots what’s changing and helps businesses stay ahead. Thanks to that approach, he’s often managed to get impressive results, even in competitive markets.

John’s philosophy is simple: don’t chase fads, focus on what really works, and always remember that behind every click is a real person looking for answers. That human-first approach has kept him at the top of his game for nearly three decades.