{"id":2666,"date":"2025-09-29T06:27:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.forestsoftware.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2666"},"modified":"2025-09-26T20:09:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T19:09:45","slug":"why-you-shouldnt-believe-everything-you-read-about-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forestsoftware.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/09\/why-you-shouldnt-believe-everything-you-read-about-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Shouldn’t Believe Everything You Read About SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 7<\/span> minutes : <\/span><\/span>

Why You Shouldn’t Believe Everything You Read About SEO<\/h1>\n

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…<\/p>\n

SEO. Three letters that cause excitement, confusion, and sometimes panic. Everywhere you look, there\u2019s another article promising you the \u201csecret trick\u201d to rank number one on Google. Sounds tempting, right? But here\u2019s the truth: a lot of what you read online about SEO is out-of-date, misleading, or just plain wrong.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\u2019s dig in and cut through the noise.<\/p>\n

SEO in a Nutshell<\/h2>\n

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. In simple terms, it\u2019s 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\u2019s it. Nothing magical, nothing sneaky. Just making sure people can actually find you.<\/p>\n

Sounds easy, doesn\u2019t it? But then you search \u201cSEO tips\u201d and suddenly you\u2019re drowning in jargon, hacks, and \u201cultimate guides\u201d 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.\u00a0 For example this Google major update page<\/a> shows the major updates but there are many, many, minor Google changes<\/a> in a year.<\/p>\n

The Problem with Old SEO Advice<\/h2>\n

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\u2019ll still find people swearing by tactics that stopped working years ago. Even worse, some of these old tricks can now hurt your rankings. Let\u2019s look at some of the big offenders.<\/p>\n

Example 1: Keyword Stuffing<\/h2>\n

Once upon a time, you could write something like this on your page:<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking for cheap shoes? Our cheap shoes are the best cheap shoes if you want cheap shoes because cheap shoes are what we sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back then, search engines would see the phrase \u201ccheap shoes\u201d repeated ten times and think, \u201cAh, this page must be about cheap shoes.\u201d And yes, it worked\u2026 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\u2019ll drag your site down.<\/p>\n

Example 2: Meta Keywords Tag<\/h2>\n

Remember the <meta name=\"keywords\"><\/code> 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:<\/p>\n

<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"cheap shoes, affordable footwear, discount trainers\">\r\n<\/pre>\n
But that tag hasn\u2019t been used by Google for donkey\u2019s years (since at least 2009) and BING stopped using them in 2012. It\u2019s pointless now. Search engines ignore it completely. Yet you\u2019ll still find SEO \u201cexperts\u201d telling you to fill it in like your life depends on it. Save yourself the bother\u2014it does absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n
Example 3: Submitting Your Site to Search Engines<\/h2>\n
Back in the early days, if you wanted Google or Yahoo to know about your website, you\u2019d submit it directly. You\u2019d literally fill in a form that said, \u201cHere\u2019s my website, please add me.\u201d That made sense in the late 90s when the web was new. Today? Search engines are crawling billions of sites automatically every day. They\u2019ll 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, \u201cI\u2019ve moved.\u201d\u00a0 Having said that, if you have a new website it’s worth signing up for the Google Search Console<\/a> and submitting your home page, and maybe a few other more important pages, and your xml sitemap.<\/p>\n
Example 4: Link Farms and Reciprocal Links<\/h2>\n
There was a time when building links meant swapping them like football stickers. \u201cYou link to me, I\u2019ll link to you.\u201d Then came link farms\u2014dodgy 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\u2014it won\u2019t end well.<\/p>\n
Example 5: Hidden Text<\/h2>\n
Some old-school SEO tricks were downright sneaky. One favourite was stuffing keywords in white text on a white background so visitors couldn\u2019t see them but search engines could. That might have fooled AltaVista back in the day, but modern search engines spot it instantly. It\u2019s not just outdated\u2014it\u2019s a fast track to getting penalised.<\/p>\n
Tags and Bits of Code That No Longer Matter<\/h2>\n
When SEO was in its infancy, lots of HTML tags and tricks were seen as gold dust. Let\u2019s bust a few myths:<\/p>\n