No matter what we do, there will always be myths that could lead us to do silly things with our business. The same can be said about SEO. Some gurus would have us believe something that Google and other search engines taught otherwise.

Today, in our effort to help you and your funeral home succeed in online marketing, here are some SEO myths that you should avoid at all costs.

SEO is dead (or at least it’s dying)

The advent of social media and the explosion of Facebook’s user base has given birth to consumer recommendation, which led many businesses to believe that recommendations now trump search rankings. The truth of the matter is, search is still the most widely used method of finding products and services online, and Google still has a choke-hold on the search market.

So, SEO is not dead. With the explosion of mobile, it has become more convenient for people to use the search engines for whatever they may need, and Google is at the helm of mobile search technology.

We can never understand SEO – it’s a mystery

While it is true that Google and other search engines do not fully reveal the secrets behind the search technology, they did teach us, and many experts before us, a lot of best practices that we should all live by. By adhering to these best practices, you can almost guarantee success for your online funeral marketing campaigns, and replicate this success over and over again.

So who should you listen to for SEO guidance? Google, other search engines, and SEOs with years of proven track record.

SEO service should be cheap

Gone are the days when all you need to do to rank high in search is to tweak the title and content of your website. Now, there are lots of things that you need to keep up with, especially the competition.

When hiring a funeral SEO service, you’re paying for more than just a few tweaks on your website. You are also paying for the service of an expert who has to keep up with the ongoing changes in search algorithm to make sure that your website performs better than the competitors.

You should also keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to ranking a funeral website higher in search, because each website has a unique set of SEO needs.

Site audits can be done quickly and cheaply

Sadly, it’s a notion that has spread because many scammers try to do quick SEO audits for free in their efforts to win clients.

The truth is, site audits were often done wrong by these scammers with the wrong set of tools. A good site audit takes about a day with the right set of tools produce a comprehensive and accurate review of where a website is ranking, what it is up against, and how it should be configured to get to the top.

A bad audit, which is done quickly, on the other hand, does nothing but to hurt a website’s ranking and reputation.

Link building is dead

If you’re not a big brand, or a nationally-recognized funeral home, then you should definitely work on building links to your website. That’s because Google still counts links very highly. Having links pointing to your website, especially from industry-related sites, shows how others recommend or show a vote of confidence for your website.

Link building isn’t dead. What’s dead is link buying, a practice that has been frowned upon by Google since almost two decades ago.

So what should you do? Continue creating timely, relevant, and useful content pieces for your funeral home website and then put those out there. Recommend these content via social media or try to get an industry leader to talk about your idea on their blog. You can also create how-to videos that talk about industry issues and have those pointed to your content.

There’s no need to aim for #1

The top results within Google’s first page results are still garner the most traffic. There’s almost no point in settling for just the number #10 or #11 spot if your goal is to get as many client families per month as you want.

Your goal should be at least to be in the first page, then work your way up to the top if you can find a long-tailed keyword that hasn’t yet been dominated by other funeral homes.

SEO will continue to be around for years to come. And its still a significant money-maker for many businesses. The key is to consistently adhere to best practices set by the search engines to see consistent results for your online funeral home marketing efforts.

Let’s talk about SEO for funeral homes today. Call us at (800) 810-3595.