Episode 28: SEO Misconceptions Uncovered: Beyond Keywords and Backlinks
Uncover the biggest misconceptions about SEO. Learn why SEO is an ongoing strategy, the truth about keywords and backlinks, and how to adapt to modern search engine updates.
“SEO isn’t a one-time thing—it’s a process of doing the right things over and over again.”
Objectives
In this episode, you will be able to:
Understand why SEO is a continuous process and how to build a strategy that evolves over time.
Recognize the role of intent in SEO and how to create content that aligns with user needs and search behavior.
Differentiate between outdated and modern backlink strategies to focus on quality and relevance over quantity.
Adapt to the changing landscape of SEO with insights into AI-driven tools, zero-click results, and entity-based strategies.
Transcript
Robbie:
So, Tim, I heard SEO’s dead.
Tim:
Long live the king. I’m not dead, baby. I’m just having a break.
Robbie:
Okay, we lost everybody there. Yeah, really niche Irish reference for Kit Kat. From Kit Kat in the ’90s.
Tim:
Send me an email, and I’ll send you a YouTube video if I can find it. And if I can’t, I will reenact it.
Robbie:
An Irish person doing an Elvis impression is pretty wonderful, but I don’t know if you guys want to hear about that. I think it’s time to talk about some misconceptions of SEO, Tim.
Tim:
Could there possibly be any misconceptions?
[Intro]
Robbie:
This is Tim and Robbie with the Content, Community, Commerce podcast. We talk about topics at the convergence of content, community, and commerce. And today we’re having part two of our misconceptions episodes—or series, or whatever we’re gonna call it.
Tim:
We’ll have some spin-offs. Yeah, it could be a trilogy. Who knows? The merch is gonna be epic.
Robbie:
But yes, today we’re here to talk about some of the misconceptions of SEO. Last time, we talked about misconceptions of email as the two sexiest topics in marketing: email and SEO. I’m getting hot and bothered over here. There’s just so much controversy and so many misconceptions because everybody loves them. Everybody knows them. And they’re like…the Kardashians! They get so much attention.
Tim:
First time I think I’ve heard SEO referred to as “the Kardashians.” Yeah, we have to lock the office door because it’s so hot. What’s going on?
Robbie:
When they come out with a Google rollout, people just go crazy. They storm, they shut down Ticketmaster—like, everybody loves those updates. You might as well be Taylor Swift releasing a new tour and selling tickets. But seriously though, this is something where, for all the marketing channels out there, SEO is probably the biggest black box for most marketers. It’s just not really understood, and it changes so fast. It evolves quickly. We all use it every day, but as marketers, most people just don’t want to touch it. The misconceptions around it are probably the strongest of any marketing channel.
Tim:
Yeah, I get a lot of unusual questions. Things people think they know about SEO or their feelings about it. There’s a lot of feeling-based stuff, but it’s not a feeling-based thing. After a while, sure, you develop hunches and understand what works and doesn’t. But a lot of people come at it like, “This must be the secret sauce,” or “They rank because of this.” And it’s like, no, that’s not how it works.
Robbie:
When you say, “I feel like Google hates me…”
Tim:
They do. They hate me, but they love what I’m producing—and eventually want to own it themselves. So they’re just going to go ahead and make a grab for it now.
Robbie:
Yeah. They hate you, they hate you…and then they love you. “I hate you, I hate you—I know I love you.”
Tim:
The ads department loves you, but the search department hates you.
Robbie:
That’s probably because of the B-spot in the ads department. Anyway, let’s dive in. I think this is a cool topic because we get to unpack some of these misconceptions and make it easier for people to understand SEO fundamentally. Honestly, I teach SEO around week three of my MBA class on digital marketing strategy. I think it’s fundamental. If you understand SEO and how it works, you can understand intent and so much more about your digital marketing strategy. Having a good foundation is critical. Not understanding SEO is a disservice, because it’s one of the most powerful channels we use every day, often without realizing it.
Tim:
And nobody’s ever complained about having too much organic traffic. Right? No one’s like, “Man, my organic traffic is too high. I wish I could turn it off.” “All this free traffic—ugh, the gift that keeps on giving.”
Okay, misconception number one: SEO is a one-time thing. When I say that, I’m thinking about a few different angles. Some people think, “I’ll optimize my site, set it, and forget it.” Like Google’s going to see it and go, “Wow, that title tag they added is incredible—they should be position one.” People think checking off boxes in tools like Yoast for WordPress or Wix or Squarespace means the job is done. But you can fudge your way into making those traffic lights whatever color you want.
Yeah, there are plenty of Yoast plugin sites where everything is red, and yet they rank #1. It’s a guide, but it doesn’t understand the full picture. But it doesn’t mean that your SEO work’s done. So you publish that blog post, you get your traffic light green, well that’s my work done here. I don’t touch this blog ever again. Or you just go through the site and just make, you know the titles, the meta, I put a keyword somewhere on the page, that is not SEO. That is the bare minimum foundational building block that any site should have. But really it should be something from the very get-go. And we talked about this right before we started, like it’s your foundational building block. So whenever you’re creating a site, bringing SEO on the front end, so if you’re working with an agency to build this site from your site architecture to information architecture, like all the different things, where do we put these pages? How do we link these pages? What goes into navigation? What goes into fooder? Structurally, what information do we need on a page? Like bringing in SEO earlier is gonna save you so much work later.
And you’ve talked many times about having to “break the bone” and reset it. You don’t want to realize a year after building a site that, “Oh, we just hired this SEO agency, and they’ve told us everything wrong with the theme we chose, the design we went with, and the site’s architecture.” Then you’re stuck hiring a developer to fix all of that.
SEO isn’t a one-time thing. It starts at the inception of the site. Once it’s built, you’re updating posts, constantly looking for ways to expand their reach. How do you get them shared? Can people link back to them? What internal content can you create that links to and from those posts?
Say you create a landing page. You don’t want it sitting on an island. You integrate it into the site. Your website should be a living, breathing thing, constantly evolving. When Google updates happen, if you’re doing things right, you’ll mostly be fine. But the web evolves so fast. What worked a year ago might not work as well now. It’s not necessarily wrong, but it could be better. For instance, if you had a blog post called 10 Best SaaS Tools of 1998—sure, it was great in 1998, but now it’s 2024. The list and information need updates.
Robbie:
A lot has changed.
Robbie:
Exactly. If your URL was evergreen—like 10 Best SaaS Tools—and you updated the list every year with valuable information while continually linking it to other relevant content, you could hold that spot for a long time.
Of course, you might face competition from big tech review sites or other behemoths, but your efforts will keep you competitive. The key is not letting things erode. While SEO might bring “free traffic” (air quotes here), it erodes over time. No one holds position one forever, not even big brands, unless they keep updating and optimizing.
Robbie:
Yeah, this resonates. So many people think, “I’ll do the work, SEO it at the end, and I’m done.”
Tim:
Hearing that makes me so happy—sarcasm fully intended. Someone says, “Can you just SEO this now?” and I think, “No, you can’t just ‘SEO’ it like a ninja.”Right, like they want to sprinkle a keyword or two on a blog and call it a day.
Exactly. SEO isn’t a one-and-done thing. Think about other marketing channels. With paid ads, you monitor your ad spend monthly. With email, you’re constantly iterating. SEO is no different. It’s not a “set it and forget it” strategy.
Robbie:
If you take one thing away from this episode, take that: SEO is ongoing. Also, side note—this episode is not sponsored by Squarespace or Wix. Moving on. So, what else is there? Here’s another misconception: SEO isn’t all about keywords.
Tim:
Right. People think, “Just stuff it with keywords like a Thanksgiving turkey.” Exactly—get the gloves on; we’re elbow-deep in keywords. But seriously, this was a real approach back in the day. Keywords were a major ranking signal for Google, so people started gaming the system—putting a keyword a thousand times on the page in white text to make it invisible. It worked for a while, but of course, SEO can’t have nice things because we break them.
Keywords are still important, but it’s way more nuanced now. It’s not about how many times you use a keyword or always about where you put it. Sure, it’s good to include it in the title, H1, and on the page, but exact matches aren’t necessary anymore. Semantically related terms and understanding user intent are just as critical. Intent makes a huge difference. Intent tells you if the keyword aligns with your goals. Look at a search result page for a keyword. Are the results shopping pages? Then it’s likely commercial intent. Are they blog posts? That’s informational intent. Or is it dominated by major media outlets or YouTube videos? Understanding what Google prioritizes for a keyword tells you if it’s relevant for you to target. Targeting the wrong intent won’t get you the results you’re after.
Are we putting the right content forward for what Google is looking for? First, there’s the intent component. Then, there’s the question: does your business actually align with that keyword?
You don’t want to just write content and stuff it with keywords, thinking, “Well, we’re kind of related to this. If we capture this random audience, maybe they’ll follow this obscure journey through various pages to convert.”
Instead, you want to tell Google, clearly and specifically, “We are the expert in this topic, this space, this thing.” That’s what you build your content around. Then you circle back—because it’s not a one-time effort. You’re always evolving, linking to and from that content, improving it. Keywords are a part of SEO, but they’re not everything. They’re just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of signals Google looks at now.
Robbie:
Yeah, it’s about fundamentals. A lot of misconceptions about SEO come from outdated understandings of how it works. The system has evolved so much. Every algorithm update brings more nuance. Back in the day, if you had a ton of backlinks before Google’s Panda update, you might have ranked well, even if those links were spammy. Or if you stuffed a page full of keywords, it could work. But that was years ago, and things have changed dramatically—especially regarding keywords.
Tim:
Keywords can still be a helpful starting point. They act as a north star, guiding you to the type of content you should create or showing how people in the real world refer to your product or service. Sometimes, the way your team talks about your offering internally isn’t how users describe it. Keywords help bridge that gap. But that doesn’t mean every page on your site needs to be stuffed with keywords like a Thanksgiving turkey. You need your site to be cohesive and conceptually tied together. It’s about quality and relevance, not brute force.
Sometimes, you’ll even see pages ranking for a keyword where the title tag in the search result doesn’t match the article’s title. Google might be pulling a subhead or a paragraph from the middle of a post because it best answers the search query—even if the article wasn’t explicitly targeting that keyword. Google is looking for the best answer, not the best keyword usage.
Robbie:
Exactly. It’s all about intent and providing genuine value. When you understand intent—like where someone is in their journey with your brand—it not only improves your SEO strategy but also gives you insights into other aspects of marketing.
Tim:
That said, I’m not suggesting you go into your website right now and strip out every keyword. Look at what you’ve got, assess it, and make changes thoughtfully. Don’t just dive in and gut everything overnight.
Robbie:
Oh, pardon me for being a cowboy sometimes.
Robbie:
Sure, sometimes that works out, but it’s better to take a measured approach. For example, you don’t want to go disavowing backlinks without first assessing their quality.
Tim:
Right. Be strategic—assess, then act. Going forward, look at your keywords differently. Don’t try to target the exact same keyword with every article, and definitely don’t stuff it everywhere.
Robbie:
So, moving on: misconception number three—backlinks.
Tim:
Backlinks! Everyone knows about backlinks, right? People think, “If I could just get 100,000 backlinks from anywhere, Google will make me number one.”
Robbie:
And yet, somehow, “Dave’s Basement Conspiracy Gear” is topping the rankings!
Tim:
Back in the early iterations of the web, Google needed backlinks to understand which sites were most important. If a lot of sites linked to one site, it signaled importance. But Google’s algorithms have gotten much smarter. They don’t need links to determine what’s authoritative and relevant anymore.
Now, it’s about the right links from the right places. And even beyond that, Google considers sentiment. How are people talking about your brand online? Maybe they’re linking to you, or maybe they’re just mentioning you in a podcast, YouTube video, Reddit thread, or product review on another site. Even if they link to Amazon instead of you, Google can still pick up on that sentiment.
This is similar to how AI models are trained—they look at relationships between entities. For example, if you sell golf products and a credible site that reviews golf equipment discusses your brand as offering the best value clubs or beginner-friendly options, Google notices that. They pick up on relevant entities, the sentiment behind those mentions, and the connections between those entities.
About six or seven years ago, I heard someone at a conference say, “Google is moving away from strings and looking at things.” That’s where we are now. It’s no longer just about strings of text (like backlinks). It’s about entities, their relationships, and how they’re discussed.
So, while backlinks are still important, relevance matters more than sheer volume. I’d rather have ten high-quality, relevant backlinks than a thousand from “Dave’s Basement Conspiracy Theories Blog.”
Back in the day, you’d pay for bad backlinks to sabotage competitors, pointing links from sites like “Dave’s Basement Conspiracy Theories Blog” to their domain. That kind of strategy is trash now.
Paying for links has never worked—not long-term—and it still doesn’t. Yet, people still try. You’ll get emails offering “a thousand high-quality backlinks for cheap.” But they’re junk.
Even guest posting, while still valuable in some cases, isn’t as effective as it once was unless it’s a perfect fit. Google now uses tagging like rel=sponsored to flag paid placements or guest posts. If a site doesn’t use these tags, they could face penalties. So, those links carry less weight than they used to.
People who relied on these tactics—buying links, mass guest posting—often saw temporary wins, but they also rode a volatile roller coaster with algorithm updates penalizing them over time.
The best approach is to do it right from the start:
Build real relationships.
Get the right people talking about you.
Appear on podcasts.
Be featured in YouTube videos.
Write great content that others reference and share.
These genuine efforts are far more effective than any backlink Ponzi scheme.
I’ll sell you some links under the table…
Robbie:
That’s about as black hat as it gets. Feels like something out of a Victorian black-tie ball. But seriously, backlinks are still an important component, just one that’s evolved significantly.
Tim:
Google doesn’t need the same signals it once did to distinguish between good and bad content. It’s about creating authentic value and relationships that naturally generate those signals.
Robbie:
So, it’s kind of like Jumanji. Like, “What do you mean the game thinks?” But thankfully, when it comes to SEO changes—backlinks, content, whatever—everything happens immediately, right?
Tim:
Oh yeah, results are immediate. Totally kidding. Results are not immediate. If anyone ever tells you, “We’ll get you on page one of Google overnight or in 30 days,” run the other way. That’s not how it works for 99.9% of websites.
Robbie:
Isn’t that like the Nigerian prince scam of SEO?
Tim:
Exactly. “Send me money so I can unlock access to page one for you once I escape Google jail.” It doesn’t work like that.
Sure, if you’re a massive site like The Wall Street Journal, you can push a news piece out, and it’ll get indexed in 30 minutes. Or if you’re Home Depot spinning up a new product category, it’ll rank quickly because of their high domain authority. Apple launches a new product, and the entire internet is talking about it, so Google has no trouble getting that where it needs to be.
But for most brands—especially newer ones without any SEO groundwork—it’s a much longer process. If your site has no domain authority and you’re just starting out, you could be looking at six to twelve months before seeing any significant impact.
So, no high-fives in the office just yet? In the early stages, it’s about getting a pulse—getting online and starting to build traffic. It’s usually in the second year where you start seeing real growth.If your site already has some authority, you might be in a three-to-six-month window for noticeable results, assuming you’re adding good content consistently. Google needs time to discover and index what you’re doing, then find links to and from your pages. It’s about architecting how Google interacts with your site.
The key here is consistency. SEO isn’t a one-time thing—it’s a process of doing the right things over and over again. Every time Google crawls your site, they should find valuable content. That builds trust and helps you rank faster over time.
We do have clients where changes can lead to noticeable results in just a few weeks. Occasionally, there’s an easy win where something takes off overnight. But for competitive keywords like “best CRM tool”? You’re not going to beat established players like HubSpot overnight. HubSpot has spent years producing millions of articles and building their authority.
Robbie:
The time horizon and effort required to achieve those results are so important to understand.
Tim:
Exactly. SEO is like building your house, while paid ads are like renting. You don’t need to be homeless while you’re building your SEO foundation.
While working on SEO, run paid ads, leverage your email list, use social media—whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn—whatever fits your business. Drive traffic to your site with those channels while your SEO work builds momentum.
Eventually, your SEO traffic will start climbing “up and to the right.” And I know I’m making hand gestures here that no one can see, but trust me, they’re impressive.
Robbie:
They’re very impressive.
Tim:
But seriously, the point is, don’t sit there for six to twelve months twiddling your thumbs waiting for SEO to kick in. And if you’ve done a “one-and-done” SEO effort, you’ll be twiddling your thumbs indefinitely. A title tag alone isn’t going to get you anywhere—especially if you’ve left a “no index” tag on your site by mistake!
Robbie:
So, the “no index” issue is more common than you’d think.
Tim:
Right? It’s like the IT crowd—“Did you try turning it off and on again?”—except it’s, “Oh, you forgot to take the ‘no index’ tag off your site.” That’s always step one. Google can’t find your amazing content until you fix that. It’s such an easy fix, but it happens all the time.
Robbie:
Okay, moving on—misconception number five.
Tim:
Wait, let’s recap for the two people still listening!
Robbie:
Right! Shout out to you two. Mom, if she could figure out how to listen to a podcast, would totally be one of them. But for those hanging in there, we’re almost done.
Tim:
Two more minutes and we’ll land this plane—you’ll be wiser for it.
Robbie:
Listening to this podcast is kind of like wearing wool underwear—it’s a little itchy, a little uncomfortable, but worth it in the end.
Tim:
Anyway, let’s talk about quantity over quality. A big mistake people make is thinking, “If I just create a ton of content—like, 50 blogs at once—I’ll rank on Google.” But that doesn’t work. If you’ve never done any SEO before and suddenly dump a massive load of content onto Google, they still need time to figure out who you are. Blogs can get buried deep in your index if your site lacks authority. It’s all about quality and consistency. Publish at a regular cadence—maybe two to four posts per month. Unless you’re a major site, there’s no need to churn out 20-30 blogs a month. You’ll overwhelm your site and hurt your chances of ranking.
Robbie:
We’ve had this discussion between the two of us. Because like sometimes we want to post something on a client’s site, it’s like it’s super warm and fuzzy. It’s like snow cones and puppies. It’s like really engaging for their audience but not super search relevant. And even with something like that, like if we publish that, we’re gonna backdate that like a few months. So it’s not taking a crawl budget on the first page of that blog. Occasionally, something surprising—like horse Halloween costumes—might take off unexpectedly. But making snow cones and puppies your SEO strategy? That’s not realistic.
Not all content needs to be search-focused. Some posts are just for engagement, internal morale, or to make your executive team happy. You can even create separate blog sections for things like press releases or updates and control whether Google crawls them.
Tim:
That’s a topic for another podcast—how to structure your blog strategically.
Robbie:
Okay, let’s address the final misconception: “SEO is dead.”
Tim:
Ah, the classic. Every year, someone declares SEO dead. But as long as people search on Google, SEO will exist. What’s changing is how search traffic flows to you.
For example, there are now more “zero-click” results than ever. Google gives users answers directly in search results, so they might not even visit your site. Features like AI overviews and knowledge panels complicate things further.
Brands have two choices:
Aim for visibility within AI features, knowledge panels, and summaries, so users recognize your brand even if they don’t click.
Ignore those spaces and risk having competitors dominate users’ awareness earlier in the search journey.
We’re still figuring out how much traffic comes from these new features since Google doesn’t separate those clicks in their reports. But impressions are increasing, and tools now show when you’re featured in an AI overview.
The big takeaway? SEO has evolved. It’s not just about keywords or backlinks—it’s about sentiment, entities, and relationships. AI models analyze how your brand is talked about, who’s talking about you, and where. For instance, Subaru benefits from entities like safety award sites consistently linking them to “the safest family vehicle.”
As a brand, you need to:
Create great content to control your narrative.
Get featured on podcasts, YouTube, and credible review sites.
Build connections that reflect positively on your brand across the web.
This isn’t just SEO anymore—it’s about branding, PR, and optimization. It’s good business strategy.
SEO is evolving beyond a direct-response channel to a brand-marketing one. It’s about building trust, reputation, and awareness in a way that supports your overall business fundamentals.
Robbie:
And don’t forget the technical side. Use Google’s tools like structured data to make your site easy to crawl and understand. Bake SEO into your website from the start—it’s like putting chocolate chips into cookie dough before baking. You don’t want to scramble for ingredients after the cookies are in the oven.
Robbie:
And no oatmeal raisin cookies here.
So, quick recap:
SEO isn’t a one-time thing.
It’s not all about keywords.
Backlinks aren’t what they used to be.
Results aren’t immediate.
Quantity doesn’t beat quality.
SEO is not dead—it’s evolving.
If you have questions, shoot us a DM on LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you—unless you’re trying to tweet us, because who’s using Twitter anymore?
This has been Tim and Robbie with the Content, Community, Commerce podcast. Leave us a review—five stars, or at least three and a half stars! See you next time.
[Outro]
