15 SEO myths we should all leave behind in 2025
Here at VCM, we know how important SEO is for you and your business, but many myths and assumptions accompany it. In the points below, we pick up on some of these and debunk them for you so you’re not wasting time on things that don’t matter for SEO in 2025.
1. “I must submit my site to Google.”
While a brand new site can submit its URL to Google directly, a search engine like Google can still find your site without you submitting it. Learn more about submitting a URL to Google Search Console.
2. “More links are better than more content.”
Nowadays, it is important to focus on the quality of links you obtain rather than the quantity. Sometimes, less can be more if you know how to build links properly. What matters more?
3. “Having a secure (HTTPS-encrypted) site isn’t important for SEO.”
To put it simply, the extra “s” means your connection to that website is encrypted, so hackers can’t intercept your data. It shows that your site is secure and trustworthy. Making a site secure.
4.“SEO is all about ranking.”
This is a big misconception: that higher rankings mean more search traffic. While people will see your listing, this does not mean you will get more click-throughs. SEO services.
5. “Meta descriptions have a huge impact on search rankings.”
In 2009, Google announced that meta descriptions have no bearing on search rankings. That’s not to say that these descriptions aren’t crucial for SEO, though. On the contrary, meta descriptions present a significant opportunity to separate yourself from the riff-raff and convince searchers that your page is worth navigating.
6. “Pop-ups will always hurt my ranking in search.”
Google doesn’t penalise all pop-ups—just the ones that prevent users from quickly accessing the content on the page when they search on mobile. Designing pop-ups.
7.“Keyword optimisation is THE key to SEO.”
It’s important to optimise your page for the user experience. This means you do not have to place word-for-word keywords in the content. Instead, write the content for the user. Search engines like Google will still understand your goal if you use synonyms and related terms.
8. “Keywords need to be an exact match.”
Keywords do not need to be repeated verbatim throughout a piece of content.
9. “The H1 is the most important on-page element.”
Your H1 is still essential, but it’s not the most crucial element on your pages. Think of the content structure on your webpage as an outline. It’s a tiered approach to presenting information to users and search engines.
10. “My homepage needs a lot of content.”
Your homepage content should be long enough to clarify who you are, what you do, where you’re located (if you’re local), your value proposition, and what visitors should do next. These visitors should leave satisfied, not overwhelmed or underwhelmed.
11. “The more pages I have, the better.”
Ensure you are focusing on quality as well as quantity. If you don’t have good content, you will not rank well, and all those pages you created won’t help your cause.
12. “Good user experience is a bonus, not a requirement.”
If Google sends you to a webpage, it wants to ensure a good experience. They need to ensure that users understand that page well, as they endorse it, to keep people returning to Google. Improving conversions.
13. “Local SEO doesn’t matter anymore.”
This myth couldn’t be further from the truth. If you’re a local business, optimising for local search won’t only help you get found, but it will also help you get found by nearby people who are more likely to buy from you. Local SEO expert.
14. “Google will never know if I have bad sites linking to me.”
Yes, they will! The point is that Google knows (everything). Don’t try to fool them – especially following Google’s Penguin algorithm update – or you will be penalised.
15.“Images don’t require any optimisation.”
Search engines cannot see images on websites, so it is essential to give the image an alt text and relevant file name to ensure Google knows what the image is about. By not creating this text, you lose a huge opportunity to be as visible as possible online. See image compression.