This presentation is an integral part of SEMrush webinar for full video: https://youtu.be/_tsc4M8oGGU

1. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
SEMrush Webinar

2. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are many
misconceptions in
SEO

3. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are many
misconceptions in
SEO

4. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are many
misconceptions in
SEO

5. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are many
misconceptions in
SEO

6. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are many
misconceptions in
SEO

7. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are many
misconceptions in
SEO

8. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are many
misconceptions in
SEO

9. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are many
misconceptions in
SEO

10. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Because there are
no real concrete
“rules”

11. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Just what we think
we know

12. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Some is pretty
much agreed-upon

13. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Some is sketchy-but
well meaning

14. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Some are flat-out
wrong/lying

15. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
But where do these
come from?
We’re not all bad are we?

16. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Misunderstanding

17. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
“Good Google PSI score =
ranking better”

18. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Out of date
knowledge

19. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
“301’s lose PageRank”
https://searchengineland.com/google-no-pagerank-dilution-using-301-302-30x-redirects-anymore-254608

20. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Paranoia

21. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
“Linking to Google can
help bypass linking
Penalties”

22. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are so many
to count
Here are my top 5

23. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
#1 SEO Is Something You
Can Finish

24. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
6 months later, it
starts going wrong

25. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

26. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Where did this
come from?

27. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Anyone who
doesn’t understand
SEO

28. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Or begrudges
paying when they
don’t understand it

29. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There are so many
reasons why this is
wrong

30. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
1) Competition
doesn’t stand still

31. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
2) Google always
refines/changes

32. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
3) User behaviour
changes

33. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
4) And… people
screw their
websites

34. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
How do we fix it?

35. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Awareness
Changin’ Minds

36. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Awareness
Policing
Changin’ Minds

37. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Awareness
Policing
Strategy
Changin’ Minds

38. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Awareness
Policing
Strategy
Buy-in
Changin’ Minds

39. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
And how much you
rely on organic.

40. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
If your business
NEEDS Google

41. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
You. Always. Need.
SEO.

42. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
#2 Just give people what
they want - Google’ll do
the rest

43. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Where does this
come from?

44. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

45. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Google - they
have a lot of the
blame

46. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

47. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
But a lot of
people want to
believe it

48. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
But Dave Naylor
said it best when
he said

49. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
“If Tech SEO isn’t
needed, why does the
canonical tag exist?”
(paraphrased by me)

50. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
All CMS can be
‘unfriendly’ out of
the box

51. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Google doesn’t
“see” content as
we do

52. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

53. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
It measures
proxies of site
quality - not
quality itself

54. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
We can’t leave this
to chance
we need SEO!

55. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
#3 Code/Content Ratio is
important

56. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Otherwise known
as the potentially
epic time-waster

57. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
“The higher your
code to content
ratio is, the worse
your SEO is”

58. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

59. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Maybe suggestive
of code bloat

60. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Maybe suggestive
of a slow page

61. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Maybe suggestive
of bad code

62. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

63. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
BUT!

64. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Could be a short
page

65. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Could be SVG

66. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

67. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Could be large
navigation

68. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

69. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Could be using
schema markup

70. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

71. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
What damage
could be done in
optimising here?

72. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Worse-still, this can
be expensive to
optimise for

73. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
If you’re addressing
this the rest of your
site better be 100%!

74. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Ensure you have
clean, compliant
code - then move
on!

75. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
#4 Optimising for
RankBrain

76. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
The newest thing
we need to
optimise for?

77. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Learn how it
works, then we
can rank better ...

78. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

79. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Where did this
one come from?

80. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
A new Hummingbird,
Penguin, or Panda

81. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Rankbrain is
smarter than you
think

82. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
https://searchengineland.com/5-ways-seo-experts-say-optimize-rankbrain-273458

83. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
It refines search
results based on
context

84. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Optimising for a
ML algorithm fed
by personalised
data

85. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

86. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
But you don’t
know/can’t
control that

87. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
RankBrain
optimises for you
(the user)

88. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
What we can
optimise for...

89. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
On-site (tech)
Off-site (links)
Content

90. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
#5 Google Uses LSI

91. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
This one started me
off in this whole
process - thanks
Bill!

92. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

93. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Latent Semantic
Indexing (LSI) role
within Google?

94. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Spoilers: there are
none

95. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Which to be clear -
is widely debunked/
disregarded

96. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

97. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
It’s relatively old

98. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
It interprets the
strength of word
relationships

99. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
However, a close
proximity doesn’t
mean a useful
relationship

100. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
So, why do people
think this is a thing?

101. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Industry-leading
sites are telling us
they are
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-latent-semantic-indexing-why-does-it-matter-for-your-seo-strategy
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-latent-semantic-indexing-seo-defined/21642/

102. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
There is no
evidence of this,
whatsoever

103. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Why is this
damaging?

104. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
If you’re basing your
entire content
strategy on LSI…

105. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
… you’re optimising
for totally the
wrong thing.

106. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Optimising for old
tech is daft

107. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co

108. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Just answer the
question/query in
the way it’s being
searched for

109. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
So What Can We do?

110. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Don’t believe
everything you
hear

111. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Understand you
don’t have all the
answers either

112. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
Avoid gimmicks

113. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Don’t tar all SEO
with the same
brush

114. The Most Damaging SEO Myths
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@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
@chrisgreen87
strategiq.co
The Most Damaging SEO Myths
8th Feb 2018
Thank you.