The Top 8 SEO Myths in the Racing Industry

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for business promotion and success. Modern racing brands require SEO because it is the most cost-effective way to reach prospects online. 

61%  of B2B business owners believe that SEO and the associated organic traffic can create more leads than all other marketing initiatives. When it comes to customer acquisition, SEO is 87.41% more economical than paid advertising. The benefits are clear.

SEO is just as important to businesses in the motorsports industry as any other business out there. Applying the best SEO strategies will be vital if you want to push your racing business to the next level. The process begins with a deeper comprehension of effective web content and how this can launch your business toward better lead conversion.

This guide covers the top SEO myths within the racing industry. The aim is to help you overcome these misconceptions to boost business growth.

What is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process by which one improves their website's visibility, drives more organic traffic and opportunities, and enhances lead conversion. 

In order to implement SEO on your website, you must understand three fundamental concepts:

• How content is discovered and indexed by search engines
• What content  - and content formats - to deliver to your visitors for maximum visibility
• What it takes to boost and optimize your website for discovery by search engines

Please note that SEO should not be confused with SEM, which refers to search engine marketing. The key difference between SEO and SEM is that SEM focuses on paid advertising. 

For example, when implementing SEO for your racing website, you can create a blog with valuable knowledge that addresses the issues or questions faced by your target audience. However, SEM would entail driving customer traffic by paying for ads. 

SEO drives unpaid traffic, while SEM drives paid traffic. 

Like any other marketing strategy, SEO depends on your business goals and understanding the right mix of approaches that will work for your business.

Another thing to note about SEO is that there is a difference between organic and local search. The main difference is that local search has a geographical component to it. For this reason, most people view local search as "easier" because you just have to search and find a business within a local, national, or global context.

Let's examine some misconceptions about racing SEO to understand this and other issues more deeply.

Myth 1: Optimize SEO Once, and You're Good to Go

One of the biggest myths is that SEO is a one-time marketing gig – you just have to do it once, and that's it. Wrong!

The reality is, SEO is a continuous process. Search engines are always altering their algorithms to try and improve results for their customers. Further, you should always be aware of what your competitors in the industry are doing. If they are doing a good job of creating content that ranks on Google, you need to monitor this and adjust your approach as needed.

Myth 2: We Can Optimize Your Website for SEO and Get You on the First Page of Google

The second misconception is that a digital marketing agency, or SEO consultant, can easily put you on the first page of Google’s search results. Some even promise to do it within a given period of time. Be wary of anyone who makes this type of promise.

First, there is no magic formula for ranking on Google. The reason for that is Google does not publicly disclose their ranking algorithm. Further, Google frequently updates their ranking formula  and improves it with the goal of delivering the most relevant results to their users.

For this reason, SEO done right requires thoughtful analysis of the search landscape for your business, creation of content based on well-researched keywords, and technical modifications to the website to optimize its visibility. As the web is constantly evolving with more and more sites and web pages coming online every day, the results of your SEO efforts must also be analyzed to ensure they are working.

In short, you can’t control Google and you can’t control your competition. All you can do is control what you do and put your best foot forward to try and rank as highly as possible  

Myth 3: An SEO Agency/Specialist Can Get You a Top Ranking … Fast!

As stated above, no company or individual can help you rank fast. If we look beyond the fact that “fast” is a nebulous term (does this mean 1 week, 3 months?), the fact remains that SEO is a long-term digital marketing process regardless of who you contract to do the job for you. There are several good reasons to hire an outside party to help with SEO, but getting rankings faster is NOT one of them.

Myth 4: SEO Doesn't Matter

Let us put it simply: SEO does matter. Actually, it matters a lot. If you want your site to be visible on the internet, SEO should matter to you.

In the racing industry, the SEO process begins with keyword research, where you identify what your prospects and customers are searching for within the major search engines. You can use tools such as SEMrush and Moz to facilitate your keyword research.

You then use this keyword research to inform your content creation strategy. Using this list of keywords, you then generate lists of topics from which blog posts, or landing pages are then created. Finally, once the pages are created, you optimize the on-page elements to maximize the visibility of your content in the search engine results.

Myth 5:  Meta Tags Don't Matter Anymore

While it’s true that Google does not use meta tags as a ranking factor, this doesn’t mean they are not important. These tags are still as important for SEO as ever.

Using thoughtful meta tags will not inherently increase your ranking within the search engine results. However, both the page title and meta description tags enhance the attractiveness of your content on those Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). So, while meta tags will not directly impact your rank, they will absolutely impact the number of clicks your content receives when it does appear. 

Myth 6: "If You Build It, They Will Come"

Did you know that there are approximately 252,000 websites created each DAY? With the volume of sites - and information - available online today, you cannot simply create a website and expect your prospects will find you.

So, yes, you need to build a website to market your business. You need to create interesting and helpful content that addresses your prospects’ needs and questions. And you need to optimize your site for SEO, or people will never know that you exist.

Myth 7: More Words (More Content) Are Always Better

More words on your blog posts do not always translate to more visibility. One of the main objectives of search engines, like Google, is to surface the most valuable content to their users. This is what the algorithms aim to do.

The algorithms consider a number of things to determine if your content is valuable. Things like:

• The number of sites that link to your content, known as backlinks. The more links you have to your content, the more authority Google perceives you to have about that specific topic, and the more likely you are to rank higher.
• The number of users that view your page and immediately leave, known as bounce rate. Higher bounce rates lead to less trust with Google, which leads to lower rankings in the search results.
• If users are spending a lot of time-consuming your content (known as dwell time), Google will reward you with higher rankings.

The thing to remember is that the length, or format, of your content, is less important than the value it delivers to your customers. If you focus on that - and you are delivering truly valuable content - the search engines will reward you for it.

Myth 8: Domain Authority Is an Importing Ranking Factor

There are a number of third-party metrics out there that attempt to quantitatively measure how likely a site will be to rank high in search engines. Domain Authority - created by Moz - is one such metric. 

The thing is, Domain Authority itself, is not a ranking factor. Google has no idea what that metric is (because it was created by third parties, obviously). However, domain authority is a quantitative measure of a site's backlink profile which Google DOES care about.

Backlinks are viewed as trust signals that expose the usefulness of websites to audiences. When you have strong backlinks, your domain authority improves, and this enhances trust.

Therefore, you should not view domain authority as a ranking factor but as a measure of your backlink profile's strength. Which ultimately can have an impact on where you rank in the search results. 

Wrapping Up

SEO is a vital digital marketing tactic that can help optimize your website pages for search engine algorithms. The process helps fine-tune your content production strategies by focusing on several metrics.

If you want to enhance your digital marketing strategy through SEO, talk to us at Digital Momentum. Our company will offer you a winning digital sales and marketing solution to enhance brand awareness in the racing and automotive performance industries. 

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