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A series in twelve parts

Marketing myths, checked.

Twelve things small and medium businesses are told about marketing, each checked against what Google, Microsoft, the regulators and the platforms actually publish.

ReadRead the piecesAll 12 verdicts, with the evidence.See the listPlayTake the quizOne claim at a time. Make your guess, then see our verdict.Start

The series

The 12 claims, and our verdicts

  1. The word RENT in large green letters on a dark shop window

    Instagram is enough. A small business does not need a website.

    Partly true

    Instagram can be enough for a while, such as when you're testing an idea, but it's a risky place to keep everything: you rent the account, and most AI search crawlers are told to keep out.

    Read the piece
  2. A small white lighthouse still lit on a rocky headland at dusk

    SEO is dead now that everyone uses AI.

    False, with a true part

    Clicks from some searches are falling. But Google says optimising for AI search is still SEO, and Microsoft, which calls part of the work GEO, says it rests on the same foundations.

    Read the piece
  3. Close up of the round keys of an old typewriter

    Google penalises content written with AI.

    False, and so is the opposite

    Google's policy targets pages made at scale, without value, to manipulate rankings, whoever or whatever wrote them.

    Read the piece
  4. Stacks of pound coins seen edge on, the lettering round their rims in focus

    You can pay to be recommended by ChatGPT.

    Partly true, in a narrow way

    You can buy a labelled ad beside some AI answers, from the platforms themselves, and even then nobody promises it will show. Nobody can sell you a place inside the answer itself.

    Read the piece
  5. A handwritten letter begun with the word Dear, a pen resting on it

    You should only ask happy customers for reviews.

    False

    Google and Trustpilot forbid it, and the CMA's guidance treats it as cherry-picking, though the Act does not name it and no court has tested that reading.

    Read the piece
  6. A single green shoot coming up through bare soil

    Running Google Ads helps your organic ranking.

    False

    Google and Microsoft both say paying for ads does not change organic ranking; ads work alongside SEO, not through it.

    Read the piece
  7. A tape measure twisted into a spiral on a yellow background

    Longer pages rank better, so every page needs a minimum word count.

    False, with a true part

    Google has no preferred word count and no ideal page length. Thin pages do struggle, though, and a complete answer is sometimes a long one.

    Read the piece
  8. Rows of small wooden catalogue drawers, each with a label holder and handle

    Adding schema markup improves your ranking.

    False, as a ranking claim

    It makes pages eligible for rich results. Google says its AI features need no special markup, and no AI company says it helps you get named.

    Read the piece
  9. A small padlock on a rusted door, with green leaves growing across it

    You should block AI bots from your site.

    It depends which ones

    Blocking training crawlers won't remove you from AI search, but blocking search crawlers costs you visibility, and user-triggered fetches may ignore robots.txt anyway.

    Read the piece
  10. A bolt and a padlocked hasp holding a blue painted garden gate shut, with ivy growing over the post

    You need a cookie banner before you can use analytics.

    Still true in practice, for now

    Since February 2026 some analytics can run without consent, but whether GA4 qualifies isn't settled, so keep asking for consent until it is.

    Read the piece
  11. An hourglass with black sand on a white background

    You need a twelve-month SEO contract.

    Usually not

    Planning a year of work is often right. Being locked into a year, with nothing protecting you but the contract, is not. We sell fixed-price projects and say so.

    Read the piece
  12. Grey beach pebbles of many sizes, one much larger than the rest

    A bigger agency is safer than an independent.

    Partly true

    Safer against the work stopping when one person is away, and built for volume, but not safer on continuity of people, insurance or data protection. We're an independent agency, and we say so.

    Read the piece

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