| There is nothing fancy or magical about optimizing your website for the search engines. The myths about it are greater than the facts. For as long as SEO
has been in existence, there have been all sorts of myths about it.
The situation isn't helped by the number of so-called "SEO Experts" spreading them.
Here's a list of the biggest SEO myths you need to be aware of so you can avoid being drawn into buying useless services that tout help with them:
-You can't optimize perfectly for every site
With the right keywords, title, description and tags that accurately reflect your content, you can optimize every site of your for the search engines.
-There are 10,000 search engines out there
The onlye search engine you need to target to get listed in is Google. Once Google picks you up all the others will, too. Google leads the pack and what Google does the other major search engines will follow: MSN, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. Forget the other ones, the traffic is small and inconsequential.
-PageRank is dead
Today Pagerank is as importatn as ever with Google.
-You should repeat your keywords 100 times on each page.
A keyword density of optimum around 5-8% on each page. The keywords should also be wound into good copy and make sense where they are placed. Stuffing pages with keywords is a good way to get you ignored or even banned by the search engines.
-Search engines don't have time to ban you for bad SEO.
One of the biggest ways to get banned from the major search engines is bad SEO.
-You should submit your site to every search engine going
Again, submit to just Google and you'll be picked up by all the other search engines eventually.
-You don't need content to get ranked high
Content, fresh and relevant, will always be king for good SEO. The web was founded on information and content is information.
-Meta tags are very important
Most search engines ignore meta tags today however, you can still place them.
-All you need is more links
Links into your site need to be related to your content. So called "link farms" which are lists of hundreds of unrelated sites will lower your pagerank.
-SEO doesn't require patience
Good SEo requires, not only patience but research, thought and time invested into it.
-New sites can't get listed in search engines.
Good, well SEO optimized websites can get indexed in a s little as 48 hours.
-You should have multiple domain names
One well chosen domain names for your sites theme is all you need.
-It's good to resubmit every week or every month
Once a month is the rule for submission but only if you update your site monthly. If you do not then submit every 2 or 3 months.
Avoid companies that advertise any of these items. The only techniques you should be using are ones that are proven to increase your website's ranking.
There are a lot of unethical, unprofessional business practices in the optimization industry. Get the facts on your side and compare the services you're being offered. Use your money wisely and invest it properly in good marketing, advertising, and content.
When inexperienced and unprofessional optimizers scam uneducated SEO customers, it gives everyone who works in the field a bad name. If anyone tells you that it's OK to keyword stuff, or that you don't need PageRank - well, they're just completely wrong.
If you're trying to make money with your website, you need visitors, and that's where SEO is iimportant. SEO is important to get on top of your competition and the search engines. Good SEO means sales. |
