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Web SEO Myths
Posted April 13, 2010
There are many SEO myths around the Web and often it is difficult to determine whether certain technique really does work or it is just one of many common myths. Bellow I have listed common SEO myths and mistakes you should try to avoid at all costs. Feel free to comment any myths that you have experienced or heard of.
- Search engines are not as good as other media. Search engines provide possibly the most targeted traffic and potential clients and customers who are actually looking to purchase products or services you offer. No other media can do the same level of marketing as search engines, you can spend hundreds of dollars advertising on radio/newspaper but in the end search engines is where a lot of people go.
- SEO is a single event. This is something that we get from prospective clients a lot. Businesses like to buy the SEO service and assume that it is as simple as setting up some script on their website or adding some keywords. There might have been a little truth in that statement a dozen years ago when it was enough to fill your web pages with keywords, submit them to search engines and keep the meta tags updated. However, there is exactly zero truth in that statement now. Search engines take into consideration hundreds of different factors to determine the relevancy of web pages and to decide their position in SERPs. Submissions and meta tags have lost their importance. Add in the (extremely quickly) increasing number of competiting websites (plus numerous blogs, forums, social networks or media sites). Long story short - SEO today is an ongoing process and requires permanent attention in order to be effective.
- Meta tags and submissions are important: This is something we also hear a lot from folks asking us to submit their website to 100+ search engines on the internet and set meta tags on all their pages. There are many websites claiming that meta tags and submissions to search engines are crucial for SEO. Don’t believe that. This might have been true in once upon a time when search engines were still just jumping off (late 90’s). Back then, it was important to submit your site and meta tags description and keywords had some importance. But today, search engines use highly sophisticated algorithms and very advanced bots. There is no need to manually submit your site, bots will very likely find it themselves. Moreover, meta tags have lost their importance. They are no longer taken into consideration by major search engines. It is a good practice however to implement meta tags in your website but not a requirement.
- PPC ads help/hurt SEO. Many people believe that running Google AdWords can affect organic rankings of their site. Some believe it will bring their site up, some believe it will bring their site down. Both opinions are based on thin air. PPC ads have nothing to do with SEO and have no influence on organic rankings.
- You must update your website frequently. Some of the highest ranking websites in Google haven’t been updated in years. Frequent updates will probably increase the search engine crawl rate but won’t help your website rank better. If your site doesn’t need a change, don’t change it.
- Your site will be banned if you buy links. This myth is rooted in reality. Search engines (especially Google - and Matt Cutts) don’t want to count paid links as votes for a page. The problem is there is no efficient way to figure out whether the link is paid or not. Even if they somehow figure it out, they won’t ban the entire site. It would be silly to ban entire websites because of few advertisements. They just won’t count those links.
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