Search Engine Optimization Myths

By Author: Helen Walker
Total Articles: 45
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Search engine optimization (SEO) is an emerging industry that is extremely complex and confusing, at first glance. But once you get past the blinding headlights of industry jargon and code, it is a helpful skill set to attain. Through the attempt to understand the specifics of SEO, several myths have developed that have grown legs. This is an attempt to shed some light on those myths and keep your SEO education on the right track.

1) New content always improves ranking

Let's set one thing straight: relevant, interesting new content will improve your ranking. But that is for the spiders to decide. If you post a new page of content a day, but it isn't relevant, interesting, or written well, then the spiders aren't going to bump you up on the search engine results pages. New content will increase the frequency that spiders crawl, but if the food doesn't taste sweet, they will not finish the meal.

2) Flash kills SEO

Flash features on your website will not kill your overall ranking, but it does hurt it in the eyes of the search engine spiders. Spiders don't index flash because they can't ...
... read it. Any website that relies on flash exclusively is going to be hurt significantly. A touch of flash isn't going to hurt you, just use it sparingly.

3) Meta tags must be keyword rich

One of the basic black hat techniques is keyword stuffing in meta tags. It was also one of the first black hat techniques that surfaced in the early years of the Internet. The search engines found out pretty quickly and classified meta keywords as irrelevant in the ranking process. Meta titles and descriptions are still very important in rank position. Keywords are important in these elements, but never keyword stuff.

4) Buying links will get you banned

If the spiders determine that a link has been paid for, they will not count it towards the rankings. You won't get banned, but you are wasting your budget.

5) If the site isn't ranked on page one, SEO isn't working

SEO isn't about being ranked numero uno on Google, it's about being found online and increasing revenue through being found. It's about delivering ROI. If your company obsessively focuses on being number one, then you are focusing on the wrong objectives. Page rank is important, but you can have a cost-effective campaign that lands you seventh on the first page that gets you more business than a budget-busting campaign that gets you first, but not enough conversions to cover the cost.
Search engine optimization is a fairly new industry that is constantly evolving. The environment is constantly changing, so what may be true now could be a myth tomorrow. It is important to stay current and educated on the topics that concern your business.

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