The Twelve Most Common SEO Myths

Yes, SEO is an extremely important part to your success online, but there are literally hundreds of SEO myths flying around cyberspace that can dampen your overall results. If you take a good hard look at the majority of the information you will find that most of it is opinionated rather than factual. So today we want to share with you the twelve most common SEO myths on the Internet today.

#1- All Links are Equal- Even though this was once a successful SEO strategy, you will find that are links are NOT equal today. There are several ways to build backlinks to your sites, but only a few of them today are helpful. This is due to the search engines becoming more aware of what is relevant and what is not. So when you find someone with 50 backlinks to their site and a higher ranking then you with 1000 links, this is why.

#2- Keyword Density is Important- This is on the SEO myths list because so many people are wrapped up in keyword density. Granted, you don’t want to stuff keywords into your articles or web pages, but if you just provide highly searched uncompetitive keywords in these areas you will have more success and get indexed better.

#3- Meta Keywords Still Work- Okay, if you’ve been reading up on meta keywords you can stop wasting your time. Yes, they used to be extremely valuable, but after Google and Yahoo publicly announced they no longer use them in their algorithm calculations, it’s pointless. Just remember to stick with the meta descriptions and tiles because these still play a major role.

#4- Web Directories are Highly Valuable- If you find this sort of information online it is probably outdated. It’s been a long time since these were considered “highly valuable.” Keep in mind it’s still important to find the highly credible web directories, because they do offer advantages, but the general ones really don’t hold weight anymore.

#5- Blackhat SEO Won’t Get you Caught- The person who believes Blackhat SEO is nonpunishable is sadly mistaken. It doesn’t matter if you’re a huge company or have an individual platform, when the major search engines catch you they deny listing you in the search engines.

#6- SEO Success Happens Overnight- It’s to fathom that people still believe this, but it’s one of the biggest SEO myths out there. The truth is SEO is a process that takes weeks, months, and even years to achieve success. It’s an endless battle and it’s something you have to constantly work on throughout the year. It’s a long term strategy, not a quick fix solution.

7. Google is All That Matters: Obviously Google is the largest and most powerful search engine that’s out there today. However, one of the most prevalent SEO myths is that it’s all the matters for the success of your website. This can’t be farther from the truth. With Yahoo!, Bing, other search engines, a slew of important social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and MySpace and various other tactics such as article marketing there are a variety of ways to drive traffic to your sites besides Google.

8. PageRank is Everything: Along the same lines, your Google PageRank isn’t the end all or be all of your website. Yes, a higher PageRank will help your website rank higher, but it certainly isn’t the only factor that carries any weight. Plus, the number you see in that green bar is only a visual, static representation of a complex and constantly changing algorithm.

#9- Common Sense is More Important than Research- If you think something works online, it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone else believes the same thing. A prime example of this is through keyword selection. There are hundreds of different ways to find keywords and in order to find them you need to do research. If you don’t you can easily end up losing out in the long run.

#10- More Traffic is Always Better- Anyone who throws these SEO myths at you is misinformed. You will find all kinds of information on the internet telling you that without targeted traffic it will be hard to make money. The whole idea is to provide your business with a large amount of conversion rates. If all you get is internet surfers, the buyers are going to your competitors. Why? Well, because they are working towards “targeted traffic.”

#11- Purchasing Links and Link Farms Always Work- This was really helpful years ago, but Google caught on to how people used blogs and websites as link farms. Nowadays they can actually hurt your website rankings rather than help them. Most importantly taking this route is often considered as “blackhat” which is definitely not good.

#12- Once you Achieve a Ranking, You’re Done- Probably the biggest SEO myths out there revolve around the “one shot deal.” Many marketers believe they can simply write up 10 articles, submit them to directories, provide a few backlinks, and the money will start rolling in everyday. The truth is you have to constantly maintain your SEO strategies in order to be successful. If the competition is still working, why should you stop?

So learn from the mistakes of others and avoid these common SEO myths. Always remember, SEO is a dynamic and changing landscape, and what works today may not work tomorrow. Stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices and avoid falling into these and similar schemes and pitfalls.

Learn more about SEO. Stop by David Baxters’s site www.SmartMediaInnovations.com where you can find out all the latest data and information about increasing your wesbite’s search engine rankings and what it can do for you.

categories: SEO, SEO Tactics