Myth One: Just Put Up Meta Tags to Get Your Ranking

I didn’t want to put this one here at first because everybody else mentioned this in their articles, so I thought that it was an open secret. Then I met a businessman who optimizes his blog via writing key word meta tags and doesn’t do much else as far as SEO. I told him to "try and read a bit more about SEO," then I cleaned up his tags for free and offered to help with linking (for a fee).

About Meta tags — please DO write relevant keyword and description Meta tags into your code. It gives spiders something to cache in the database. Without them, you will be left with no description when listed in the search engines. If your key word Meta tags are irrelevant to your content you may get penalized. The search engines do not place any sort of premium on Meta tags for ranking; I have seen and ranked sites with absolutely NO META tags. This said, please add Meta tags, they make your site look neater in the SERPs.

Myth Two: Key Word Density is Everything

The idea that any one thing is everything is probably the most dangerous concept. Google’s PageRank algorithm has over 200 factors it considers and MSN’s Ranknet considers over 600 factors. Onsite factors on their own are just a start to SEO; off page factors are also important.

This said, content must be relevant; if you are optimizing for the right key words your key words appear more important when emboldened and in headers than when all over the place. Avoid key word stuffing and spamming, you will get penalized.

Myth Three: You Never Need to Redesign Your Site

I could summarize the above statement in one word: cheap! If you can’t afford to redesign, say so. Don’t say it’s not necessary. Sometimes a site is just not search engine friendly; for example, you build an AJAX-powered site, and then call an SEO expert who tells you to move the text away from the AJAX windows. If you tell him that "that’s not necessary" you just made his job a lot harder.

If your site is not search engine friendly, you can still optimize, but it makes the whole process just that much more difficult. Your navigation structure must be navigation friendly to spiders. Your copy MUST be changed if it is not relevant to your target audience. If you insist on unfriendly design then you should include a Pay Per Click program; you will need it.

Apart from SEO, redesign is necessary to improve your users’ experience on your site. Forms, layout, interactivity, aesthetics and more all need to be updated as web standards and usability change and improve. You can’t afford to assume it’s all about SEO when your users get to your site and flee at the quickest opportunity.

Now that we have finished with the On Page Myths, let’s look at some Off Page Myths in SEO.

When you size up the search marketing industry, you really have to marvel at all the different information sources, many of them conflicting, and how search marketers are able to stay on top of what’s current and relevant compared to noise and malarkey.

In the course of talking to prospective clients, prospective business partners, attending conferences and events, reading blogs, books, discussion threads, forums, newsletters and industry publications, you can get exposure to an amazing variety of observations about SEO. Many of them are spot-on. Some of them are tales of a mythical nature. A few are just plain bunk.

For some context on this post, I think it is important to note the distinction in intent for most search engine optimization efforts: SEO for publishers, blog networks and affiliates is a different thing than SEO for lead generation and on-site transactions/sales. Many tactics are the same, but the intentions and outcomes are very different.

The myths outlined below are more concerned with SEO for lead/sales generation that we work with at Top Rank.

1. “Search Engine Optimization is a collection of tricks to fool search engines“.

If you’re “fooling” the search engines, then you’re probably fooling users too. Guess how well that kind of activity converts? “Real” SEO involves a lot more than optimizing content, getting links and using disposable marketing “tricks”. Tricks and tactics may be a matter of semantics depending on who you talk to, but many of the tactics we associate with productive and long term SEO include:

• Search Marketing Strategy
• Benchmarks
• Competitive Analysis
• Keyword Analysis
• Creative Copy Writing
• Web Design & User Experience
• Information Architecture
• Server Side Issues
• Code Optimization
• Other channel marketing that affects SEO (social media, news search, blog search, etc)
• Ongoing Content Development
• Ongoing Link Building
• Web Analytics
• Conversion Analysis

2. “People in our market don’t use search engines.”

I actually used to keep my laughter to myself when people would say this. You don’t have to do too much research to find out if a market is viable for marketing via search engines.

According to a study by comScore qSearch, there are 4.9 billion internet searches per month and 133 million unique searchers. Those numbers have actually gone up a bit since the study. It is certainly true that in some market categories in the developed world that search usage is minimal, but I have a hard time thinking of any.

A quick way to start investigating a market is to search and find out if how much relevant content is out there. If your market is brand new, then you may have an easier time dominating it on search engines by becoming an authority on the topic earlier than your competition.

3. “SEO is a single event”

This one is still pervasive and indicative of what search engine optimization used to be. Sort of like “SEO circa 1999? when all you had to do was update Meta tags, add keywords to web pages and submit. Those are the Model T days of SEO.

Search engines like Google look at 100-200 factors or “signals” to determine relevancy and to decide how to sort search results. Add in the increasing numbers of competing documents from various media, blogs and web site along with more savvy search marketers and it’s easy to realize that effective SEO requires ongoing attention. “Attention to what?”, you might ask. How about: creative link building, creation and promotion of new content, integration with other online/offline marketing, social media, analytics and optimization refinements.

4. “SEO is a function of IT”

Search engine optimization started out in the cubicles of IT, but has moved it’s way into the executive offices for many companies. I believe the most recent SEMPO state of the search industry research shows that companies are no longer borrowing from other cost centers to fund their search marketing initiatives. It’s a business decision line item like any other marketing expenditure.

However, IT and Web Design/Development “buy-in” are critical for proper implementation and it’s important to understand that in larger organizations, SEO is multi-departmental. Marketing, IT, Public Relations, Legal, Creative and possibly operations might all be involved in some way with a strategic initiative to help reach business goals through improved organic search performance.

Regardless of the size of the company, SEO initiatives should be managed strategically by the business like any other major marketing initiative

5. “Our site doesn’t get a lot of visitors, so SEO wouldn’t work for us.”

With comments/myths like this, you must be wondering, “Who in the world is Lee talking to?” You would be surprised how many intelligent, accomplished corporate marketers have said the above. It appears to be the classic “chicken before the egg” type of thinking.

The reality is that comments like this are an indication of insecurity about search as a discipline or about search as a viable marketing channel for a particular business. Smart people say things like this because they are not confident about the solution being presented and want to get out of or avoid the conversation. Anyone else who uses such logic just doesn’t understand marketing.

Either way, I always recommend to companies that if they’re considering search engine optimization, regardless of who helps them, they need to look at it long term. SEO is not push button marketing and it is not for the impatient. The minimum amount of time we recommend is 6 months after implementation before evaluating whether SEO has promise as a profitable marketing channel. Anything less than that is not worth starting.

I can’t let you go without a few Bonus Myths:

• Flash is bad – No, it’s the absence of text and complete reliance on Flash that is bad.
• Database generated urls are bad – The major search engines are very good at indexing complex urls. Stay away from session ids though.
• Keywords in meta tags is optimization – Just say no.
• Extra domain names boost rankings – Pure malarkey. Make sure you redirect them properly. See Bruce Clay’s explanation on this.
• Multiple copies of my site helps rankings – Can you say “duplicate content”? Don’t do it.
• My competitors get away with spam techniques, so I can too – I can hear my mom now, “And if your friends told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?”. If a competitor is “getting away” with blatant search spam, you have a few decisions to make. One of them is how to be more creative and more aggressive (within guidelines) at becoming the authority for your category and topics.

Are there more myths and misconceptions, misunderstandings and pure bullshit out there about SEO? Sure there is. And the fact that, in some ways, keeping up to date with search marketing best practices is like putting a puzzle together when the picture likes to change from time to time, makes it even more challenging.

Why are there so many Web Design and Search Engine Optimization myths on the internet? The following article exposes some of the most common SEO myths effecting web design and looks at the reasons why they have become widely accepted as the truth by many web designers and Webmasters.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex and diverse topic that’s both never constant and constantly changing. There are hundreds of myths about SEO, some were once true but no longer apply (outdated information), while others were simply never true to begin with (disinformation).

The large amount of different opinions and tactics used by both Web Designers and SEO Consultants (which can be completely contrasting) has also helped to create myths. Combine this with the large number of web forums and blogs that allow people to share their views, and you have the perfect environment for not only creating myths but for them to spread like a viral epidemic. Here are some of the most common myths explained.

Myth Name: Build it and they will come

Myth Description: The belief that a website will receive large quantities of targeted traffic as soon as it goes online.

Truth: The biggest myth I still come across most days is the aptly named “build it and they will come myth”. The cause of the myth is a combination of outdated information, a non realistic, over optimistic site owner or a lack of understanding of the web. Back in the old days of the internet you could “build a site and they would come”, just by submitting to the main search engines of the day (to a degree). This was largely due to the lack of web sites around at the time, meaning top positions were that much easier to secure.

Nowadays a site must be advertised just like any business. A good analogy is your site is shop and a search engine is a high-street. The only problem is your shop is not on the high-street, so some kind of sign is required to inform passers by where you are and what you do.

Myth Name: Search Engine Submission Myths

Myth Description: The belief that a website needs to submit every page to the search engines. The belief that regular or monthly submissions will result in better search engine rankings. The belief that a website needs to keep on submitting to search engines or they will forget about the site. The belief that if a website submits to thousands of search engines its traffic levels will go through the roof.

Truth: While some of these myths used to have a bit of truth to them, nowadays search engine submission is not required at all. The myths have been caused mainly by companies who provide submission services. This is because it’s financially in their interest for people to believe the myths are true.

It doesn’t hurt to submit to the major search engines but indexing can be achieved simply by getting links to a site (as long as the page where the link is on is known to the search engines).

There is also no point at all submitting to thousands of search engines. There are only a handful of search engines that people actually use. Many of the other search engines have been created to obtain the submitters email address which is then added to email lists (which spammers will pay money for).

Myth Name: Meta Tag Optimization

Myth Description: The belief that search engine optimization is just about Meta tags.

Truth: Meta tags used to be very important to rankings until search engines became more complex. While some Meta tags are still important like the description and title tags which most search engines will display on their results (so they can influence click through rates drastically). Most tags like the keyword tag are obsolete.

I believe the cause of this myth is twofold. One, because it’s outdated information (to a degree) and two, because people want to believe there’s a secret magic formula that only SEO’s know about. That way a lack of rankings is not their fault, plus it keeps the conspiracy theorists happy.

Myth Name: Ethical Search Engine Optimization

Myth Description: The belief that there are two types of SEO, black hat and white hat (the old good verses evil).

Truth: Quite simple this one but nearly always over looked. Any attempt to alter the search engines results and obtain more traffic is against most search engines guidelines. While there are tactics that may get you banned and others that may not or are not widely known about (yet), all of them are trying to influence the results and therefore are against the guidelines. SEO is neither black nor white, but many shades of grey. Just try to know what you’re doing and more importantly the associated risks.

Myth Name: Google’s PageRank (PR) is the most important aspect of a sites ability to rank

Myth Description: Self explanatory this one, the belief that PR is a god like entity we must all worship in order to obtain rankings.

Truth: It is widely believed by expert SEO’s and even been stated by Google Guy (a Google employee) that the PR we see on the toolbar is out of date as soon as we get to see it. Google update PR constantly but only update the toolbar PR now and then. PR is also only one part of a complex ranking system. How big a percentage it plays in rankings, only Google knows.

One thing for sure, it doesn’t matter how good your PR is on the toolbar, it’s not going to get you anymore traffic from Yahoo or MSN (you heard it here first).

There are many more web design myths about SEO, most of which can be spotted if you read between the lines and think about whether it would make sense for a search engine. One of the most important parts of SEO is finding a reliable source of information. If you want to learn more, a good place to start is one of the numerous SEO Forums on the web.