Debunking Organic SEO Myths – Throwing Out Some of the Trash

Search engine optimization, or SEO, has been used ever since individuals and companies began to compete for position and ranking.

If a website can display the right image and earn the right reputation, you’ll see a company or a consultant taking appointments about three months out. And how about that initial rush when you discover you’re Page One, Position one? That’s ‘short term.’ Because as fast as a website climbed the mountain, it can fall out of favor even faster with a fickle buying market and an always changing search engine algorithm. In order to gain some permanence; to reach that elusive consistency in an always changing industry, you have to have both a grip AND an constantly evolving understanding of the madness/methods that are SEO rules in disguise.

The Little White Lies That Wouldn’t Die

There are still plenty of ‘old-schooler’ SEO’s and SEM’s who will believe until their last breath that you should submit your URL’s to the major search engines. There are plenty of firms that continue to receive thousands of $29.95 a month payments from individuals and companies that also believe in this myth.

Once upon a time, this plan of action actually accomplished something positive. FACT: Today, submitting websites, pages or blogs simply does not generate increased search engine rankings. Some consultants or optimizers require and/or suggest you get a Google Sitemap. FACT: If your website or blog was built correctly from the start, or is crawler-friendly now, you do not need a Google Sitemap. A sitemap can be an added bonus, but there are other online tools that can help you rank even better.

Another tool-of-the-trade for getting better page rankings included updating your web site frequently. FACT: Updating your website or blog a lot can boost the search engines’ crawl rates, but your rankings will not change. If your web site provides quality information and can be navigated easily by humans, you do not have to keep changing your content with a goal of getting better search engine rankings.

Advertisements and Affiliates

MYTH: PPC ads can affect your search engine ranking. Far too many site owners actually believe that running Google AdWords can affect their organic rankings and cause their site to go down (or up) in the SERPS. While PPC ads and having lots of affiliates can help you stay visible to your target market through other web sites, that approach does not immediately lead to better page results.

Banning Myths

Think carefully. Who do you personally know that has had a site banned by one of the major search engines? It is a myth that your web site will be banned if you buy links. Search engines do not find too much wrong with buying advertising on other web sites, despite what you may have heard. An even bigger myth involves is that your web site will be banned for ignoring a search engines guidelines. The guidelines actually help you to understand how and what it takes to rank higher. And you still need to be careful not to use the methods that the search engines truly despise. If you are “Black Hatting” it with your SEO techniques, you can be penalized. Still, banning of sites requires negative feedback- a lot of it and from different sources at different times.

Another myth is that words in the meta keyword tag must be incorporated on the same page. It’s true that you can improve the visibility of your site by using the right meta tags and keywords in the title, but don’t force or overstuff your content with keywords you hope to rank under. To stay visible, a much better use of your time is to invest in secondary and tertiary terms.

Finally, there simply aren’t any rules as to how many words must be on a page for better search engine rankings. Some say that to effectively SEO page content it must be at least 250 words long. A better rule is to use just enough words in your content to sufficiently communicate your information. Optimize your content for 3 to 5 keyphrases or keywords and you’ll be just fine. Get to the point in your articles, passing on the message of you or company with each and every one.

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