Popular SEO Myths
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Search for the phrase “SEO myths” in Google (without quotes) and you’ll get 243,000 hits. With all the major search engines keeping their algorithms under lock and key, and making modifications without notice, it’s no wonder that false beliefs get perpetuated. It’s time to clear the air.
We published an article here on SEO Chat back in June 2007 about SEO myths. These things don’t seem to go away no matter how much you try to educate people. In fact, the search engines themselves contribute to their perpetuation in a sense. After all, they’re constantly tweaking their algorithms so the things that used to work simply don’t anymore – which leads to more myths when people stubbornly cling to old practices, or when a particular change makes it look like one thing is happening (i.e. a “Google 30” penalty) when the actual cause is something completely different.
Many myths come from wishful thinking. My favorite along those lines is a variation of “if I just do X, I’ll score high in the search engines.” And “X” can be anything from get enough links, submit your site to enough directories, get the magic amount of keyword density – you name it. The truth is that SEO is a process with no real shortcuts, and no ONE thing will guarantee you a top position in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Another form of “wishful thinking” myth states that “X is all-important,” where “X” can be PageRank, meta tags, or what have you. I won’t say that PageRank doesn’t matter; that’s another myth. But for most purposes it doesn’t. It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve. You can have a popular site and not have a PR of 10.
I expect this won’t be the last time we visit this topic. I’m including myths that are popular not only among practicing SEOs, but among some of the clients you might encounter. As you educate yourselves, you may also find that you need to educate your clients about actual SEO practices. The Ranked Hard comic strip that inspired this article makes that point very clearly. So without further ado, let’s bust some myths!
Next: SEO is Smoke and Mirrors >>
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