Popular SEO Myths - SEO is All About Links, or Keywords
(Page 3 of 4 )
I hinted at this myth in the beginning. Links are important, but how do you get those links in the first place? If you’re using link farms, exchanging links with sites that aren’t relevant, or engaging in other shady link practices, you won’t get the results you expect. In going for a huge quantity of links, it’s possible to forget that quality is very important. Many SEO experts say that a lower number of quality links will get you a higher ranking than a larger number of crappy links.
There are other myths that can be formatted this way. SEO company 2Disc.com notes a variation that says “SEO mainly consists of submission to (many) search engines.” There may have been a time when submission to search engines made sense; that time is long past. Even when it did make sense, it certainly didn’t mean that you would be instantly rewarded with a top position in the SERPs.
The opposite of the link myth says that SEO is all about keywords. To be specific, there’s a myth that says all you have to do is insert keywords in the meta tag to list your site for those words. Well, a lot of people started stuffing keywords into this tag, and the major search engines quickly became wise to this trick. So they don’t spider or index that meta tag anymore. In other words, don’t even bother with it.
Another keyword myth has to do with keyword density. One variation of this says that the more times you repeat a particular keyword on your page, the higher you will rank for that keyword. That is not true. Once you get past a certain level of keyword density, the search engines will read your page as being “spammy” and you may actually rank lower instead. Talk about getting the opposite of your desired result!
Another variation on the same myth, which I mentioned in the first section of this article, says that achieving a particular keyword density will give you a high placement in the search engines for that keyword. I suspect this isn’t entirely a myth; the problem is that I’ve seen too many different variations on what the “sweet percentage” is for keyword density. I’m halfway convinced that no one knows what the optimal percentage is. I have a suspicion that it might actually be different for different groups of keywords, but I can’t prove it. My advice is to make sure your content is relevant to your site’s theme and topic, and let the keywords fall where they may.
There is one place you shouldn’t let them fall, however: in hidden text for the eyes of the search engine alone. This is an example of keyword stuffing, and it may have worked at one time, but it can get you penalized now. Just say no.
Next: The Importance of Updating >>
More Search Optimization Articles
More By Terri Wells
/ 10 
