10 Common SEO Misconceptions Part 1

There are many strategies that SEOs still use today that are either outdated or just flat out constitute bad practice, and even some that could get a website removed from search engines.  Strategies that are used to spoof search engines and attempt to produce quick results unethically are categorized as Black Hat SEO. When constructing an SEO campaign, remember that results don’t occur overnight and that a large investment of time and long term commitment is involved.  Many times, people that are building and operating their own SEO campaign without a firm or consultant can be misled on what is good or bad practice. Below are some examples of bad practice or misconceptions and what you should do to correct them.

1) Masking text so that it hides in a website background

This tactic is a common practice for “keyword” stuffing.  For example, if I were to make the background color of my website black and then put keywords in my background with black text, this would make the text invisible to most users and attempt to trick search engines into indexing bogus content.  This practice is HIGHLY frowned upon and simply isn’t effective.  In fact, Google states that keyword stuffing can have negative impacts on search rankings.

2) The more meta-keywords, the better

Firstly, not all search engines even utilize the use of meta-keywords for better search rankings.  In fact, Yahoo is the only major search engine to still use the meta-keyword tag.  Bing doesn’t use it, and Google has made it more apparent that they do not utilize the tag either. For those, though, that would like to optimize for Yahoo, only use a few, specific keywords in your tags.  Typos and misspellings do not count, and they could have a negative impact.  Remember, it’s about quality, not quantity.

3) Content is King!

This is sort of true, but as we discussed in a previous post, content is nothing without good distribution.  You can have some of the best content in your field or niche, but if no one is reading it, what good does it do for you?

4) Google Ranks me higher if I use AdWords

While having an AdWord campaign is a good option for increasing traffic, it does not yield a better organic search ranking.  If you want better organic search results, consider some of the approaches outlined in this post, if they are realistic for your business model. The methods highlighted in that post are great ways to not only build links to your site, but to also increase traffic.

5) If SEO is all about linkbuilding, can’t I just buy services that do it for me?

Most services that promise to “builds links fast” are nothing more than link farms. Google and other search engines frown upon this greatly.  Reason being is that reputation and relevance also aid in search rankings.  Most link farms simply cross-link within their own network, or advocate reciprocal linking. Just remember, creativity and very useful forms of content has more potential of gaining popularity within your niche or community.

6) Content should be written for search engines

If you are currently using this strategy, then you have completely missed the point.  The entire purpose of SEO is to have good content for people in your niche markets.  Good content for search engines means that your writing is focused on a specific topic for discussion.  Good content for people is also focused and is conveyed in a unique matter.  Remember, digital word of mouth is much like analog word of mouth.  If people like your content, they will talk about it and share it with others.

7) SEO is a one time effort

SEO is a constant and ongoing process, and is a long term and indefinite commitment that requires a lot of patience and trial and error.  It may take months to begin to see progress from the fruits of your labors.  Once the process starts yielding positive results, it becomes an everlasting quest to keep up with the competition and researching what’s popular in your niche.  Before making the commitment, do some research in your target markets and evaluate how much time you want to spend.  if you feel the task is overbearing, then investigate the possibility of hiring someone to manage SEO for you.

8) The only search engine to optimize for is Google, since its the most used search engine

Remember, people still use Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines to find information.  Just because you don’t necessarily rank in the top 10 on Google in a certain keyword or phrase does not mean it’s a complete bust. You could be ranking higher in other search engines, so that means you’re still doing something right! Long story short, never optimize for only one search engine. Always keep options open.

9) Google Webmaster is only valuable to larger, enterprise level sites

I use Google Webmaster frequently to keep tabs on all of my sites, especially when links coming from my site are broken.  One of my favorite tools is the URL remover feature.  This feature will remove a URL from Google’s index that is no longer functional.  Users can also upload sitemaps in order to tell Google about pages on a site that might not otherwise be discovered. Google Webmaster is filled with a wide selection of other tools to aid in research for any SEO campaign, great or small.

10) There is only one common approach to SEO and obtaining results

This may seem like a copout on this list, but some people that are in the SEO industry believe that all clients who have SEO needs all require the same solution.  This is far from the truth because each campaign requires a lot of research in niche markets, analyzing competitors and their approaches, creating keyword and phrase campaigns, writing for said niche markets… the list keeps going on an on.  If you believe your current SEO isn’t providing enough for you, then you may want to look into other firms.

That about wraps up this post. As always, questions and comments are welcome. Take care!