5 Common Search Engine Optimization Myths: Debunking The Fallacies

Welcome back!

There’s a lot of misinformation online regarding what works in search engine optimization. To be fair, much of it is found on sites that haven’t been updated in years. We’ll give them a pass. But a startling level of bad info is posted on marketing blogs and sites even today. Worse, these fallacies travel and somehow gain traction without any statistical support.

Let’s address some of these SEO myths below. It’s worth noting the following list merely scratches the surface.  

#1 – “Keyword Density Is Everything”

Keyword density is important for ranking. By sprinkling your keywords throughout a page’s content, you’re helping the search engines identify your page’s topic. But keywords haven’t been “everything” since the 2003 Florida Update. Yet, I continue to run across pages that deliberately push a keyword density as high as 5%. There is no better way to say, “Hey Google. I’m trying to game your algorithm.”

Pull back the throttle on your density. There are far more important factors for SEO (hint: links).

Please read “Tips on how to get Backlinks to your site”

#2 – “Frequently Updating Your Site Improves Your Rankings”

This fallacy is understandable. A lot of people mistake crawl frequency with ranking. So, they update their sites over and over, hoping their search positions improve. Let me clarify.

The more often you update your site, the more frequently your pages will be crawled by the search engines’ spiders. This helps ensure your site is properly indexed in the engines. However, there is little proof that the frequency of your updates translates into higher rankings. The organic algorithms may indeed take frequency into account, but I have yet to see data that conclusively supports this notion.

#3 – “Search Rankings Only Come With Time”

Here’s one of the worst-kept secrets in search positioning: you can buy your way into the top ranks. I’m not suggesting you write a check to Google. Instead, you can enjoy quicker rankings by purchasing aged sites. These sites tend to have aged links pointing to them. With Google – and increasingly with Yahoo and Bing – age equals authority. Authoritative sites rank higher than non-authoritative sites.

As you can imagine, using this strategy isn’t cheap. There are a lot of folks buying these sites under the radar, which drives up bid prices. But if you have the budget and want to rank quickly, this is the way to do it.

#4 – “You Can’t Outrank The Authority Sites”

Have you ever researched a niche in Google and seen Wikipedia.org, About.com, WebMD.com, or other authority sites ranking at the top? It’s easy to throw your hands up and think there’s no chance you can outrank them.

Wrong. You can.

Those sites – and their individual pages – rank because of their authority. Their authority comes from a number of factors, but two of the most important are domain age and links. Unless you’re going to buy an aged domain, there’s little you can do regarding the first factor. But there’s plenty you can do to trump their incoming links. In many niches, the top-ranking authority sites are positioned as the result of a small portfolio of links. If you can build a similar portfolio, you can compete.

It’s important to manage your expectations. You’re unlikely to have much luck outranking CNN.com for “news.” But can you climb to the top listings for “discount golf putters?” Maybe.

#5 – “No-Follow Tags Are A Waste Of Time”

This depends on how you use the tags. First, there’s plenty of evidence that no-follow tags are actually followed by Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The tag’s name is a misnomer. The purpose of the tag is to tell the search engines to avoid giving authority to the linked page. That way, a blogger or site owner can link out without “voting” for the page to which the link points. This leads to a second issue…

Because a no-follow tag passes zero authority to the linked page, it can be used to “sculpt” Pagerank. By using no-follow tags when linking to your “copyright,” “about us,” and “privacy” pages, you can avoid sending authority to those pages. As a result, you conserve the “link juice” inherent in the linking page. Pagerank sculpting is a complicated issue and we’ll revisit it in the future. For now, it’s enough to know that no-follow tags can be put to good use.

Click here for information on How to pass link juice with in your site.

There are dozens of SEO myths that point folks in the wrong directions. The five above are some of the most pervasive. I’ll return with a few more in a future post.

P.S. Take all things into consideration when you start building your rankings and don’t believe all the hype when it comes to this or that.  Google loves great content and links keep it that way and you will do  good.

Wanna learn more about link-building to build your page rank Read my Review of  5000 Backlinks

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Seo optimization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.