Over the years many techniques have been developed to help website owners take advantage of the traffic benefits a properly implemented search engine optimization campaign can offer. If you do a quick search of Google on the topic of search engine optimization you will find a seemingly never ending library of information. Now some of this information is valuable and some is not.
So how is the average non-SEO marketer supposed to tell the difference between fact and fiction?
Even the most seasoned Internet marketer knows that it is a constant battle to keep up with what the engines are doing to rank sites. What works and is acceptable strategy today could get you banned tomorrow. To make matters worse, if you read through the tens of thousands of pages on SEO, you will find well meaning sites still championing once valid techniques as "must do SEO".
Let's take a look at two of the most popular SEO myths so you will be better prepared when developing or evaluating your search engine optimization campaign.
Myth: The most important element of a successful SEO campaign are the meta tags .
Most search engines ignore meta tags as part of their ranking algorithm. In the early days webmasters abused the meta tags by stuffing them with keywords that may or may not have been related to their site. It didn't take long before the search engines caught on and simply ignored these tags.
Meta tags do have a role though. The meta description tag specifically, is a primary source the engines will use as the description for your page when they display your listing to a user. A properly formatted and optimized description tag could mean the difference between the engine taking random text from your page as your description and your well crafted marketing message reaching your audience.
The debate still rages on with respect to the meta keyword tag. Google has said that they DO NOT consider them in anyway. Regardless of what side of the debate you wish to support consider this point.
If you only care about Google, then maybe you can forget about the keyword tag. However, since most people want their site listed in as many places as possible you should utilize the keyword meta tag to help other sites that do read them categorize your site. The worst thing that can happen is that it will force you to focus the content of each page. This is a great way to make your pages more relevant not only to the search engines but to the reader.
Myth: Content, any kind of content, will get you rankings quickly.
While having content on your site is still one of the keys to SEO success - having any kind of content is not the answer. Having relevant and valuable content is.
If you take a moment and consider what the search engines do for a living, the content question will become quite clear. Search engines are in the business of helping people find what they are looking for on the Internet. When a user performs a search for something like "left-handed golf clubs", the last thing they want see in the returned results is a listing for Bob's Barbeque Pit (unless of course Bob sells left-handed golf clubs).
If the results returned by the users query are irrelevant to what they are looking for it won't be long before that user goes somewhere else to search again. The last thing the search engine wants.
Over the years search engines have learned to determine what a page is about by analyzing many factors including the content. The more focused and relevant your page is to a certain topic or keyword, the better the opportunity you'll have to be ranked high when a user starts looking for you or your product.
SEO isn't rocket science. There's no secret sauce and no magic bullet. It takes time and hard work. But the results and be tremendous when done properly.
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