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Top Ten SEO Myths
1) Myth: Most sites are optimized while they are being built.
Explanation: A small percentage of designers and
developers
actually optimize pages for the search engines while they
are building. Most search engine optimization is done after
the fact, if at all. As much as 60% of all sites are not
properly optimized to rank high in the search engines, so
anything you do to optimize your site puts it ahead of your
competitors who don't.
2) Myth: Simply putting keywords in the keyword meta tag will get the page
listed under that keyword.
Explanation: Most major search engines do not even spider
the keyword meta tag and those that do, if the keyword is
not also in the copy of the same page, it's considered spam
which could lower your rankings, not raise it.
3) Myth: Automated queries to a search engine can get your site
penalized or banned.
Explanation: Search engines cannot tell a program
generated query from a manual query. If they could, search
engine optimizers and marketers would be out of business.
4) Myth: The more times you repeat the keyword in the
page, the higher it will rank.
Explanation: This is a little tricky since each algorithm
uses different factors for ranking. A keyword density of 3 to 6% is recommended
for tweaking the page for higher placement (depending on the
individual search engine). Combined with other optimization efforts
and tweaks, the proper keyword density will get listed higher. A keyword density that
is too high will get listed lower or penalized.
5) Myth: Hidden links or text in a page can get your page ranked
higher.
Explanation: Keyword stuffing and hidden links in the
page can get your site penalized or banned if detected. It is considered
spamming by some engines. Most people think it's not worth
the risk.
6) Myth: The more reciprocal links to other sites you have, the higher your
Google page rank goes.
Explanation: Outbound links to related and unrelated
sites are factored into page rank. Reciprocated links count
higher than unreciprocated links. The more quality inbound
links to your site, the higher the PR, but nobody knows
exactly how Google factors their PR and their algorithm is
constantly adjusted. A gazillion links to and from unrelated
sites could drop your PR and if your site is found linking to
obvious FFA
or link farms, your site could be penalized as being 'guilty
by association'.
7) Myth: You don't need to update your site to keep
your rankings.
Explanation: By routine maintenance (removing outdated
material, fixing broken links, queries, etc.) and updating your pages
regularly, you are signaling the bots and crawlers to come
back and re-crawl your site for changes to their listings.
To maintain high standings, you need to keep at it and tweak
the pages for better results if necessary. If neglected,
your standings could easily slip out of the top rankings as
new competing sites get indexed and optimized.
8) Myth: You don't need a robots.txt file and sitemap
for your site.
Explanation: The first thing bots look for is a robots.txt file to tell them if they are allowed to index
the domain and what areas are excluded from crawling. If a
sitemap is provided, they will follow every link on it--otherwise
parts of your site or pages may not be completely indexed.
Put them in the root directory of your domain and link to
the sitemap from your main page. It's
good spider food for every site.
9) Myth: Search engines cannot index pages with Flash
and using
Flash in your page will lower it's ranking.
Explanation: This is a big myth. Search engines cannot index a Flash
movie
itself,
but, if you specify Flash text (in the HTML) used in the
movie, the text in the movie along with the rest of the page
HTML will
be indexed. Flash does nothing to keep the page
from being properly indexed, nor does it keep your page from
being crawled. Search engines don't like pages that
re-direct, including Flash pages that do it automatically.
It's the auto-redirect, not the Flash file that keeps a
splash page from being ranked.
10) Myth: You can get higher rankings on any keyword
without changing the code or content of the pages in your
site.
Explanation: Not likely for long. Any elevated results
will be temporary. If you want to steadily
improve your ranking, you must make changes to your site
that help the search engines spider it. You might
temporarily raise your ranking by running regular queries
and reports on search engines for your keywords but steady
results are dependent on your willingness to optimize and
tweak the code and content of your pages. A simple thing
like fixing broken links can contribute to elevating your
listings. It's one of the most overlooked search engine
tweaks. Search engines will not continue to spider a site
when it runs into a number of broken links.
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