subject: Three SEO Myths Proven Wrong [print this page] Many people also fall for another SEO fantasy, which is that they need to have a Google Sitemap. The Sitemap is merely one of the wide variety of tools Google puts at the disposal of webmasters. If your site has been constructed properly and is attractive to search engines then you will not require a Google Sitemap. While it won't harm your site, the benefits are limited to possibly getting your site indexed a little faster by the search engines. It will not influence your SERP ranking or have any effect on other SEO components.
Still another common SEO myth is that you cannot have tables in your HTML code. This too is a myth that has no basis in fact. In truth, search engine spiders have never had any difficulty finding HTML tables. The table code has never been a hurdle for the search engines when crawling. This false belief is often repeated by web developers who say that you can get higher rankings with tableless designs.
Overall, search engine optimization is all about using the best practices perfected over the years and implementing them on your website. The final answer in search engine optimization is research, both the practices of others and how the search engines operate.
