subject: 5 Myths About SEO That Just Never Seem To Go Away [print this page] 5 Myths About SEO That Just Never Seem To Go Away
Let's get right down to the point herewith a topic like SEO that is very often misunderstood, it's easy for myths and falsehoods to become commonly believed. Here is a look at a few of the more common SEO myths that simply have no basis of truth to them (and the explanation why)
SEO Myth #1:
The Google PageRank that you see within the Google Toolbar's PageRank indicator means everything to how a site is ranked in the search engines. This one simply can't be true. Some sites that show a zero PageRank score have a way of outranking even some of the higher ranked sites. Although there's no way to know for sure, it's very likely that Google uses a separate internal ranking score for search placement purposes.
SEO Myth #2:
Getting ranked well for SEO is all about writing with a specific keyword density percentage. Not true at all. Maybe ten years ago, doing this might have helped by tricking the search enginesbut today, their algorithms are much more intelligent. Instead of keyword density, web writers should focus on creating quality content that's useful, helpful, and relevant to the site's visitors.
SEO Myth #3:
Using WordPress to power a site is not good for SEO. Actually, this one works both ways. Although you may have heard that using popular blog/CMS software like WordPress is bad for a site's search engine presence, this is really only true if it's set up incorrectly. The software alone really doesn't help or hurt SEO by itselfit's how it's used and configured that makes the difference.
SEO Myth #4:
Linking out to other sites from my web pages will hurt my link popularity score. The only time this is actually true is if you're running a link farm for the sole purpose of tricking the search engines. Otherwise, the occasional natural and relevant outgoing link that helps a visitor is a good thing. In fact, not having links, or blocking them all from passing link popularity through the noFollow tag, can actually be seen as unnatural and manipulative by the search engines. After all, it's normal to have links on your site.
SEO Myth #5:
I received an email guaranteeing top search engine placement resultshow does this work? This doesn't work. It's that simple. Despite all of the myths floating around out there that might suggest that guaranteeing top search results is really possible, there is no real way to guarantee it. The person making a promise to help you achieve a specific ranking is either trying to pull a fast one or is willing to give it shot under the conditions of their guaranteejust be sure to read the fine print first to get the full story.
That's it for this installmentstay tuned for part 2!
