SEO Myths You Can Ignore

SEO has been around as long as there have been search engines, and with it, numerous myths have grown up around the practice. Unfortunately, many of these myths are still prevalent on the forums and blogs that share information on what will help your website rank higher on SERPs. Here are a few myths that you are safe to ignore:

Contents

1. There Is No Value In Nofollow Links
2. Your Search Engine Rankings Can Be Affected By Bounce Rates in Google Analytics
3. Your Primary Sites SEO Will Be Helped By Building a Support Site
4. Keyword Stuffing Is Essential to Good Rankings
5. SEO is Despised By Google
6. Search Engine Rankings Are Boosted With the Help of XML Sitemaps
7. Unless You Rank Number One, You Will Not Succeed

1. There Is No Value In Nofollow Links

Do you not think that you would find it odd if a website contained one thousand inbound links and not a single one was a nofollow link? Google would find it quite odd and a red flag would be raised. There is a lot of value in nofollow links.

2. Your Search Engine Rankings Can Be Affected By Bounce Rates in Google Analytics

A feeling of panic comes over business owners when they look into their Google Analytics and realize that their bounce rates are high. That panic is something which untrustworthy SEO agents take advantage of; they tell business owners that they must lower their bounce rates or their rankings among search engines will be affected. In all honesty, bounce rates will in no way affect the rankings they have with search engines, search engine results, crawling or indexing.

3. Your Primary Sites SEO Will Be Helped By Building a Support Site

This is untrue; this is a strategy that dates back to the onset of SEO. It is considered Black Hat SEO to build a microsite which is designed to create links which are inbound from one site to another. Google will probably realize that all of the websites are in fact owned by only one person. The author of the SEO Service eBook, Carlton Smith, explains in the book that ìSiloing your content on your primary website in a way which is user-friendly would probably be a smarter strategy.î

4. Keyword Stuffing Is Essential to Good Rankings

It will do you no good to stuff your content with the target search engine keywords. There was a time when a difference was made with search engine rankings when there was keyword density, which however was a very long time ago. Naturally using your keywords in the title tag, the body as well as the meta description is important, this way your content does not come across as spam.

5. SEO is Despised By Google

This is an absurd myth. However, Google does dislike Black Hat SEO, which is very manipulative. You may wonder how I know this; every newbie has been provided with a Search Engine Optimization Guide. Google does this to help keep beginners from taking the Black Hat route. Google goes as far as offering pointers on how to hire a trustworthy SEO practitioner as well as the ways in which you can accurately report an SEO company that you feel is being deceitful.

6. Search Engine Rankings Are Boosted With the Help of XML Sitemaps

Google’s SEO Starter Guides states that an XML sitemap will only make it simpler for Google to find the pages within your website. The guide explains ì Although not guaranteed, this is one way in which to inform Google of what type of URL is your preference as the canonical URL. It never mentions search rankings being boosted by XML sitemaps.

7. Unless You Rank Number One, You Will Not Succeed

I am sure you have received loads of emails in which you are promised that in under thirty days you will be ranked number one. Even if it is possible for a company to achieve this, does this mean that your goal, regardless of what it is will be achieved? Not Necessarily. What is your definition of success? What tools are you using to measure your real ROI? Have you captured leads? Were you satisfied with sales?

Author Profile

James Blackburn

James Blackburn is the president of Canada West Internet Marketing. He has been working with computers for close to thirty years, both in programming and in repair. He has been involved in website design & SEO for over ten of those years.