In this article, I'm going to try and debunk a few myths floating around the Internet about what's required to
get your site visible in search engines. Here goes:
Myth 1 - You need to buy a domain with keywords in it
I'm sure you've seen them, domains like: www.paris-hilton-pink-diamond-dog-collars.com. For some weird reason,
webmasters seem to think that they need to have a keyword-stuffed domain to do well in the search engines, the
more hyphens the better. Well it just isn't true.
In fact, Google spam evangelist Matt Cutts is known for warning against using over-stuffed keyword domains.
If you have a look at one of the last sentences of this
post of his he talks about possibly attracting Google's attention with keyword-filled domains and gives
an (excessive) example. Could he be hinting that using ultra-keyworded domains may trip a filter of some
kind? I think so.
Myth 2 - You need to submit your site to 1000 search engines and directories
Ok, I don't know who started this silly rumor but it's NEVER been true.
Latest figures from Nielsen/NetRatings
show that over 95% of the search market share is dominated by the top 5 search engines: Google, Yahoo,
MSN/Live Search, AOL and Ask. As long as your site is found in these engines, you can rest assured you've
covered the main bases. Despite this, I still get emails offering to submit my sites to the "most popular"
1000 search engines.
Myth 3 - You need to stuff keywords into as many areas of your site as possible
I like to think this rumor was started by the same idiot who started 1). It's correct that search engines
actively seek to match your site content with search queries, but stuffing the same keywords over and over
into your site code via visible or invisible text DOES NOT automatically make your site relevant for searches
containing those keywords. It's more likely to trip spam filters and earn your site a ranking suppression. In
fact, you might as well hold up a big red flag to Googlebot that says "COME AND GET ME".
Myth 4 - Your site has to be flat HTML
Wrong again. A few years ago, search engines had difficulty indexing sites that were built using
dynamically-generated pages or pages with multiple parameters in their URLs. So the recommendation by
SEO experts at the time was to use flat HTML pages or convert existing pages into HTML and/or use
mod_rewrite to convert dynamic URLs into flat ones. However the search engines have all become better
at indexing dynamic site content now and also provide a universal
sitemap protocol to enable webmasters to ensure all their pages are submitted and indexed.
Myth 5 - You have to swap links with as many sites as possible
I'd like to strap whoever started this story to a couch and make them watch re-runs of The Golden Girls for a
whole year. Because this is probably the most persistent and frustrating myth there is about search engine
marketing and it's one of my pet peeves. I am bombarded daily with emails from webmasters who tell me it's
"...extremely valuable to swap links to boost your Google PageRank" or who tell me I should form 3 way reciprocal
link partnerships because it "...will help boost the link popularity of our sites in a way that is undetectable to
Google". Excuse my French, but that's Bollocks!
Reciprocal links are pretty much worthless for search engine value these days. In-bound one way links from
high quality sites are much more valuable from a search engine relevancy perspective. If you are going to
seek out reciprocal links, for heaven's sake, swap links with sites that offer related or complementary
content to yours! What's the point offering your site visitors a link if it doesn't relate to what they are
seeking on your own site? Don't seek out links based on perceived search engine value. Swap links because
they offer traffic to your site or valuable resources to visitors of your own site. If you base your linking
strategy on search engines alone, you'll end up with a Free For All link farm that search engine staff will
mock as they slap a ranking penalty on it.
Myth 6 - You have to buy an existing domain to be successful
This myth started shortly after Google began "sandboxing" new sites for a period of time before releasing them
into the main index. The phenomenon became known as the aging
delay. Webmasters were stumped when they couldn't find their pages listed for any keywords in Google for months
at a time and when learning of the sandbox effect, some decided that purchasing an existing domain could help
them avoid the sandbox altogether.
A similar rumor suggested that purchasing a domain with a high Google PageRank would automatically transfer
the PageRank and traffic to any new site built on the existing domain. Neither of these assumptions is true.
Hindsight has shown us that the sandbox does
not actually exist, merely that Google has become a little more picky about which sites to feature in
their main index versus the supplemental index and older, better linked sites have a better chance than brand
new ones with no link reputation.
As for purchasing existing domains, this can actually backfire on webmasters because Google's latest algorithm
looks closely at domain registration details and if a domain has changed hands too many times or has had dodgy
content in the past, it could attract suppression filters until the newest version of the site has built up
some trust-rank.
Myth 7 - You only need to optimize your META Tags
Back in 1996 when I first began optimizing web sites, nobody knew anything about SEO and so even slight changes
to a web site meant you could outrank your competitors. Simply optimizing the title tag of a page could bring on
a Top 5 position in the SERPS. Adding keyword-rich META Description and META Keywords tags too pretty much
guaranteed you a top spot. Now it's a completely different story. Most search engines don't even support the
META Keywords Tag anymore and Danny Sullivan recently
determined that Google's never supported it.
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You have to offer search engines more than optimized title and META tags if you want your pages ranked highly
for related search queries. You need to optimize the copy on your pages, reduce code bloat, provide a logical
navigation structure, have good link popularity, update your site regularly, have sticky content and make sure
your site code validates, amongst other things. Despite this, many webmasters assume that if they add an
optimized title and META tag to every page, their job is done. Not so! You've got to think bigger than that.
Myth 8 - Any traffic is good traffic
I received an email recently from an online ad agency that had developed what they thought was a knockout SEO
tool that they wanted me to review. It was basically a membership site designed to generate traffic via a voting
and points system where you earn points for visiting sites and receiving visitors from the same network. As I
explained to them, the concept merely builds false traffic and fake link popularity, which goes against practically
everything in Google's webmaster guidelines. It is also very open to manipulation and is, in my opinion, operating
on flawed logic.
This mutual optimization idea has been tried before. It doesn't work because it only attracts the most aggressive
clickers and the whole thing turns into a competition between 2 or 3 lazy webmasters who think traffic at any
cost/quality is the way to run an online business. It's not. Unqualified traffic that's unlikely to convert to
sales or sign-ups is only wasting valuable bandwidth and hosting resources. Visitors that disappear from your site
a few seconds after they arrive skew your site metrics and send a message to search engines that your site is not
worth visiting. You want traffic from qualified leads, loyal repeat visitors and new visitors via highly targeted
search queries.
Myth 9 - If you're not found in Google, you're screwed
I said it recently and I'll say it again: Google is NOT the Internet. There are plenty of ways to market your web
site online, so you shouldn't become discouraged if you can't seem to crack good results in Google. I know of plenty
of sites that receive more referrals from Yahoo and MSN than Google and that's the way they like it.
Bento Yum is proof that an e-commerce site doesn't need Google (or any of
the 4 main search engines) to survive. Owner Jennifer Laycock has deliberately blocked search engine robots from
the site to prove that an online business can
thrive via word of mouth and social media buzz alone.
But even if you can't live without Google referrals, you need to have back-up traffic channels in place. Never rely
too heavily on a single source for your traffic. What if something happened tomorrow that stopped all your Google
traffic? Would your site survive? It should, if you're doing your job well. Keep adding good content to your site,
update and submit your sitemaps regularly, seek out high quality back links and the traffic will come.
Myth 10 - Search Engine Marketing is expensive
Not so. You can market a web site on a shoe-string budget or no budget at all! You don't need to spend thousands
on SEO services or PPC advertising. Simply invest at least an hour per day learning how to optimize your web site
for better search engine rankings, submitting it to relevant search engines and directories, adding fresh content,
building up backward links and marketing it via social media networks such as Digg, Facebook, Del.icio.us etc.
Not sure where to start? Visit webmaster forums, read search marketing related blogs and sign up for related
newsletters and you will soon learn everything you need to know about marketing your web site successfully.
About The Author
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known
and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily
Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages
Search Engine College - an online training institution offering
instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search
Engine Marketing subjects.
