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8 SEO Myths Debunked
By Jill Whalen (c) 2010
One of my favorite pastimes is debunking SEO myths – and there
are many! I could probably come up with 100 SEO-related ideas
or actions that people think are helpful, but which in reality
won't provide them with more targeted traffic to their websites.
Here are some of the more prevalent myths I hear and see bandied
about in SEO articles, at SEO conferences, in SEO blogs and on
SEO forums:
SEO Myth #1: You Need Special Search Engine Pages.
While it's not as prevalent as it used to be, we still get
calls from companies who want us to create some sort of "SEO
landing pages." While landing pages often make sense for paid
search campaigns such as Google AdWords, they're unnecessary
for organic SEO campaigns. Well, I shouldn't say that they're
unnecessary – it's just that your SEO landing pages shouldn't
be something outside of your site. They should already exist as
an integral part of it. If those aren't currently bringing you
search engine traffic, it doesn't mean you need to add new
pages, it means you have to optimize your existing ones better.
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SEO Myth #2: You Need to Optimize for Just One Keyword Phrase Per Page.
Many, many SEOs and businesses believe that you should optimize
each page of your site for just one keyword phrase. Their
thinking is that you will keep a strong focus on that one
keyword phrase. The problem with this is, first, it's very
difficult if not impossible to write a page in a natural manner
while you're trying to focus on just one keyword phrase. And
second, it's a waste of a good page!
Why optimize for just one keyword phrase when you can optimize
it for 3 or even 5 keyword phrases? The more keyword phrases you
optimize a page for (within reason), the more targeted search
engine traffic you will receive. If you look at your web
analytics right now, you'll typically see that each page of
your site is already bringing in traffic from various forms of
numerous keyword phrases. It's not only okay to optimize for
more than one phrase, but in my opinion it's critical to your
website and to search engine success.
SEO Myth #3: You Can't Use Tables in Your HTML Code.
This one makes me want to scream. HTML tables have been easily
spiderable by search engines since the search engines were newly
hatched. As far as I know, table code has never been anything
that choked the search engines. I think this myth was propagated
by website developers who advocate tableless designs to make you
think you'll somehow get better rankings out of their designs.
You won't.
SEO Myth #4: You Must Use Text Links, not Image Links.
Nope. Like tables, the search engines have been able to follow
and index image links since their very early days. You certainly
don't have to ruin a beautiful website design that uses images
for the primary navigation because you think it's better for
SEO. Just be sure to use the same words you'd use in your
anchor text links in your image alt attribute text (alt tags),
and you'll be good to go for the search engines.
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SEO Myth #5: You Can't Use Flash on Your Website.
Yes, you can! While I don't recommend that you create your
entire website in Flash, using bits of Flash here and there for
some cool effects will not bother or choke the search engines in
the least. They don't punish, penalize or otherwise nuke into
oblivion sites that have Flash on them. You should of course
avoid putting important content into your Flash elements, and
also remember that some mobile devices such as the iPhone and
iPad don't support Flash. But if you add alternative text for
non-Flash-enabled browsers, all should be well.
SEO Myth #6: Google's Link: Operator Tells You All the Links that Google Knows About.
No, no, and double no! Typing link:www.yoursite.com into
Google's search box often won't even show you any links, let
alone all of your links. And when it does show you some,
they're usually not the best ones. Don't even bother to use
this command because it is useless at best. While there are some
helpful tools that can find some backward links, there is no
foolproof method for finding out about all the links that point
to your site or to your competitors' sites. The good news is,
just because you can't find them all doesn't mean they don't
exist. Keep making a great site and getting the word out about
it, and you'll keep building up your link profile, whether or
not you can generate an accurate list of them.
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SEO Myth #7: Toolbar PageRank = Real PageRank.
Most people who've learned a bit about SEO have seen Google's
PageRank toolbar graph at one point or another. It supposedly
shows the importance in Google's eyes of any given URL.
Unfortunately, it's not even close to an accurate
representation of any page's importance to Google.
That said, don't let that fact lull you into thinking that
PageRank – that is, the real PageRank that Google, Inc. knows
about your website – is not important. It's extremely important
in how your site will perform in the search results for your
targeted keyword phrases; there's just no way for you to truly
know exactly what it is.
SEO Myth #8: Google or other organizations can certify SEO
companies or declare them the Best/Top SEO in the world.
Despite what some SEO companies would like you to believe, there
is no such thing as an SEO certification. No organization
currently exists that can certify that any company is qualified
to perform search engine optimization services. There are no
definitive tests that an SEO company can take to prove that they
are qualified, and there are no courses that, when passed, will
prove that a company can do SEO. Yes, there are courses people
can take that will provide them with a certificate of completion
for that course, but don't ever believe that a certificate of
that sort has any real meaning beyond the completion of the
course.
There are also lists and directories of SEO companies who pay a
fee for the honor of being labeled the "#1 SEO company!" If
you are ever in the market for SEO services, don't let those
fake paid-for awards trick you into thinking that the SEO
company must be good or the best. While it's possible they may
be a perfectly fine company, they may not be. Paying for a
"best" label doesn't magically make a company any good. It
just means they are willing to spend the money it takes to
purchase the label. Much to the surprise of unwitting SEO
clients, award sites are not actual rating or ranking SEO
companies based on any skill sets.
Have you fallen for any of these SEO myths before?
About The Author
Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings and co-founder of SEMNE, has been performing
SEO services since 1995. Jill
is the host of the High Rankings Advisor
newsletter and the High Rankings SEO forum.
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