20 Most Prevailing Myths in SEO World

When it comes to Search engine optimization, there are plethoras of myths, rumors floating around.  This can be attributed with the fact that SEO holds much importance in running any website successfully. Hence, people always come up with their own opinions about the norms of search engines. However, most of these are baseless. Sometimes these myths also gain popularity and authority due to a search engine’s reluctance to discuss its algorithms. But the sad part is that it helps to further strengthen the myths floating around. This post aims at busting some of the most prevailing myths floating around in the world of SEO.

Myth1: Google is the one and only search engine

There is no doubt that Google is a stunningly popular and the largest search engine. However, it does not mean that there are no other search engines. In fact, there are many others and one should not ignore them. As a matter of fact, Bing has certainly occupied a fair percentage of the market. According to some people, of all the US searches, almost 30% are powered by Bing. This means that you should definitely concentrate on improving your SEO ranking on Google, but you should not, for any reason, ignore Bing and other search engines.

Myth2: A website needs to be submitted to Google

This myth has been around for quite a long while and is like a trap that makes website owners fall prey to SEO companies and web designers who offer to submit their website to Google. In return, these companies charge a hefty amount. The truth is- a website need not be submitted to Google. The site is automatically included in Google and this is absolutely free. For this to happen, a website should be ethically designed and should meet the standard norms set up by search engines. If your website adheres to these standards, Google itself finds and indexes your website.

Myth3: SEO of a site is something not to be worried about

You may find many people assuring you that you need not worry about the SEO of your site. They may convince you by saying that they themselves never cared about optimizing their site and are doing just fine. This is partially, if not completely false. There are certain brands that can get away easily without working on SEO. For every other website, SEO is as important as working hard to keep the business going. It is always better to try to comprehend how search engines work in order to gain a better understanding on how to improve the visibility of your website.

Myth4: A website can be optimized for search engines only once

Whoever told you this was either trying to fool you or take an undue advantage. The truth is that a website needs to be optimized on a fairly regular basis. If you do not optimize your site on a regular basis, you are only making things worse for yourself.

Myth5: An XML sitemap helps to boost your rankings

If you have been around in the online market for long, you must have heard from various blogs and forums that this is nothing but a myth. A sitemap only helps a search engine to know about the structure of your site and to increase the coverage of your web pages.

Myth6: A website’s ranking does not matter

If this was true, then almost every other site would have been registered on Google. Any experienced SEO will always advice you to focus on improving the ranking of your site. Good ranking means good search visibility, conversion rate and traffic.

Myth7: Following your competitors is a good strategy

It is never a smart move to replicate your close competitors. Any technique that works for others may not work for you. Every website has its own requirements. You can always learn from others’ mistakes but following their footsteps is certainly not a good idea.

Myth8: Meta data is not any good

Meta Data may be less important, but it certainly is not completely worthless. In fact, meta data is your chance to convince searchers to click through. It gives you a platform to engage visitors and stand out. Without meta data that includes title and description, your links may end up looking pretty ugly, as Google pulls in anything it finds, if the meta data is absent.

Myth9: SEO can be learned by reading up

If you encounter anyone saying that they have learned the tricks of SEO by reading up stuff, you better stay away from them. SEO requires training and hard work to master it.

Myth10: Google Adwords help/hurt your rankings

Advertising via Google adwords has no impact on your organic rankings. This myth has continued to float around despite Google reiterating that Google’s advertising programs are entirely independent of the unpaid search results.

Myth11: Google can never figure out what you’re up to

Google is a very advanced search engine having smart algorithms to deliver better results for users. Google is smart enough to recognize the pattern of link building. It can tell a natural link from a paid link. It can also identify the duplicate content.

Myth12: Keyword density works

Many people believe that keyword density is the best way to gain good SEO rankings. This strategy does not work any longer. These days, what works is to incorporate keywords naturally into your text.

Myth13: Having more content works in your favor

There was a time when churning out maximum content was an effective strategy. But with Google upgrading its yardstick, this strategy has become obsolete. Only that content should be published that adds value for the end user.

Myth14: Scraping is a content strategy

Scraping means taking the content from one site and republishing it on another. This should be avoided. Publishing other people’s original content on your own site will only result in getting your site flagged for spam.

Myth15: Great content is what rules

If it was only great content that pleased search engines, then every other website would rank well. Besides content, you also need to pay attention to other important aspects of your website

Myth16: There is an ideal wordcount

There really isn’t any specific wordcount requirement for SEO. Any piece of content too short or too long runs a risk of being incomplete and boring. Focus should be on producing the right content and not on wordcount.

Myth17: There is no difference between PageRank and Toolbar PageRank

Yet another myth is that both are different. Toolbar pagerank is actually a snapshot of internal pagerank data.

Myth18: It’s only pagerank that matters

Pagerank is in fact a very small part of your website’s performance and thus, is not the only thing that matters.

Myth19: It’s number of links that matters

It’s not just the quantity but also the quality that matters. Numbers of bad links are worthless as compared to few good and natural links.

Myth20: No follow means it’s not worth it

A no follow link tells search engines that you do not vouch for the website you are linking out to. This has created the myth that no follows are valueless. They are valuable. Most leading websites no-follow their links but the traffic and exposure opportunities alone make the link worthwhile.