The myths around SEO

There are lots of myths surrounding search engine optimisation. These myths can make it hard for website owners to effectively market their websites, especially if they are beginners. Thankfully it is easy to learn the difference between the myths and the facts.

Here are four of the most popular search engine optimisation myths.

The Search Engine Submission Form is Important
When search engine optimisation first became popular in the 1990s, search engine submission was an essential part of how search engines ranked websites. Because of this, website owners had to submit a form including the website, the pages and the keywords to the bots. After the sites were submitted, bots would crawl through the information and index it. However spammers quickly infiltrated the system, and so now search engine submission is no longer required – nor is it important!

Meta Tags are Important
Meta tags, much like search engine submission forms, are no longer as useful as they once were. Meta keyword tags were once an essential part of SEO ranking, and website owners just had to include the keywords on their site for it to appear in a search query later on. However, the process was quickly used by spammers, and now all major search engines don’t believe meta tags are as important when it comes to ranking. However, other tags (such as the meta description tag, the alt image tag and the title tag) are still used by search engines to rank your website.

Paid Search Will Increase Organic Results
One of the most popular search engine optimisation myths is that paid search (such as pay per click advertising) will help to increase your website’s organic results. Thankfully there is no evidence that paid advertising helps to boost organic search results. In fact, most of the major search engines specifically try to prevent this behaviour as it is likely that it would make the results less relevant and more likely to include spam.

Using Lots of Keywords is Beneficial
Lots of websites use an excessive number of keywords as they believe that it will help to boost their search engine ranking. For instance, a website that sells ice cream in Manchester may include sentences such as “Buy cheap ice cream in Manchester here. All of the delicious, cheap ice cream in Manchester that you could ever need. Click here to browse cheap ice cream in Manchester”. The myth that keyword density affects search engine relevancy still persists, even though it has been disproved on multiple occasions by some of the major search engine. For this reason, it is important to avoid using too many keywords on your website. It is much better to have other websites link to your website than it is to include excessive keywords – and other websites won’t link to you if your content seems spammy and repetitive!