7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO
*This is a guest post by Christopher Holland*
I recently signed up to a few business and SEO forums and was amazed at what people still recommend.
As there are so many people offering outdated or wrong tips and tricks on how to improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns, I thought I’d let you know of some of the biggest myths around.
Search engines are always changing their algorithms, and over the past decade things have changed dramatically. Due to complexity of this industry, and the rapid changes, this has led to the many believed SEO myths which I have listed below.
1) Submit your websites to search engines
I still hear about people submitting their website to Google and other search engines to get indexed and to “rank higher” – this just simply isn’t true anymore. It has been at least 5 years since this technique has been necessary and all you need to do is obtain a few backlinks and make sure your not blocking robots from crawling your website.
There are still hundreds and hundreds (probably thousands) of websites that either have lots of keywords spammed at the bottom of their website or within their content. This will do more harm than good, and it’s almost a certainty that you will get penalised and dropped from the results.
So instead of spamming, I recommend that you write great content targeted towards your visitors and to include your chosen keywords naturally (this should not be a problem as you should be targeting relevant keywords to the page).
3) Content length
A while ago, there was a big rumour that went around saying that you need to have a specific number of words in order to get indexed and to increase your position.
Your content should be as long as it needs to be to tell the reader exactly what you need to.
4) Keyword rich domain name
It is still widely believed that if you have keywords within your domain name like www.website-design-nbat-digital.co.uk, that it will improve your rankings. This is not true. Your domain should be short, contain your company name and most importantly be easy to remember.
Note from Ann: I actually still believe in this one 
(But not in spamming your domain with keywords though)
5) Meta Tags are no longer relevant
To an extent this is true, but there are still some uses for the META tags. First off, I’d like to say that the keywords tag is no longer used by the main search engines, and therefore does not need including, let alone optimising.
Now that’s out the way, let’s move onto the other main META tag – description. The description tag does not affect rankings in anyway, but it’s a chance for you to try and sell your company and to get a user to click on your website. If you can write a compelling ad that is about your product or service, then you could see your click through rates increase through the roof.
Finally, the title tag. This is the most important tag which highly contributes to your on page optimisation. You should include your main keyword as close to the beginning as you can and of course don’t fill it with unrelated keywords.
6) Pay Per Click will help or hurt your organic rankings
Running a Pay per click (PPC) campaign will not directly affect your organic rankings. However, by occupying two positions for the same keyword you give the user a choice, and while the PPC ad can be good for getting extra traffic, some of the PPC visitors will come from those who previously might have clicked on the organic listing.
7) NoFollow links are a waste of time
Anyone running a link building campaign should acquire both NoFollow and DoFollow links. Not only will this look far more natural but studies suggest that not all search engines pay attention to the NoFollow attribute and in fact value them the same as a DoFollow link.
This article was by Christopher Holland, who is a search engine marketer for nbat Digital – professional web design and search engine optimisation services. Follow us on twitter – @nbatdigital or take a look at our blog.
77 Responses to “7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO”
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rt @DanielUlczyk: +7 mitos sobre #SEO http://dailyseotip.com/7-widely-believed-myths-of-seo/619/
+7 mitos sobre #SEO http://dailyseotip.com/7-widely-believed-myths-of-seo/619/
RT @nicocoetzee: 7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO http://tinyurl.com/yk8r984
RT @nicocoetzee: 7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO http://tinyurl.com/yk8r984
7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO http://tinyurl.com/yk8r984 via @nicocoetzee
7 Widely Believed Myths Of #SEO http://tinyurl.com/yk8r984 ->> what do you guys think about this post?
7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO … http://dailyseotip.com/7-widely-believed-myths-of-seo/619/ #seo
7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO: http://dailyseotip.com/7-widely-believed-myths-of-seo/619/
7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO http://dailyseotip.com/7-widely-believed-myths-of-seo/619/
7 #SEO myths: http://bit.ly/aPUWZm – Clixmaster generates good code, so just PUBLISH RELEVANT CONTENT and use the Clixmaster SEO Quick Guide
7 widely believed myths of SEO: http://bit.ly/aPUWZm
7 Widely believed myths of SEO http://bit.ly/aPUWZm
RT @optimize1: Reading: 7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO http://bit.ly/aPUWZm
7 Widely believed myths of seo http://bit.ly/aPUWZm
Reading: 7 Widely Believed Myths Of SEO http://bit.ly/aPUWZm
@couponsdealsand Sorry – must have been a bit.ly problem. http://dailyseotip.com/7-widely-believed-myths-of-seo/619/
Like Ann, I still believe in a good keywordized domain name but I would definitely agree that the others are, in fact, simply myths. Nice piece.
Having keywords in your URL may not help directly in your rankings but if you provide good content and people copy and paste the url into a forum to share like http://dailyseotip.com you are going to get some anchor text benefit from it.
Nice list btw.
Facebook has made the meta description tag all the more important, but it’s also the description that often appears on google search. So many websites have this set to a default so at best it’s ignored, at worst it appends a useless and often irrelevant description to the site.
Although point 1 is largely redundant now, it still makes sense to check out things like google’s webmaster tools and google sitemap submission, although in the case of the latter I’ve heard complaints that it can harm your ranking. Although as with much of SEO it’s the try-everything-until-it-works approach.
Awesome post. And I agree with Anne’s comment. Keywords in a domain can help, especially when people link to you using your domain name, and you get keywords in the anchor text as a result. Even where there is no hyphen, I have seen some sites rank #1 for a search phrase despite having much less optimization and a much less advanced link profile than sites ranking below. This is generally in less competitive searches, such as city-specific terms.
Keywords in the URL can be helpful. Where I see this as a myth are the peole who try to switch domains from something that’s somewhat established, with links, to a new domain because it has keywords.
And, of course, the domains that require many hyphens to get the keyworded domain. If you have to try THAT hard, assume limited benefit – and hyphens are more trouble than they’re worth if you ever promote your site offline.
I am still unconvinced on taking meta keyword out all together. I have watched the video from Google etc. But from what I have seen from clients site, they do have value. I am not saying to change them regularly but do not take them out just because Google says so. Just did a quick check for “flat screen tv” and the number one search has keywords!
Toni Anicic Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:48 am
Yes, it also has blue link color, but that doesn’t mean blue link color is a ranking factor.
I use more competitive keywords like “web design services”, “graphic design” for PPC where it takes long time to rank organically for my website.
I agree with you that you can rank without a keyword rich domain name especially on Google. However it will make your life much much simpler if you are optimizing for Bing if you have a keyword rich domain name.
Thanks for this post. I’d like to see a list with “good tips” from you.
I’m going to go ahead and agree with Ann on #4
While it’s true that you can rank without having keywords in the domain name, it’s also true that a good “exact match domain” (the domain has the exact keywords you are targeting) does indeed improve rankings for the keywords that you are targeting.
I know this to be true from experience.
Eric Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Everybody’s saying they’re on Ann’s side on the #4 point, so I’ll just respond here to say I agree. In fact, I’m working for a client, and it’s frustrating to see a brand new site pop up above the client for a targeted keyword purely because of a domain name. They’ll rank ONLY for that keyword (and relevant phrases) until they do additional SEO, but it will definitely make an impact for that keyword.
If you have exact keywords in your domain, Google will highlight/bold them on the results page. This can make your site appear more authoritative to human eyes.
Gerald Weber Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 1:41 am
And it will improve rankings for the targeted keywords.
Jenny Stradling Reply:
March 5th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
I agree! And, look at the Bing results…. obviously Bing is giving keyword in domain strength, the top ten for most important terms all seem to include keyword rich domains….
The title tag is not a meta tag, it’s a title tag. I don’t believe I have ever heard an SEO proclaim that the title tag is not important.
I’m not so sure how widely believed these myths are. If they are “widely” believed, then there are a lot more idiot SEOs out there than I thought. Also, as mentioned by other commenters, keywords in the domain is not a myth. It’s “widely believed” to be a very strong ranking signal, and rightfully so.
As per Ann, and some of the other commenters here – I do believe that keyword domains aid in ranking – for a number of reasons.
Firstly it helps Google from getting into hot water with major corps. If they own a keyword domain. i.e. Nike.com – then someone else ranking for that doesn’t make sense. (This is a bad example, as Nike have tons of links – but you get the picture).
Essentially weight in the algo for a keyword in the domain brings corporations with little to no link juice or presence elsewhere to number one quicker. In many cases, and for smaller joe bloggs local businesses’ this is the case – and indeed should be.
Secondly, a secondary effect of having a keyword domain makes relevant link building much easier. how many times do you see links which look like this
www.companyname.com
www.companyname.com – a keyword domain in this instance, is an automatic win as the phrase is inserted in there.
They are also alot easier to build from social profiles etc. Just my two cents.
Agree with most of these but i think ‘keyword densities’ should be expanded – cousin keywords in related areas can earn you additional cross traffic, so the extent of keyword’s and cousin keywords is still important.
Nice piece and mostly agree. I think Ann is right on about keywords in domains. Spamming is pointless but utilizing a descriptive keyword phrase certainly can help. I also wonder about content length.While I definitely don’t believe in a “magic number” of words per page for rankings, I do believe that even though you may be able to tell the reader “exactly what you need to” in 1 sentence it’s usually worth adding a bit more than that to a page. I think that in general offering users the bare minimum of information is usually not a great policy.
Keyword rich domains help. FACT. Which is why when I enquired about buying seo.co.uk was I told 450K, oh and that’s sterling
I think a lot of the rules stand true on there own. But when factored into the bigger picture i think that things might be less cut and dry. Content length and Keyword rich domain names might not make a major impact in an a to b test, but as part of an overall picture I would be hesitant to discredit them.
It’s not always the myth that’s wrong. Sometimes it’s the discussion around it.
Myth 1: It’s not the submission that is the issue. Submit once is fine. Submit daily / monthly / weekly – that’s a problem.
Myth 2: The example quoted is keyword stuffing not keyword density. Keyword stuffing in all it’s form is bad. But trying to achieve a reasonable keyword density is good. The objective is to use the keywords in a realistic and reasonable way. Throw away the formula.
Myth 3: Meeting a specific content length is never a replacement for writing quality content. Well written and relevant content of any length will be appreciated by visitors (including search engines) to the site.
Myth 4: Keywords in the domain name can help the ranking for those keywords. Are those keywords more important than corporate brand? Every site has to make that decision for themselves.
Myth 5: Meta tags ARE relevant. Check the Accessibility requirements. Unfortunately, they may not have much impact on ranking, but that still doesn’t mean they won’t be used by the Search Engines. A unique meta description should be supplied for every page that is made available to the Search Engines. Many Search Engines use it as the default “snippet” for the page in the search results. IMHO Meta keyword should be included for accessibility compliance, but avoid the temption to stuff keywords unrelated to the page.
Myth 6: Agree that PPC has no bearing on organic results, but ignoring optimisation may increase your click price.
Myth 7: “NoFollow links are a waste of time” is not a very clear statement to me. Does it mean NoFollow ON MY SITE are a waste of time? Or does it mean exerting effort to acquire links from sites that only provide NoFollow links is a waste of time? The first option is part of the rank sculpting argument. I think the jury is still out on the value or otherwise of that issue. It does make sense to me to use a NoFollow link to pages unrelated to core business. Any discussion of the second option has to include the purpose of acquiring the link. If the one and only expected value is PR, then it may be hardly worth the effort. But if the the purpose behind the link is to increase traffic then there may be great value. All links from Twitter are NoFollow. Does mean that we should make the effort to get a link to our site from there?
A great discussion.
Ann Smarty Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Awesome comment. You need to submit your SEO tips to this site as well. I’ll be happy to publish them. Email me if interested.
I believe that if the on page SEO of your site is perfect than you need less effort to perform it’s off page SEO.
well. this your own private point of view. in my practice there are no ‘bad’ paints, thats all depends on your seo task. I use all paints of my palette.
RE: Myth #4 – I have seen keyword rich domains outrank other sites, even in competitive niches, so I would have to say there is merit to this theory (I wouldn’t say it is a myth).
re; Myth #6 – I can’t see PPC hurting a site, but it could be argued that the more exposure a site gets to visitors, it would increase the likelihood that it would be bookmarked and/or shared, which in a second hand way is beneficial from a viral and linking stand point.
I would argue #3… not that I think having 800 words vs. 200 words is going to help you rank better merely due to length of content, but it does give you the opportunity to:
a) add more semantically related keywords to the page including subheadings and sections
b) link into subpages multiple times while keeping the look and feel very natural
c) demonstrate expertise and keep your visitor on your page longer
Josh Reply:
March 5th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Definitely agree here. Yes, you can get your 30-word content page indexed and ranked, but there’s a better chance to show off your expertise and explain to both readers and search engines what your page is really about.
Enjoyed the post. Always looking for feedback regarding the keyword and content.
Nice post filled with great tips! It’s hard to break a bad habit, but important to teach an old dog new tricks! In other words, I agree that we need to leave these old practices behind, and move forward with what actually works for ranking today!
-Kristina, @ion_interactive
Getting nofollow links as an SEO task is a waste of time. You say 7 SEO myths yet saying that search engines pay attention to nofollow inbound link quantity is a huge myth. Search engines don´t have a counter for how many inbound dofollow and nofollow links you have and even if they did it would´t compute for rankings because it makes no sense. There is no logic behind it. You can have 100% dofollow links without spamming and you can have a nice mix of nofollow and dofollow and still be spamming. It´s obvious and logical.
but sitll keyword domains works better in google, like you have website about movies and your domain contain onlinemovie..com it will gett high rank in search…
One of the problems we face in SEO is the lack of full understanding of the search engine algorithms. This means that every “rule” we use is based on either:
- interpreting the webmaster guidelines published by Google
- inferring logic based on results we see.
The guidelines are deliciously vague about some things and our inferences are based on what we see and what we hear or read from colleagues and peers. In some cases these inferences are based on small sample sets and comparing results in different niches.
This leads us all to make definitive statements about things such as keywords in the domain name that are hard to prove.
Do I think keywords in domain name will help rank that keyword? Yes.
Can I prove it? No.
Do anecdotal stories of other sites success prove it? No. But in the absence of other observations that contradict this result I think it more likely true than not.
Do I know how much it will help? No. At best it is one factor among an uncertain number that influence the search engines.
Sometimes we take on a project where the domain has already been registered and the site operational for a period of time. If that situation confronts me, I cross this option of the list and move on to something else that I can influence.
For me the most fundamental of Google’s guidelines is “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.” This colours every decision I make when undertaking an SEO project. Without users what is the purpose of the website or the search engine?
@Chris I think that is one of the beauty of SEO. We don’t know exactly how it works, we need to keep on testing and trying. If we fully understood the algorithms SEO would be like practicing law. And it’s not without a reason I don’t do that
Like just about everyone above, I go with Ann on #4. There is no doubt keywords in the domain work, and have quite an influence. Being logical and memorable should always come first though. I sometimes go for companynamekeyword.com. That makes it much easier to find an available domain and helps a lot with ranking, whether it is for the company name or the most important keyword.
Regarding the discussion around the meta tags, I can’t understand why so many people throw out anything Matt Cutts says Google doesn’t value anymore. I’d like to remind people that there are other search engines. I still put 3-4 keywords into the keyword meta tag. Can hardly hurt, as long as I’m not stuffing it, and probably helps on many of the older local search engines, which are quite popular in some places. The use of the description has been explained.
I don’t think PPC helps for ranking. But it can come instead of ranking, when you’re in a hurry
And nofollow links are not a waste of time. Remember why we do SEO? To drive traffic. And if you can get traffic from a nofollow link …
Good discussion we’ve got here
Cheers
@hjortur
Domain name also useful for increasing Click Through Rate in AdWords so definitely worth investing in a domain name containing keywords in my opinion.
I don’t think having keywords in your domain name is a myth. I have noticed many times that a website will outrank a better one if the keywords are in the URL, hence my own URL www.torontoseofirm.com
Just make sure not to make it long and spammy for the purpose of ranking.
Very true article.
Search engine submission is just filth!! But people are still offering it in abundance. I guess it could help if you’re keen to be visible on the “1000+” search engines
helpful…
Keyword Rich domain name is another favorite. Along with “I should include as many keywords as possible in the text, right”?
Nice article, although i know for a fact if u have a new website and submit it to google it will be index within 7 days so it can still work for those who don’t know much about building back links.
Thanks for that advice. I do find that good content is really helpful, but the tricky thing is getting (or writing) consistently good enough content. Some posts get hits, others nothing.