The Top 10 SEO Myths for 2011
The last five years or so have been boon years for both SEO specialists and Internet marketers alike. However, because SEO and web marketing services are in such demand there are now too many “professionals” who know very little about how search engines work. This in turn has given rise to plenty of SEO myths. Here are the top 10 for 2011, ranked in ascending order according to prevalence.
10. Submitting your site to search engines increases your ranking.
In the old days this might have been true, but no longer. Search engines like Google use web crawling technology that continually scans the Internet to find and rank pages. It will find your site even if it’s not submitted.
9. You need meta-tags.
First of all, search engines no longer look for meta-tags so you’re wasting your time with them. Secondly, meta-tags were originally designed to add key words that were not included in the content. By its very nature SEO eliminates the need for meta- tags.
8. With the optimal length of content is 250 words.
There is no optimal length for content when it comes to SEO practices. You only need to make sure you have an appropriate ratio between keywords and length.
7. Regular updates are necessary for high ranking.
Again, in the old days this may have been true, but some of the highest ranked sites on the web today haven’t been updated in years. Web crawlers look for relevance; avoid updating unless you’re adding quality, relevant content.
6. You can always be #1 for all your keywords.
Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous Web marketers promising to make you #1 for all your chosen keywords. With billions of pages across the Internet that claim is impossible to fullfil – just forget it.
5. You need a site map.
An XML site map might be useful for Google Tools but it has absolutely no bearing on your page ranking. A well structured site doesn’t need an XML site map anyway.
4. Flash is always bad.
While it’s true that Flash is irrelevant in terms of how search engines deal with SEO, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Flash only hurt your rankings if your site is all Flash with very little SEO content.
3. Google is the main priority.
It may be true that Google is the world’s most popular search engine, but it’s not the only one. A good SEO specialist knows how to optimize for a half-dozen different search engines.
2. Content doesn’t matter.
Unfortunately, many believe that content doesn’t matter as long as people visit your site. But if content is lousy to the point that readers aren’t reading it, how will they ever find your links? Content is king if you want loyal return customers.
1. Page rank determines success.
This is the most widespread myth in SEO, and it’s been so for decades. While page rank is important, most important is building a site which meets consumer needs. That means functionality, information, ease-of-use, and relevance.
Myths provided by SEO specialist Tom, working with Nomination charms uk and mortgage protection insurance businesses.
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28 Responses to “The Top 10 SEO Myths for 2011”
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Great tips, especially about ranking #1 for keywords. That is something I struggle to explain to clients every day.
Thank you for this article. Always appreciate a wise myth buster.
I’m a little surprised at some of these. While it’s true that SEO has evolved dramatically over the years, some of the best practices still apply – and shouldn’t be discounted.
We still include meta tags because of the chance that the page description may be used in the serps. A well-composed meta description can still influence searcher decision.
Site maps are still important as the engines still look for web components such as Site Map, Privacy Policy and Terms on a website as part of their algorithm.
We still aim for a good number of words on each page – 250 or more – because anything less makes it challenging to maintain the right ration of keywords to content.
Otherwise – good post!
Rebecca Slosberg Reply:
May 23rd, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Louise,
Thank you for posting that comment. I knew a lot of those myths to be the case, maybe not as extreme as they are stated, but I always advice my clients that you should put in the titles tags and meta data and submit site maps. Even if they aren’t ranked as highly in the new algorithm, they are till good practice.
Arnie Reply:
May 23rd, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Louise,
I agreed with you right up until you said “good post”. About 50% of the information is just wrong or misleading at best, so can’t qualify as a good post. Sorry but this is just not content worthy of Daily SEO Tip.
Ashley Bryan Reply:
May 25th, 2011 at 1:34 am
Have to agree with Arnie. Some clunker statements in this list. Back to SEO school for the author.
Great breakdown for all those new “SEO specialists” , I’ve been working on placement for customers since the Yahoo era and nothing makes me laugh more than those pitching #1 ranks and meta keyword stuffing!
Great posting ..
as an affiliate marketer, i need this for starter …
Thanks
I particular like that you said that content ain’t dead.
I have always seen content at the mail part – it should be so logically. Why should you rank, if you don’t have content and doesn’t present any value to the users?
While I definitely agree with some of these (ranking #1, page rank, and some others), I have an issue with #9. As mentioned by Louise and Rebecca, although meta tags (especially meta keywords) may not contribute to the ranking of a website, the meta title and description are still important when it comes to click through from the SERPs.
If you want to argue that this wasn’t the point of the post, then you would have to rewrite your argument for #2 (which I agree with). An SEO campaign should focus more on conversion metrics than pure traffic.
This is a really lame list, the average advice here makes me want to unsubscribe DailySEOTip out of my RSS reader.
Search engines don’t look for meta tags?!
Have an approporiate “ratio” between keywords and length of content?!
Dont bother with an XML sitemap?!
“optimize for a half-dozen different search engines”?! – (Please let me know the top SIX search engines you’d spend time optimising for)
Seriously WTF.
Sorry “Tom” who wrote this article, half this list is junk. At least you got to seed a couple of links to your mortgage insurance and charms sites though. Thats more important than giving proper SEO advice.
Really nice and valuable post, but I don’t totally agree with point #5. You need a site map.
I think XML Sitemaps are created to be submitted directly to search engines, providing them with the exact contents of your website.
And the value of having an On-Page Sitemap is that it acts as a starting point where Search Engine spiders can quickly crawl pages while the distance from the home page is kept short.
i whole heartedly agree…stuffing meta tags is really not advisable.i knew how i used to stuff 15-20 meta tags when i started to blog…now i hardly use them…..
page rank well people still believe in page rank..it gives them a feel good factor lol….
I am a bit disappointed too. Good “click appealing” title post though.
well. your info is schocking. But i do agree with point 2. Because with good content we will have alot of loyal visiters to our sites.
Why don’t you include the #11 SEO it self is a myth?
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the natural search results and all webmasters needed to do was submit the address of a URL, all these content is play big role of SEO.
“9. You need meta-tags.
First of all, search engines no longer look for meta-tags so you’re wasting your time with them. Secondly, meta-tags were originally designed to add key words that were not included in the content. By its very nature SEO eliminates the need for meta- tags.”
I think this statement could be slightly misleading. I understand that the meta keywords tag has no bearing with the major search engines these days, but that’s not to say that the tag is completely redundant – I’ve worked on a few CMS’ that still use it for internal search (and quite well, too!).
Did DST get hacked? This is a very low quality list that I would not expect to come from you guys.
Meta tags no-longer needed? – crap.
Insinuation of a keyword/content length ratio – crap.
XML sitemaps not needed? – crap.
For almost every one of these you were close to hitting on a good subject, but your descriptions were off the mark.
I agree with many of the other posters that half the list isn’t correct. You may not need meta keywords tag but including the meta description and a title tag is definitely good practice.
The part about Google as a main priority being a myth made me laugh. Yeah, why would you make the site that refers 85% of the traffic on the Internet a priority?
Also, XML sitemaps might not be important to smaller sites that have 50 or fewer pages but they’re critical to making sure content gets crawled on large sites (several hundred pages).
Awesome, you have definitely busted some SEO myths!
Nice and excellent tips. Thanks for share.
@Rmercader what is your take on #9 in the 2011 #seo Myths post? http://dailyseotip.com/the-top-10-seo-myths-for-2011/1557/
Here it is, it is now 2011 and people are still more concerned about optimizing their website for search engines rather than for people. If you optimize your site for people Google and Bing will do most of your SEO for you.
Your tips are number one..!!!
Greate tips = Great blog like yours..!!
Hey, Tom! I knew about the PR myth, as it has become more common knowledge even among the newbies like me. But the others are less familiar to me, thanks a lot for sharing!
Well somethings are missleading. Sitemap is a must
Very important tips are presented here to get good results for an SEO. Thank you so much for sharing this post.