Popular knowledge states that a person needs to hear something 7 times before they remember it. I think a lot of people can remember something after hearing it once, but perhaps they need to hear it 7 times before they really believe it and put their new knowledge into practice.
On the flip side, a person needs to hear something much more often than 7 times to unlearn something they’ve already learned. Or believe.
All I need to do to improve my search rankings is optimize my meta tags
I get this request a lot from potential clients who desire quick SEO improvements without much financial investment. While I have no problem optimizing meta info for a client, I can’t bring myself to do that without first bursting a few bubbles.
Yes, it is possible to elevate your search rankings simply by editing your meta tags. But don’t count on skyrocketing to the top, because it’s highly unlikely to happen. Usually you might see an improvement of a few spots at most, and this depends a lot on other factors not related to your meta tags.
Stuffing the meta keywords tag
I run across this all the time when performing SEO audits of websites. I see the client’s site uses the meta keywords tag, and the list of keywords is a mile long. And when I bring this up with the client, they invariably tell me that “someone” told them doing that was good for SEO.
I not only want to tip this sacred cow over, I want to bury it into the ground. Meta keywords are a complete waste of time. In the past this was a way to improve your search rankings, but damn few search engines pay any attention to this meta tag anymore. The big three search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) have all stated that the keywords tag is not used at all in their ranking algorithm.
So unless you’re trying to optimize your website for an obscure search engine that nobody is using to find your website, then go ahead and keep optimizing that keywords tag. Otherwise, skip the keywords tag and save your time and energy for ranking factors that actually matter.
WordPress is great for SEO
I hear this one a lot. And while WordPress is my platform of choice for 99% of what I do, this statement is false.
WordPress, the blogging software, has very little to do with SEO. You could argue and say that the permalink structure and privacy settings affect SEO, but that’s it. The real power in SEO from WordPress comes from the theme you’re using.
A lot of WordPress themes claim to be “SEO optimized”, but that has quickly turned into a meaningless tag in the theme market. From what I’ve seen, I would only classify a few stock or premium themes that could truthfully carry the “SEO optimized” tag. And the pinnacle of SEO optimization in a WordPress theme can only come from a carefully customized theme, or through some in-depth hacking of a premium theme like Thesis or Genesis.
SEO is dead
This statement usually comes from some pundit on the web, usually after news of recent search engine algorithm change. Local search and social media tend to be the main instigators of this statement.
Guess what? SEO isn’t dead, and it’s not going to be dead for a long time. As long as search engines exist there will be a need for SEO. SEO is not methods and techniques that are set in stone; good SEO experts pattern their methodologies alongside the evolution in search engine algorithms. If your SEO strategy is still stuck in 2002, then yes, SEO is probably dead for you. But if your SEO strategy changes to accommodate the never ending search landscape, then SEO is alive and well.
SEO is about getting high rankings
A good part of SEO is about positioning a website or webpage to rank as high as possible for certain keywords. But there’s a whole lot more going on if you want the best results from your efforts.
You can rank #1 for several top keywords, and you could be raking in a ton of visitors from those keywords. But what are you doing with this? If this traffic is not being converted into something beneficial to your business, then your high rankings are worthless. You need to be thinking about what you or your business wants from SEO. All your search traffic is wasted if you don’t have a plan implemented to turn this traffic into something that improves your business, not just your website.
So-and-so’s website did this and improved their SEO rankings. If I do the same, I will experience the same results.
Maybe you noticed that some other website did some SEO work and their rankings improved. You decide that if you do the same thing as them you will experience the same results. It sounds logical.
But it’s not necessarily going to happen. Every website is different, every industry is different. There are hundreds of website factors that are assessed when search engines decide where to rank them for any keyword or phrase. What works for them will not necessarily work for you. Sure, you can try out their techniques and see what happens, but don’t be too disappointed if no positive changes occur after copying their SEO plan.
I just tipped 6 sacred cows of SEO that you may have held to be true. How do you feel about that? Are you going to rethink your SEO strategy, or am I just an internet kook who doesn’t have a clue of what’s really going on?
