The search engine optimization (SEO) world is always changing due to Google’s algorithm updates, and many Internet marketers and SEO’s seem to be lost in terms of what they should and should not be focusing on in order to acquire higher rankings. If you’re one of these people, trust me, you’re not alone.
Over the past couple years, Google has put forth significant efforts and updates to it’s ranking algorithm called PageRank. These algorithm updates are implemented to improve Google’s search engine results, and are many times aimed at diminishing web spam, which is good from a user standpoint. However, for some SEO’s, these algorithm updates have caused more harm than good. A lot of the old-school tactics that used to work simply don’t anymore and aren’t even considered in Google’s algorithm.
4 fallacies about SEO that you should consider:
The More Links, the Better
Wrong. In Google’s most recent updates (Panda & Penguin), they’ve made it clear that quality comes before quantity. Having thousands of low quality, exact match anchor text backlinks won’t do you any good. In fact, Google now sees those links as spammy and will penalize you for having them in your in-bound link profile.
Don’t get me wrong. Link building is still important, but take your time with it. Don’t use automated software, such as SEnuke. Try to get links from sites that are relevant to your industry–and focus on contextual link building. A review about your company’s product/service that contains a contextual link to your website is much more productive than a culprit footer or sidebar link.
High PageRank = High Rankings
False. Just because your website has a high PageRank doesn’t mean you’re going to outrank your competitors in the SERP’S (search engine results pages). It’s great to have a high PageRank, but it doesn’t mean high rankings for everything. You’ll still need to make sure your website’s content is revolved around the keywords in which you wish to rank well for. Make sure that your on-page factors are optimized for your targeted keywords.
Meta Keywords are Important
Nope. Don’t even bother with them. Meta keywords used to be very effective in acquiring high rankings (6+ years ago), but Google scrapped this notion a long time ago. Matt Cutts, Google’s web spam honcho, said the following in regards to meta keywords:
“Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag in our scoring at all. It’s just a waste of time to throw a lot of phrases into the keywords meta tag. It would be a better use of your effort to do things like speed up your website, because that can directly improve the usability of your site even independently of SEO.“
There ya have it. Don’t waste your time with meta keywords.
Keyword-Rich Domains Help Rankings
Again, this is no longer true. As a matter of fact, about two weeks ago Google announced an EMD update that cracks down on low-quality, exact-match domains. If you’re trying to rank well for “green widgets”, don’t register a domain called greenwidgets dot com. It will do more harm than good.
