Basics on SEO and SEO myths

Here is an SEO article recently published on the Free blog platform at MyTypes.com:

10 SEO myths and 10 net net answers — short and sweet

SEO Myth #1 - SEO is about secret tacticspeople that are in the know about SEO can tell you, there are no secret tactics in SEO, but they may not tell you all their methods the reality of doing SEO well is to cover your basics. using the information that your analytics provides you is a nice place to start. Start with your home page and work your way through out your site. Looking for SEO basics also look at Google’s Guidelines.

SEO Myth #2 - SEO means only optimizing for GoogleWhile we all know that google has most of the search traffic on the web, we shouldn’t forget about MSN, Yahoo, and niche/vertical search engines.how would one do that? CONTENT!! optimize your content for the audience you are intending to read it use the phrases key terms and catch phrases that your audience would use. these things are in addition to creating search engine friendly site.

SEO Myth #3 - Submitting your site to thousands of directories will help your rankingsWhile directory submissions can help your site rank better, be picky. Choose directories that are established, and are relevant to your site. doing directory submissions on a large scale can hurt your SEO efforts. here are some guidelines to use:

1) Quantity of inbound links

2) Quality of inbound links

3) Age of domain

4) Topical relevancy to your site

5) Human-edited is better than automated because editorial control tends to lend itself to quality

6) How frequently the directory gets crawled (check the Google cache)

7) The directory itself ranks in the search engines — this can be a sign of authority and can drive click through traffic

8.) Are their links direct, static links or are they redirected to your site?

SEO Myth #4 - SEO is free While SEO is not pay per click there are upfront and on going costs associated with SEO.possible costs include, SEO consultant, programmer, designer, link campaign and Most importantly YOUR TIMEdon’t forget about what your time costs to SEO your site your self. whether you hire out or do it your self SEO does cost. make sure your getting a good ROI by tracking your rankings, traffic, brand awareness, etc.

SEO Myth #5 - Keywords need to appear everywhereIn the past SEO protocol for ranking in a keyword called for the Keywords to be everywhere in the content. This is not true anymore because of relevancy algorithms. Google’s relevancy algorithm now favors more natural writing style. typically it’s not natural to have the same keyword appear in your page content 30 times all linked to your site. but it would be natural to add in modifiers to your keywords for example if you are tying to rank for the term “credit card” you might modify it in the following: “compare credit cards online”, or “apply for a credit card today” and then link these terms in your content in addition to your specific keyword. also try mixing in plural versions of your keywords. This strategy will help your site not to get filtered out and will broaden your reach to be found on multiple search terms.

SEO Myth #6 - SEO is a one-time event for a companyThe nature of SEO is a changing landscape, search algorithms, competitors, the current market “buzzes” are some of the things that you have to contend with. SEO consists of one-time and on-going efforts. Some of your one-time SEO efforts could entail keyword research, website structure and layout. On-going SEO efforts may include analysis of sites effectiveness, link campaign strategy, page editing and optimization. After you’ve set your site up to be search engine friendly make sure you are tracking your SEO efforts and adjusting them to create the best ROI.SEO Myth #7 - SEO will take years to return resultsThis not true, and SEO campaign could return some results within 30-90 days and lets qualify that statement. Results could mean moving up just a few spots in the rankings or even just showing up on page 100 for the intended search term when you were no where to be found. use common sense If someone tells you i’ll take years to get you ranked, get another opinion.

SEO Myth #8 - Page rank is the critical measure of a site’s successpage rank is 1 of 200 indicators that Google uses in search. while it does carry weight, if you are only focusing on page rank you are missing the boat, more importantly focus on your sites tools and content to being relevant to particular search terms you would like to be found for.

SEO Myth #9 - Accessibility doesn’t really mattercreating accessible webpages should be a forethought when creating a site. If googlebot and users cannot access your site because it is too slow or too much multimedia then the best SEO will not help. consider a user browsing from an iphone, can they use your flash navigation? nope. or the business user that is on the go and connects through a low bandwidth to make a purchase. If a site can’t be seen or loaded properly then no actions can take place. some best practices are:

1) make the bulk of your content and navigation text with multimedia dispersed throughout

2) test your page in mobile and a text base browser such as lynx, more details can be found on the google webmasterblog. check out these two links. Best uses of flash and a search engine spiders view of web 2.0

SEO Myth #10 - Google has an adversarial relationship with webmasters and publishersGoogle has done a great job with their webmasters central blog to help webmasters and publishers make the most of their sites. take a look and Webmaster Central, and take advantage of support from google.This was a summary of Michael Estrin’s article 10 SEO myths debunked from imediaconnection.com**sponsored by Rent Expert.com’s VRBO system, People Search and background check services by Peoplefinders.com, and website design St. Louis and web design St. Louis.Do something good for the enviroment, Air Purifiers @ greenisbetter.org. If you are interested in learning more about Internet Marketing, SEO, and the power of blogs, don’t be afraid to buy our Marketing book, and definitely create a blog on our free blog platform at MyTypes.com main page.