Dispelling Common Search Engine Optimization Myths

by Ryan Allis

Common Myth #1: Getting Listed = Success

You may have heard that being listed in the search engines is a very effective way of attracting potential clients and consumers to your website. This is only partially true. Simply being listed is not going to do much for you. Instead, your goal should be to be ranked in the top few listings on a number of specific and related keywords that you aim for. Having your web site listed by the search engines will do you no good if your site shows up close to or near the bottom in the results of the popular keywords you had wished to target.

This is not to say that submitting your web site to be "spidered" by the search engine crawlers is pointless. Close to every site with some content will, even if just by chance, show up in the top listings of one or more non popular searches, perhaps providing you with a few dozen to a few hundred consumers per month. So, if nothing else, I would surely recommend spending about ten minutes submitting your website to the search engines. However, do not think that just because you've submitted, you will have a chance to show up in the top rankings for the least popular keywords.

Common Myth #2: Proper Meta-tags are the Holy Grail

Many people assume meta-tags are the most important variable in reaching a top placement in the search engines. This could not be a more incorrect statement. Meta tags were once quite important in ranking algorithms, but even then criteria such as body copy and number of incoming links were much more important.

Recently, a number of search engine spiders dropped their support for meta-tags. In fact, the only major search provider that presently even takes meta-tags into consideration is Inktomi, which happens to be the provider for some of the rankings on the MSN search portal. Until this support is dropped, it will still be a good idea to have meta tags within your site. However, do not think that just by having meta tags on your page you will be guaranteed a top ranking for your targeted keywords.

Common Myth #3: You Must Submit Your Site to the Search Engines to Become Listed

Many people believe their site will never be listed unless they submit their site to the search engines. This is not true.

You see, search engines compile their data using software called spiders (also known as crawlers). Every minute of every day, these spiders visit websites and use their respective ranking algorithms to build the massive databases that the search engines use to rank a website for each keyword. Besides following the submitted list of sites to spider, the spiders follow the links on each website it visits. Therefore it is possible for a spider to find and index (the act of listing your site in its database so it will show up in search results) your website without ever submitting it to a search engine (putting your website in line to be spidered), assuming there are other sites linking to yours.

This is not to say it is a bad idea to submit to the search engines. For newer sites, this will ensure that your site is listed. My point is simply that you should not be fooled into paying someone to submit your site to the search engines before you have had a chance to ensure it is ready to be submitted.

Common Myth #4: You Must Pay a Submission Service to Submit Your Site to Search Engines

There are many companies that offer a website submission service. There is absolutely no reason to pay anything to use a service such as this. First of all, you can do this yourself for free. Second of all, using these services too early will do more harm than good.