B i g g e s t M y t h s

i n s e OThe SEO world changes almost daily. New algorithms, guidelines,

and tools are introduced so quickly, it’s enough to give even the

most experienced of SEOs whiplash. This constantly evolving

search landscape is rife with rumors and myths – and here are 14

of the biggest culprits that are infesting SEO today.

Top 14

Meta tag keywords help provide data to search engines about a

webpage, and back in the day, were actually used by some search

engines as ranking factors. But are they still used today? No. In fact,

Google’s Matt Cutts has made it publicly known that “Google does not

use the keywords meta tag in web ranking.”

Meta tag keywords

improve rankings.

14Search engines don’t

follow “nofollow”

links.

Search engine spiders use links to “crawl” the web for indexing;

however, some links will pass PageRank and anchor text (if they

have the “dofollow” attribute) while others will not (if they have the

“nofollow” attribute). However, “nofollow” links are still followed by

search engine spiders for indexing purposes.13Some SEO conspiracy theorists like to believe this myth; however,

in reality Google’s ranking algorithm is nothing more than a math

problem. A highly complex one, but a math problem nonetheless

that does not factor in your advertising spend.

Being a Google

AdWords advertiser

helps your organic

rankings.12#1

When it comes to your search rankings, links are like votes of

popularity in the high school of SEO. However, some class clowns have

tried to game the system by building a large quantity of links. Google,

however, views this as “link spam” and its Penguin algorithm update

combats this. In addition, not all links are created equal – some pass

more PageRank than others. Therefore, it’s better to have a handful of

quality inbound links than a large quantity of not-so-cool links.

Quantity of inbound

links is more

important than

quality of inbound

links.

11Buying exact match domains for your top keyword (i.e.

“crossovervehicles.com”) actually used to work for a little while – until

spammers started buying them up for the sole purpose of serving

ads. Now, you can no longer get strong rankings solely based on your

domain name – you have to fulfill other ranking requirements, too

(200+ of them!).

Exact match domains

rank higher.

10While anchor text may not be as important as it was in the past due

to link spam, it’s certainly not dead and is still an important factor for

ranking.

Anchor text is dead.

9In July 2013, it was announced by Google that links in press releases

were considered “paid” links and therefore, part of a “link scheme.” This

sent waves of panic through the industry, as many thought they would

now be penalized by Google for putting links in their press releases.

However, this proved to be not true: while Google says that links in

press releases should be “nofollow,” they have also gone on record

saying they have “identified ‘a lot’ of the top Press Release sites and

ignores the links but doesn’t penalize those who are using them.”

Links in press releases

are bad.

8Writers and marketers guest blog for a multitude of reasons – not

just to build links. And Google realizes this, so they aren’t going to

penalize your website because you contribute a guest post to a few

blogs periodically. However, like many things, it should be done in

moderation and in a non-spammy way (like not using overly-optimized

anchor text links or keyword-stuffing your posts).

Guest blogging is bad.

7Studies have indeed shown that there is high correlation between

social activity (like Facebook Likes and shares, and Google +1s) and

high search rankings. But correlation does not equal causation, nor

does Google actually use data from Facebook or Google+ to determine

rankings.

Social signals are the

key to SEO.

6AuthorRank is a way that Google will rank authored content by an

author in search results based on their authority on a particular topic.

However, the Authorship rich snippet does not currently have a very

wide adoption (only 3.5% of Fortune 100 companies have adopted it) –

which is required before AuthorRank can even be rolled out.

AuthorRank is here

today.

5XML sitemaps help search engines to find and index your content

quicker and more efficiently. But, while they are a best practice, they

won’t help you get higher rankings.

XML sitemaps help

your rankings.4Schema markup helps search engines to better understand your

content, such as whether it’s a video, or a recipe, or other type of

content. However, according to Google, it will not improve your

rankings.

Schema is a ranking

factor.

3Hummingbird is Google’s new search engine algorithm that is based

on semantic searches – for instance, mobile searches that ask

questions (“Where is the best place to get pizza?”). When it was rolled

out, the SEO community waited with bated breath for the expected

impact on search results – but that impact never happened. In fact,

the change was hardly noticeable.

Hummingbird is a

game changer.

2Every time a major shift to the SEO landscape happens, someone

proclaims “SEO is dead!” from the mountaintops. The truth is, SEO is

just a constantly changing tactic and industry. In fact, the only constant

– in life and SEO – is change. So SEO is not dead, it’s just evolved to be a

part of everything we do as marketers.

SEO is dead.

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