The 5 biggest SEO Myths Debunked

by Burke Ferguson

Search Engine Optimization or SEO, has a bit of a reputation for having a lot of hype or scams associated with it.

Why?

Well, particularly because people want the results of what the service does, which is rank your website very high and in prominent ranks within the search engines.

The following are the most common scams within the SEO industry, the amounts within the titles can be any amount, so I have inserted an "X" to signify the numbers.

Ok,...

SEO Myth #1 -- "If You Build It, They Will Come..."

Did you see the movie "Field of Dreams"? Well, this is very much like it.

You develop a site or pay someone to develop one for you. And after its all finished, you tell all your friends to go look at it.

However there's only one problem, the only ones that have looked at it are your friends who you told to go look at it.

Heck, its on the World Wide Web, the whole world should see it. Right? Wrong.

Having a website, doesn't simply "automatically" alert everyone to go see it. People don't just start "showing up" on your site, just because it is YOUR website.

If you want to have visitors to your website (and, hopefully, you do), you have to take ACTION and do things for it to happen. a.k.a Advertise. You have to get the word out, about your site.

And if done correctly Search Engine Optimization will position your website correctly on the search engines under the your appropriate keywords and people will come.

SEO Myth #2 -- "Get A Guaranteed #1 Position In XX days/weeks..."

This has got to be one of the worst claims ever, and the most used scam with the engines of all time. I'm sure you've seen it titled this way or a variation thereof.

See, the engines constantly change and alter their "rules" or "algorithms" to which and how they rank websites. So, constantly having a site ranked #1 is almost impossible, as we don't know how or when these rules will change.

But the twist to this Myth is that getting a #1 position is easy, however, it's usually only for keywords that will not do you any good, or keywords that people are not searching for.

So, whats the good of having a #1 rank for keywords that no one searches for? There isn't one. For those unaware it's like; "WOW #1 in the search engines!!", however, it's not bringing you any traffic, since it is a very UNcommon keyword phrase.

Being #1 with very common searched for keywords and phrases is what SEO is all about. And this is where the fierce competition in the search engines are.

SEO Myth #3 -- "Submit To X,XXX Search Engines..."

Now, this may sound good at first, but the search engines that your site are submitted to, no one knows about or knows anything about them. So what good are the submissions?

And as above they won't bring you any traffic, as no one knows about them.

Most or all of these search engines are too obscure and are "unknowns", and they aren't being used much, if at all. So, adding your website to a directory or search engine database of some 45,000,000 web pages or more, is no good.

And good luck in trying to find your listing, it would be like looking for a pebble in the ocean.

Most of these search engines are called FFA, free for all, websites and used almost exclusively to sell space.

SEO Myth #4 -- "Email To XXX,XXX People..."

I'm sure you have received junk email in your inbox, commonly known as SPAM, or "Unsolicited Commercial Email", or UCE, is what this myth's all about.

A company promises to promote your website in an email that will be sent to "10 MILLION people", or some ridiculous number like that.

However there's only one problem - People hate getting your email and won't read it!

These services or individuals simply send, more like, blast your ad to a list of some XX,000,000 email addresses they have been "wrongfully collected". Collection of these mails are commonly called "harvested" from the internet without the owners permission.

So, don't waste your time, and I strongly urge you not use these companies or services, as your reputation could be severly damaged.

On the other hand, done properly, email marketing can be very rewarding. How?

Reputable email marketers use true "opt-in" email lists which can result in a very positive sales boost. An opt-in list are when people legitimately sign-up onto your list or the Reputable companies list, which your email will be sent out too.

So, email marketing DOES work, if done correctly!!

SEO Myth #5 -- "XX,000,000 Guaranteed Hits For Only $39.95,..."

With this one, a company registers or inserts your ad onto their network of sites and your ad then is displayed on a pop-up or pop- under ad inside their network.

So, for example, your ad may be about how to write an ebook that's popping up on a site about...oh I don't know,... on a sex site! That's the relationship,... there isn't one!!

But here is another problem.

Your website legitimately appears in a window that pops up underneath the main browser window, now if someone has a pop-up blocker, your ad will be blocked or ignored and therefore never seen!

Just for your interest sake, approx. 2/3 of all pop-ups are now blocked, and this number is growing more and more as more people get and are aware of anti-popup software.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO, is an acquired skill there is no doubt about it. There are several reputable and honest courses and places online to which you can take courses to develop and learn the skills needed to place your sites high in the engines. And just like with other products and services online there are people that set out to down right deceive and scam other people on purpose, for an easy buck.

I of course cannot watch over you, my subscribers, although it is my aim, which I try my best at, to educate and assist my subscribers in anyway I can to help them online, to make them aware of these "people", (to put it nicely).

So,.. about all I can say now is, research any company you intend to deal with online,... and if it sounds to good to be true, it usually and probably is and, therefore run as fast as possible in the other direction. :)

About the Author

Burke holds both a BSc. degree in Computer Science as well Certification in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Strategies. He regularly publishes The ACE! ezine newsletter, in which he shares his experience, methods, and knowledge with others. Burke can be contacted by his main website

AltaCanWeb.com or at

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