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Top 10 Search Engine Myths
- Categorized in: Search Engine Ranking
There are so many myths out there surrounding search engines and how to rank higher in the results, that we thought we'd publish some of the more common ones.
- MYTH: Submitting your site to the search engines is the way to get listed
FACT: Most search engines will find your site themselves, and submitting has no impact whatsoever on your search engine rankings - MYTH: It is important to have your keywords written in the Meta Keywords section of your code.
FACT: Almost all search engines now ignore the Meta Keywords tag - MYTH: Stuffing my code or webpage with keywords will make me rank higher
FACT: Going overboard can actually get your website penalised - MYTH: Google Page Rank indicates how well my site will rank in Google
FACT: Google Page Rank is only one small factor among many many others that Google use to determine where your site should rank - MYTH: Search Engine Ranking is the most important thing when it comes to my website
FACT: If you rank high, but have a really bad website, nobody will buy from you anyway - MYTH: Hidden text is a cool trick to increase your rankings
FACT: Hidden text will get you penalised or banned - MYTH: Having the same word on your page more than three times will get you penalised
FACT: Search engines aren't that strict. There is an upper limit, but it's much much much higher than that - MYTH: Changing something on your site every day will cause your site to rank better
FACT: Although regularly updated sites may get visited by search engine spiders more often, this has no effect on search engine ranking - MYTH: Google is personally out to get you, and your site is not ranking because you've upset someone there
FACT: Google has billions of webpages in it's directory, and you are not singled out for punishment - MYTH: Elvis is still alive
FACT: Elvis is dead
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It's good that you have pointed out these common misconceptions. I still see webmasters worrying about meta keywords... even though it has little if any effect these days.
Keyword stuffing is a big problem with some sites. It looks bad, does not work, and is just a waste of time. You can even penalize your site ranking for doing that. I have customers that request landing pages for each little town and city around here (there are tons in St. Louis County, MO) with the exact same text execpt swaping out the town name. I've never seen these sites rank well, but sometimes dispite your best effort you cannot get a point across to a customer.