Myths of Search Engine Optimisation
Posted on 25. Jan, 2009 by SearchGeeks in Search Engine Marketing
Let’s talk about some of the myths many people believe about optimising a page for the search engines.
The Myth of Meta Tags
There are probably hundreds if not thousands of people who believe a website’s success rises or falls on good meta tags. This stems from the fact that, in the earlier days of the Internet, when the search engines were using different algorithms, the engines and directories relied on meta descriptions to tell them what was on the web page and to index it appropriately. Today’s algorithms, though, rely much less on the meta descriptions. There is still some importance to them, but not nearly as much as was once the case.
The Myth of Multiple Domain Names
The logic, which has some merit, goes like this: You should register any domain that sounds remotely similar to your own so that you don’t lose the traffic of those who mistype the url or those who remembered it slightly differently. For instance, in addition to www.pepsi.com, the company might register pepsee.com, for those who spell it wrong. There is some value to this, but mostly for the bigger companies that can spend a lot of money registering multiple domains. The smaller business, however, can get more hits if they just spend the time and money that they were considering spending on multiple domains, and instead invest it in promoting one good domain name.
The myth that SEO experts are too expensive
In truth, search engine optimisation (SEO) is less expensive than many pay-per-click (PPC) programs and less expensive than other marketing campaigns. It’s certainly less than direct mail or renting email lists. It’s also less than most banner ads or print ads.
The myth that you can do it yourself
In the old days, this was probably true. But the algorithms and strategies have become so complex today that only a paid professional can do an adequate of job of improving your site’s performance in the major search engines