[This is part of the The Blogger’s Essential Guide to Search Engine Optimization Series.]
Part of your job as a savvy blogger is to know what to do as well as what not to do, especially when it comes to search engine optimization. The reason is simply because there’s too many misconceptions out there that are actively being promoted as “legitimate” when they have patently false.
So here are a few common misconceptions that you should simply be aware of so that you yourself don’t make these mistakes and so that you can also educate your blogger friends so they can save time (and even money) when considering optimization techniques and strategies.
Ready to kill some myths like a bad plague of zombies? Here we go…
- Submission is 100% Worthless – It is often been noted that search engine submission is a thing of the past and I candidly agree except that I don’t agree that it’s completely 100% worthless - that’s why I still suggest that you should submit your blogs to search engines even if the possibility of its use is very minimal. It takes 5 seconds and I’d rather do it than not. Take it for what you will. I share my light thoughts on submission to Google, Bing, and Yahoo!.
- Meta Tags are Worthless - Essentially the same difference as above many SEOers will tell you it’s completely useless. This is first categorically wrong since they aren’t completely worthless and are still used in many circumstances and second is that it doesn’t hurt you to have them, especially with the possibility of use. I explain meta tags here in more detail.
- Keyword Density is Key - Not. I’ve explain in detail near the end of this blog post on keyword strategy why “density” can be wildly misunderstood. Check it before you get in trouble.
- Paying for Search Rankings Works - Paying for search engine rankings is not only a waste of money it can also blacklist you from the search engines and thus getting you in some serious trouble.
- Reciprocal Link Directories Rule - No, they don’t. In fact, reciprocal link strategies could get you in trouble as most search engine software is no very aware of this abuse. If someone offers to get you hooked up into a “link sharing service” or something like that then back away slowly. This is also one reason why I think blogrolls can also pose a threat if they are ugly, uncurated, and unkept – heck, they look like reciprocal link directories on your sidebar, right?
And those are just five of many myths that seem to be able to continually thrive in ignorant blogger communities. I know that this community here is much more astute and on top of things!
Stay on top of the myths, not just the correct strategies, and you’ll do just fine.
Oh, and stay away from zombies.
Have a good one folks.
[This is part of the The Blogger’s Essential Guide to Search Engine Optimization Series.]
So…. are zombies any good at seo?
I’m just askin’…
perhaps… perhaps…
If you ever get close enough to a zombie, maybe you could ask….
hahah. ask @alliswell
But if you cut off the you will loose so much!
oh. so sad.
I’m don’t blog about internet marketing, but I do try to pay attention to sell my own wares. I really like your blog. I like how accessible it is and that you haven’t tried to get me to join your secret group where the real content is. Thank you.
Dixie
we do have a community forums which is paid though.
Yeah for zombie metaphors! Strangely enough I just posted about how spam is like zombies this very day. Have a nice holiday John.
thanks clay! zombies FTW!
Paying for rankings is definitely a risk vs reward thing, I would personally not do it. I would rather just earn a spot in the search engines the hard way, in the long run its better than being blacklisted, gotta stay white hat!
-Jean
white hat all the way! why risk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hk5uVv8JpM&list=FLR4J3kEFkyVHQ8o3VMECosg&index=8&feature=plpp
Folks at Google give people SEO tips.
Even though Google != to every search engine, if you do well in Google, you are bound to do good in all others (which are meager in comparison).
The description meta tag is useful for visitors in search engines, I use it.
I also use the keyword meta tag, but Google does not trust it and it’s basically worthless.
The best thing to do is produce high quality content, inserting keywords where appropriate.
you’re right. generally the principles can be applied to most search engines.
Hi john,
I still put the meta tags in for my keywords even though Google doesn’t see them. I am glad to have you mention about not paying for page ranking because I have seen ads from people about this and thought perhaps I’m just cheap, but now I’m glad I didn’t pay anyone for this.
I do have blogroll, but only use the ones I truly think are worth it. I don’t put them in my sidebar, but in a page at the top so people can go there if they want. It seems to work well and helps drive traffic to my site.
Once again, you have an awesome post. Sally
sure thing sally!
Great post, I’m new to blogging and learning quick about SEO and driving traffic into my site, your site is a wealth of knowledge. Thanks
sure thing!