Conversion-Funnel.com

Recently, I have been fielding many questions about search engine optimization. Listed below are some of the myths and common practices used in websites today and in most poorly ranked websites. I hope that you find this list valuable and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

1. Myth: As long as my keywords are in my Meta Tags, I’ll be fine.
   Truth: None of the major search engines use the keywords listed in your Meta-tags anymore. The search engines now look at the site in its totality in order to establish a theme. They look for patterns in words and phrases by how they are highlighted and who else is paying attention to your content in order to establish your ranking scores.
2. Myth: As soon as I update my page, all of the search engines will know.
   Truth: Most of the search engines only “spider” or read your site once a month. This happens at varying times and the only way to know when is by monitoring your website logs in order to establish a pattern.
3. Myth: Links to other sites on my site are a good thing.
   Half-Truth: The only way that links on your site work for you is if the site you’re linking to returns the favor and links back to you. Your link popularity across the web gives the search engines an idea of who else is paying attention to your site. In fact, the number of links, and the quality of those links, is usually the only technique left to overcome in attaining the number one rank.
4. Myth: Once I get ranked where I want, I don’t have to do anything else.
   Truth: Search engine rankings can change on a daily basis. Companies and websites are always discovering search engine optimization and will be trying to attain that coveted top 10 position. Therefore, you must constantly monitor what your competition is doing and continually keep your site up-to-date with fresh content.
5. Myth: Every site should use generic terms in their site navigation and other links.
   Truth: The text associated with your links offer you one of the best ways to increase your search engine rankings. By abandoning generic terms like “contact us”, “click here”, “about us” and others, you can interject keyword-rich terms that both aid your visitors in navigating to other parts of your site and boosting your rankings. For example this link, Nashville web design, is directed back to my website conversion-funnel.
6. Myth: Paying $299 gets you listed in Yahoo’s search engine.
   Truth: The $299 investment at Yahoo for a listing only gets you listed in their directory, not their search engine. In fact, Yahoo’s search engine is powered by Google. So, when searching at Yahoo, you go directly to Google’s search results rather than Yahoo’s listings.
7. Myth: Search engine leads aren’t as good as other leads.
   Truth: A recent study by iProspect stated that 77% of the people using the web find the sites they are looking for by locating them at a search engine. The reality is that people are using the web to look for your goods and services everyday. And, if you are not using the search engines to your advantage, you’re missing out on profits.
8. Myth: Having a large number of keywords programmed into a site makes it search engines friendly.
   Truth: The most successful search engine ranking strategies are those where a site is optimized for six or fewer keywords and/or phrases. There are key techniques that must be combined to successfully build a high ranking website. By using more than six keywords or phrases, optimization tactics tend to get diluted and lead to poor rankings.
9. Myth: When you perform a search for your site at Google and your site comes up, it will come up for your keywords as well.
   Truth: The easiest term to get listed at a search engines is your company name because it is fairly unique. The hardest terms are your keywords because they are more common and can be competitive with lots of other websites.
10. Myth: With one click you can be submitted to hundreds of different search engines. That should do.
    Truth: Just because you have submitted to any number of search engines doesn’t mean that they are going to list you. In fact, the major search engines will not list you unless your site is linked from another site they have already listed in their directory.