PPC Myths:

- PPC ads will help organic rankings
- PPC ads will hurt organic rankings

Tag Myths:

- you must have a keyword-rich domain
- you must have keyword-rich page URLs
- heading tags are necessary (H1, H2 etc.)
- you need to use keywords in meta keyword tags, in particular  you need to use keywords that are included in your page  content. It’s actually better to use the keyword tag to   include misspellings and other keyword varieties that you  don’t have in your pages.
- using keywords in comment tags will hurt your rankings.

Content Myths:

- page copy must be a certain # of words.  but there is really no set limit to please search engines.
- that you need to bold/italicize your target keywords.
- that you must use a specific keyword density. Keyword density tools are ridiculous.
- that you must optimize a page for a single keyword or phrase per page. Instead, try to optimize each page for 3-5 phrases that are related, so that your copy reads better than repeating one phrase over and over.
- that you need to optimize for the long-tail searches. You don’t generally need to optimize for these – engines will find them on their own.
- duplicate content will get your site penalized. There is not a penalty as such, but engines will filter out duplicates in lieu of the original copy (or what they think is the original).

Design Myths:

- your HTML code must validate to W3C. Not even Google.com validates!
- your navigation must be text links not images. Surprisingly, graphical navigation is fine as long as you use ALT tags.
- you can’t use Flash. It’s fine to use Flash, as long as it is one element of your page, not a complete Flash site. Use a text-based site too if using a Flash site.
- certain design techniques are black hat. Javascript code is legitimate, not just used by black hats.

Link Building Myths:

- that Google’s link: command is accurate. It’s not a useful tool. Use Google Webmaster Tools or the Yahoo link command instead.
- that reciprocal links won’t count. From the right site, reciprocal links are fine, even very helpful.
- that pages are ranked in PageRank order in the search results. They’re not. Google Toolbar PageRank is not accurate anyway so ignore it.
- you must be in DMOZ or Yahoo Directory to get good Google rankings. The Yahoo Directory is not worth the money these days.

Submitting, Crawling and Indexing Myths:

- that you need to submit URLs to engines. Provided you have a link to your site, you will be found and indexed.
- that you need a Google Sitemap. Not needed for the average site. It won’t change your site rank.
- that you need to update your site frequently.
- frequent spidering helps rankings. Not true.
- that you need multiple sites. This won’t help in the engines and creates more maintenance work.
- that you need doorway pages. This is so 1995!

SEO Company Myths:

- that a #1 ranking will always lead to more traffic or sales. The good rankings need to be for keywords and phrases that people are actually searching for.
- that the company can place pages in certain positions. Not possible, unless they’re using Pay Per Click or sponsored spots.
- that your rankings will tank if you stop paying the company. Rubbish!
- that they have a “proprietary method” of SEO. They’re lying!
- that they have a “special relationship” with Google. Again, they’re lying. Google has no relationships with organic SEO companies.
- that they can increase your rankings without doing any on-page work. Run away!

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