5 Ridiculous SEO Myths Spread in 2010 by Web Designers, Bloggers and Journalists

Steve Rubel and his ridiculous ‘SEO is dead’ escapade during the Google Instant presentation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to articles about SEO from outsiders.

Now that SEO has gone mainstream and everbody deals with it many people write about SEO who have barely a clue about it. Others, often web designers who know the basics of SEO from 5 or 10 years ago spread their outdated advice today.

Journalists, bloggers from outside the industry and writers for publications completely unrelated to SEO attempt to “join the conversation”. I have no problem with that.

Make your homework first though and then write. Also make sure to accept feedback. Some bloggers don’t like me pointing out their mistakes and delete my comments instead. Thus I decided to write about it where they can’t.

Another reason to speak up on these SEO myths is that most of them get wildly popular on Twitter. The examples below have garnered hundreds of retweets during the last two weeks.

1. Meta keywords matter for SEO via Mens News Daily

They don’t. SEO practicioners have been saying this for years and Google itself as well as as other search engines have confirmed: Meta keywords are dead as a SEO tactic. Even the meta description does not actually help you to rank better it can only make people click your your result.

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2. You need to “submit your site to social bookmarking sites“ (like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon) via 1stWebdesigner and Helium

First off you don’t submit to social bookmarking sites. Social bookmarking is guess what, about bookmarking! So you actually bookmark a site or rather a page as is more often the case. I use Delicious every day for that purpose like most other people. You can encourage people to bookmark you by different means but submitting your site like it’s a directory or something is SPAM.

Then Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon are not bookmarking at all. The 1stWebdesigner author doesn’t even mention Delicious. Digg and Reddit are social news and StumbleUpon is social browsing/social discovery. On all of these sites ”submission of sites” for SEO reasons is frowned upon and that’s certainly not the way SEO works there. SEO on Digg means a clever linkbait headline or striking infographic. Digg ignores such submissions but on Reddit and StumbleUpon you get downright banned for “submitting s” as if it was a directory.

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3. SEO is only about “top positions” via Webdesignerdepot

I didn’t know whether I should cry or laugh. Another hugely popular web design blog offers a whole post of bogus SEO advice o rather anti-SEO myths. The post starts with the false assumption that SEO is only about top positions and that SEO companies only care for those. How wrong can you get? Most reputable SEO agencies preach usability, conversions and ROI for years, including SEOptimise. Just stop lying pal. I don’t even believe you can be that wrong without lying on purpose. Show me SEO companies that only care top position and I show you those living in the past.

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4. “SEO is evil” via Business Insider

Wow. Here you have an article by one of the brightest minds i the SEO industry and what does the editor do? S/he apparently changes the headline in order to capitalize on the anti-SEO prejudice wide spread on the Web. SEO is evil? Why then does Google itself publish SEO advice regularly? Please read the Google SEO starter guide [PDF link] first before even considering to meddle with legitimate SEO articles. Also reread the original headline of the post you completely reverted the meaning of: Why Journalists Need To Stop Resenting SEO.

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5. Local SEO is not SEO via Worcester Business Journal

This one is ridiculous. This journalist claims that you can rank without SEO by using local SEO. As she apparently doesn’t even know that local SEO exists she denounces SEO altogether. Awful ignorance, just awful. You can get your Google Places listing without an SEO professional but to actually rank with it you need a lot specialized local SEO tactics. Enough said.

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You surely wonder why I don’t link to the above mentioned articles. It’s becacuse every link counts as a vote for Google and any publicity. In case you know these publications I advise you to stop reading them as they spread lies, myths and misconceptions that will cost you money!

Also don’t spread such stories on Twitter. You’re just showing how clueless you are when it comes to SEO.

Tags: 1stwebsdesigner, business insider, helium, mens news daily, seo is dead, seo myths, steve rubel, webdesignerdepot, worcester business journal
Posted in blogging, linkbait, seo |

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