Top Five Search Engine Optimisation Myths
SEO Myth Number One - The purpose of Search Engine Optimisation is to improve search rankings
Myth number one represents a common misconception. Search for SEO in any of the major search engines and you will find company upon company making wild claims about getting you into the top 10 Google listings in just 3 days!!!! (or thereabouts). Now, whilst getting into the top ten of anything is great and any extra traffic is to be welcomed, if spending a whole year's marketing budget doesn't result in real sales then your optimisation has failed. The function of search engine optimisation is not simply increased rankings but increased sales.
SEO Myth Number Two - Search Engine Optimisation is best left in the hands of the experts
Whilst SEO agencies are great at all the back-end stuff - renaming your URLs, clarifying your navigation, submitting your site map and so on, any optimisation campaign is doomed to fail without full engagement from you. As a small business you know what your best seller is, who your clients are, the weaknesses of your competitors and how your offline marketing campaigns will affect sales. This sort of knowledge is gold-dust and should be used as the foundation of your keyword research. SEO should be about partnership; client, marketer, web developer, and SEO agency working hand in hand, it's not about handing over a cheque and leaving your agency to get on with it.
SEO Myth Number Three - Links are more important than relevance
In the bad old days the number of links to your website was probably more important than it's content. Thankfully, those days are over because search engines have got smart. Forced into action by link farms, companies like Google no longer rely so heavily on the intelligence of others but can apply their own intelligent semantics to work out which sites are relevant for a search query. That's not to say that natural links aren't important, just don't waste your time creating artificial ones - you'll be spotted a mile off.
SEO Myth Number 4 - Keyword stuffing is a good idea
Keyword stuffing describes a technique used by many so-called "black-hat" SEO agencies to artificially boost search rankings by filling your website with hundreds of keywords. Often these keywords are "cloaked" so that the user cannot see them but the search engine robots can. Be very careful with this sort of practice - even BMW was banned for a short period for trying this - see the BBC's report on BMW's techniques and their outcome.
SEO Myth Number 5 - Once you're optimised that's it!
Search engine optimisation is a process not a task. Once you have found those elusive golden keywords, optimised your site appropriately and started to see the results of your efforts, it is tempting to sit back and relax. Don't. You should constantly monitor your rankings, your traffic and the keywords users input to find you. Be constantly vigilant, adapting and amending your content in response to changes in your site performance and search engine algorithms. Don't forget that good marketing intelligence is what will set your site apart from the rest, so never forget the importance of competitor analysis.