SEO Fact or Fiction: All you ever wanted to know about SEO
There are many misconceptions behind Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short.) Understandably, with all of the hype that SEO is receiving, it’s fairly simple to see where these misconceptions would come from, especially considering that SEO is an ever changing entity. Fortunately, behind most myths there is a truth to go with it that can, indeed, help you increase the rank of your website among search engine indexes. A little hard work and research will go a long way when trying to create a properly optimized website.
Fiction
– Stuffing your website with keywords will rank you higher on the search index. One of the biggest ways to turn someone off of your site is to make the content hard to follow, no matter how high up on the search engine your site is listed. For example: your site could be listed number one or two through Google, but if you content is impossible to read through, the reader is going to end up passing onto site number three or four.
– Optimizing your website for search engines will bring overnight results. While optimizing your site will bring in higher page views, it won’t be overnight. Building a reputation takes time and effort. Creating an SEO website won’t make your page rank higher on the search index without maintenance. Page ranking takes time to build and there are several factors search engines consider when listing your website. (Among them are how old your site is, incoming links to your site, and site content.)
– SEO will bring you loads of visitors. While creating an SEO website will help bring in visitors, alone, it won’t bring in a ton of visitors.
– There is an equation to SEO that anyone can follow. This is a complete fabrication as the concepts behind SEO change all the time and there is no way to accurately predict what will be the newest fad. There is no magical way to ensure great SEO other than a little effort, research and ongoing maintenance as the rules behind SEO change.
Fact
– Keywords are important, in the right places. Using keywords accurately will ensure that a search engine will be able to index your page correctly and cause you to receive a higher page ranking. Place your keywords in titles (and in the content, so long as it flows well.)
– Hard work will pay off in the end. Yes, you read right, it’s the hard work you put into your website that will ultimately cause the biggest flow of visitors. Say Person One finds your site through a search engine and loves every part of your site. Person One will tell Person Two who will then visit your site based on your content. Person Two will tell Person Three, and so on, creating a positive flow of visitors based on Person One’s search results.
– Quality is key. Again, every aspect of your website is built around the content inside the individual web pages. Working hard on putting your content together will ultimately pay off. Aside from content, make sure your website is built properly. Include XML site maps, use keywords in your titles and tags, make sure there are no dead links and your site will look professional and the result will be higher page views and search indexes.
– Submit your site to search engines. This should be a no-brainer technique, however; a lot of site owners don’t think of this. The misconception here is that search engines find you and that just isn’t true. You have to tell the search engine who you are before they can list your pages.
