We all know that being on the front page of Google and ranked well for common terms can bring in a lot of traffic. However, this can also be proven to be a myth, as well as some other common “myths,” which can also be proven to simply not be true.

Tree of Life by h.koppdelaney

Search engine optimization (sometimes shortened to SEO) is a topic many could argue for hours over, but only the creators of the search engines really know how regular bloggers and website owners can increase rankings. On our end, all we can do is try to figure them out, even though their algorithms change fairly frequently to provide better results.

Myth 1: Using Meta Tags will Place Your Site First in Rankings

This is a myth, simply due to the fact that if everyone used this technique, there would be no relevant sites left on Google. Everything would revolve around spam sites, who can stuff thousands of keywords into their site. Most search engines ignore these tags. However, you can still use them within your site, as they will (over time) help increase exposure, as they can be provided in the short excerpts within the result pages.

Myth 2: Having a High Page Rank (PR) will Grant You the Ability to Be First in Rankings

Even though Page Rank does tell the importance of a website, it doesn’t grant a site “permission” to be any higher in results. Sites with a high Page Rank may see higher rankings, but not all the time, and there may be sites with a Page Rank of 1 or 2 that can beat a site that has a ranking of 5 or 6, for example.

Myth 3: My Site Dropped 3 Places for a Popular Term! I Must Be Doing Something Wrong!

When your site drops a few rankings, there generally isn’t much to worry about. If you rely on a single keyword to drive most of your traffic, you might be doing something wrong. Often, some of my sites see rankings that drop for a day or so, but then return shortly after. There really isn’t much to worry about unless you’ve made a lot of changes to your site and see your rankings drop several pages for consecutive days.

Myth 4: Being First is the Most Important – Being Last Results in Little to No Traffic

Being within the top three spots on search engine result pages is key, as you’ll see the biggest share of traffic. However, if you’re in any other position on these pages, there is still a chance that you’ll see a percentage of the traffic visit your site. If you’re first for a particular term that receives a thousand searches each day, you could see up to five hundred clicks through to your site. Being anywhere else, there is a good chance that you’ll see 100+ clicks. “Position 7″ is generally regarded as the place that receives the least amount of traffic.

Again, being first means you’ll see the most traffic. But, it isn’t the end of the world if you are positions two through ten.

Myth 5: Social Media Techniques Will Help Increase Position on These Pages

Using Twitter and helping your visitors connect through Digg and other means will help increase traffic, but it likely won’t do much to increase your rankings in the short-term. The pages where your links can be found will increase, but mainly for certain terms contained within the post/title.

Using these tools, over time, can help increase ranking for individual pages, as your site will see more inbound links.

Myth 6: Submitting Your Site to Hundreds of Directories Will Increase Traffic and Rankings

Again, you must realize that search engines have evolved over the past ten years, so the old techniques won’t work. There is only minimal value in adding your site to these directories, and in the long-term, it can be useful, but don’t expect too many immediate returns. Your ranking for keywords won’t be affected too much by submitting your site to all the directories.

Myth 7: Creating a Sitemap Will Dramatically Increase Ranking in Results

All sites can create a sitemap, but this doesn’t mean Google will see them all the same. What creating a sitemap does is makes it easier for Google to index your content, essentially meaning your internal pages will be indexed faster. It can also be useful your website visitors if they are looking for a specific piece of content and you haven’t yet developed a useful archives page.

Myth 8: Free Content Will Absolutely Destroy Your Rankings

Many news sites not run by the leading organizations simply repost content that comes form the direct sources. In many cases, these are direct copies, rather than unique content. You rarely (if ever) see search engines penalizing these sites. If they did, only a few sites would remain relevant within the search results.

Myth 9: Paying (or not) Google/other Search Engines Will Result in Different Ranking

This is one of the biggest myths that many still believe. Although you can pay to have your site listed first, it really isn’t being listed first within the rankings. You are biding on the advertising space above the results and within the sidebar. Complex algorithms also apply to this area for ranking the sites that are bidding on keywords.

Let’s say you have a budge of $1,000 per month on advertising through AdWords. Google will not jump you to first position for the keywords that your site already ranks well for. Instead, you’ll simply get your advertising space. If this were true, there would likely be many more spam sites ranking extremely well.

Myth 10: I Can ‘Game’ the Search Engines Instead of Creating Content

Spending time stuffing your site with keywords really won’t get you anywhere. It might allow your site to convert better, as some of these keywords will appear in the description, but not by much.

What’s the difference in increasing your rankings for a common term by one or two positions, compared to spending the time creating a lot of content? You’ll be able to increase traffic tenfold as well as customers/advertisers in the same time. Unless you have a background in gaming the search engines, it’ll be nearly impossible to develop a clear approach to gaming them in order to see huge results.

Conclusion

If you have any other myths you want to add to this list, I’d suggest you add them within the comments area below. Otherwise, leave your thoughts about those addressed above. Remember, search engine optimization shouldn’t be focused on as much as creating original content and optimizing the content already on your site.