SEO Myths
MYTH 1: Meta tags are the key to high rankings.
It's a Myth! – Meta tags are largely ignored by the spiders. The only one you really need to include is the "description" as this is what the search engines often display in their results pages. The "keywords" meta tag is a complete waste of time, as is all those "index after" tags, the robots will visit when they want to, not when you want them to.
Most major search engines do not use the meta keywords tag as a ranking factor and those that do, if the keyword is not also in the copy of the same page, it's considered a factor which could lower your rankings, not raise it. At best the keyword tag is used by directories or social bookmarking sites when submitting your site. The only really important meta tag is the description as it is displayed in the search results by Google.
MYTH 2: Keyword density is important.
It's a Myth! – You only need to place a particular keyword once on a page to get it noticed by search engines. That said, if the keyword is competitive intelligent keyword placement is essential.
So called "keyword density" does not matter as a major ranking factor outside the requirement that the actual keyword is present on the page in the way of natural language. Depending on where on the page and how the keyword is displayed the ranking can be positively or negatively affected. A keyword density that is too high will get you listed lower or penalized.
MYTH 3: Hidden links or text in a page can get your page ranked higher.
It's a Myth! - Hidden links or text, cloaking, doorway pages and any other tricks will result in penalization and maybe even an outright ban. So don't do it.
Hidden links in the page can get your site penalized or banned if detected. It is considered spamming by search engines. Most people think it's not worth the risk. Google states in it's Webmaster Guidelines: "Avoid hidden text or hidden links."
MYTH 4: A top ten search engine ranking can be guaranteed.
It's a Myth! - Some SEO firms will advertise a "guarantee" to have you listed in the top ten rankings. No one other than the search engines themselves can guarantee any ranking. Don't believe it. Trust their results for other clients and make your decision from actual client successes, not empty promises and guarantees.
Google even states in it's Webmaster Help Center: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."
What can be guaranteed though is that when a top 10 or #1 ranking is achieved the payment or rather bonus payment is due. Then it's so called "performance based payment". PBP based on rankings is not recommended though, as rankings themselves do not guarantee sales or overall profits.
MYTH 5: You should place content above menus to have it crawled first.
It's a Myth! - Putting your menu list above the content will make no difference whatsoever to the spiders. However, filling the head of the document with great swathes of JavaScript and developing complex navigation systems might. It's also worth noting that there are different types of robots, some of which look at the page and some follow the links - they don't do the whole page in one pass. robotstxt.org has more information.
MYTH 6: You need a high pagerank to get listed.
It's a Myth! - Page Rank is purely a measure of the number and quality of your inbound links. The Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) you see in the google toolbar is a summary of one of the many factors google uses to rank a webpage and is irrelevant to all the other search engines. And even if you have a high page rank (5 and above) you won't increase your conversion rate.
While PageRank was never the only factor in ranking sites, it was in the early days of Google the most important one. Google added more and more ranking factors to their overall algorithm while devaluing PagRank more and more. Nowadays ranking is based on more than 200 so called "signals" among others.
MYTH 7: There is a no duplicate content penalty.
It's a Myth! - if you publish a page that already appears elsewhere or is very similar to a page published elsewhere then the search engines will only index the most relevant. The penalty therefore is a loss of ranking or exclusion from the results page.
MYTH 8: You need to submit your site to the major search engines.
It's a Myth! - you don't need to submit to any search engines. All you need is one inbound link from a high quality site and the spiders will do the rest. You can submit your site, you can even pay yahoo to look at the site but this doesn't mean you are going to get listed, all you have asked them to do is look at the site. Which is pretty much a waste of time since they would have found the site in any case.
MYTH 9: Appearing in DMOZ is essential to high rankings.
It's a Myth! - Google used to use DMOZ to discover new sites but now doesn't even mention DMOZ in the Webmaster Help Center. And because it can take months or even years to get a DMOZ listing, you will probably be indexed by the search engines long before the DMOZ editor gets round to considering your submission
MYTH 10: High ranking sites should be left alone.
It's a Myth - The search engines constantly review the rank of websites. And whilst the longevity of a websites can help ranking, a new site with fresh and constantly updated content may well gain top spot because the search engines like what they see.
MYTH 11: The more links the better.
It's a Myth! - Thousands of links from low ranking and irrelevant sites may well incur penalties from the search engines. See this article on link building for more information.
MYTH 12: W3C Validation is necessary to rank high.
It's a Myth! - W3C validation will help the browser resolve the page but since the spiders ignore all the markup, validation doesn't make any difference. However, if the markup is so bad the spiders can't work out what's what then you can lose out.
MYTH 13: Search engine traffic is worthless or not as good as other kinds of targeted traffic
It's a Myth! - Search engine traffic is probably the most qualified traffic, because it comes from people searching for the exact products and services which the search engines have you indexed. They are looking for you, not the other way around. Keep in mind you must be targeting the right keywords, but that is the job of your SEO firm, to help you choose the right keywords.
MYTH 14: You don't need to update your site to keep your rankings
It's a Myth! - By routine maintenance (removing outdated material, fixing broken links, queries, etc.) and updating your pages regularly, you are signaling the bots and crawlers to come back and re-crawl your site for changes to their listings. To maintain high rankings, you need to keep at it and tweak the pages for better results if necessary. Also content freshness is one of the more important ranking factors. If neglected, your pages could easily slip out of the top rankings as new competing sites get indexed and optimized.