Making sure your website is visible on the main search engines can be an important factor in the success of your site. So much so that the people behind the search engines go to ever-increasing lengths to ensure that the results they provide are relevant and accurate and haven't been manipulated by devious marketers.
This means that the criteria for search engine success can change frequently and without any notice; which leads to a lot of confusion and misinformation.
So, time to explode some myths – some of which are taken straight from companies selling search engine optimization services!
Myth 1: Meta-tags are all that matters.
Reality: Content is king.
Meta-tags are part of the code that operates in the background and provides additional information and technical instructions about your site. Some of the most common are the Description and Keyword tags. In the early days of the Internet, these tags were used to provide search engine robots with general information about the page so that they could categorize it better. The system, while a nice idea in theory, was just too easy to manipulate. There could be no guarantee that a page would contain any information that was related to its Description and Keywords meta-tags.
Although some search engines still display some meta-tag information (in particular the Description tag) in the results, meta-tags have almost no bearing on the actual order of the results. Your site will not be ranked higher or lower than another because of its meta-tags.
Rather than loading your meta-tags up with the key phrases and words you wish to target, it is much more important to ensure that these phrases appear in your content. For example, if you're a doctor in Birmingham and you want your site to rank as highly as possible under terms like "Birmingham Michigan doctor" then you need to ensure that your content contains these terms as often as possible.
So it basically boils down to content. The more relevant content your site contains, the higher search engines will rank it.
Myth 2: "We can achieve first page rankings for your ten chosen key phrases."
Reality: Quality not quantity makes the difference when it comes to optimizing a web page.
At most, focus on 2-3 phrases per page and make sure you use them in your content, particularly in headlines and image descriptions. Repeat your phrases as often as makes sense and without your content ending up sounding ridiculous.
Make sure also that the phrases you choose are specific to your business. Not only is it easier to achieve a good ranking for a more specific phrase, but chances are that the visitors you get as a result are better qualified prospects.
Myth 3: Success on Google is about having lots of links.
Reality: Yes, incoming links (i.e. links from other sites) are important for determining your ranking on search engines such as Google, but it's not a quick route to the top.
For starters, Google examines the pages linking to your site, how relevant they are to your content, and how many other links that page has. So a link from a page with a limited number of links is much more useful than signing up to a generic "link farm". The moral of the story: if you have a limited amount of time for promoting your website, you would be better to spend it improving or adding to your content (which, ironically, will help encourage inbound links).
Myth 4: "We will submit your site to 1000 top search engines."
Reality: There aren't 1000 top search engines – there might be 1000 search engines but only three really count: Google, Yahoo and MSN.
And try as you might, submitting your site to Google doesn't get you listed any faster. Submitting your site only really makes a difference if you want to pay to be listed, and that's a separate issue altogether.
There's no reason why, with good content and relevant links, you can't achieve top rankings without paying the search engines. (Out of interest, I investigated further to find out who these top 1000 search engines were. The list included Bolivia Web, the Colombian Yellow Pages and Slovenia Resources!)
Myth 5: You need to resubmit your site monthly, weekly, or even daily.
Reality: Once your site is listed in a search engine there is no need to resubmit it.
They know where you are and their robots (or spiders) will be scheduled to revisit your site when the search engine is next updated. Resubmitting your site is a waste of time – and if you do it too often it can lead to your site being banned for spamming.
Myth 6: "We guarantee to get your website found and seen on the major search engines in 48 hours."
Reality: Patience is vital in search engine optimization.
It usually takes 6-8 weeks for a site to appear in a search engine or for any changes to take effect. You can see when search engine robots are visiting your sites by looking in your log files under User Agents (the robots usually have distinctive names such as Googlebot or Link Walker).
Myth 7: "You are losing customers who cannot find you!"
Reality: This argument is an oversimplification of matters and gives far too much credit to search engines.
This is the most persuasive argument used by companies promoting search engine optimization – after all nobody wants to lose customers! But you need to think carefully about the nature of your business, your marketing strategy, and the type of customers you target. Are your ideal customers likely to choose a supplier for whatever you offer by quickly searching the web?
If your business is in an industry that is very price conscious; if you get a lot of business from passing trade or business directories such as the Yellow Pages, then a good search engine ranking could greatly increase your online success.
But, if you sell high-value products or services, typically have a long sales cycle or get business from marketing activities such as networking, referrals, or even cold calls, then chances are search engine rankings are less important. It may be more than enough just to rank well for your company name - and there are probably more effective ways to spend your time and marketing budget.
Search Engine Resources
In no particular order, here are five different resources to help you improve your search engine visibility.
Google - While you might be familiar with the search capabilities, there's more to Google than meets the eye. Google News, Google Images and Google Groups all provide specialized searching, while Google Labs opens up the creative, and slightly mad, world of Google product development. For an overview of the company and its background, read this excellent article from Fast Company.
Search Engine Guide - News and articles on the volatile search engine industry, as well as information about search engine marketing and optimization. Also provides a daily and weekly newsletter.
WordTracker - An excellent resource for determining which terms people are likely to use to find your site, and to find out how competitive each term is.
Search Engine Watch - Perhaps the most comprehensive resource on the web. This site provides articles and advice for everyone from beginners looking for advice on getting started, through to technical experts wanting to attend the latest conference.
Posted on
Monday, December 17, 2007 12:47 AM