Top 5 SEO Myths

1) MYTH: We can guarantee you results
Not possible.  Many organisations are approached by “SEO” companies claiming they can guarantee positions in natural listings. This is nonsense.  There are many outside factors which influence a sites ranking and these cannot be directly controlled.  All of the major search engines have some sort of disclaimer stating they ultimately decide which web pages will be included in their indexes.  Only Pay-Per-Click can deliver anything like a guaranteed result.

2) MYTH: You have to frequently resubmit your site to search engines
Many “SEO” firms claim that in order to attain a high position in natural listings you need to resubmit your site every week or month.  In reality this submission spamming may actually harm your position.  Once a website is in a search engine's database, it usually won't go away with time, so as such you only need submit the main URL having ensured you have employed a sitemap within the site.

3) MYTH: We need to continually pay our “SEO” company
When performed properly on-page SEO can be treated as a one-off project/activity.  The frequency at which it should be repeated depends on the site in question and the rate at which the content changes within the site.  Typically you’d take your car for an annual or 12000 mile service to make sure things are still working the way they should; SEO can be thought of in a similar fashion.  You should only pay for SEO on an ongoing basis if your supplier is monitoring your rankings, providing you with updates or reports and addressing off-page SEO factors too.

4) MYTH: More reciprocal links means a higher Google page rank (PR)
Outbound links to related and unrelated sites are factored into page rank. Unreciprocated links count higher than reciprocated links. The more quality inbound links to your site, the higher the PR, but nobody knows exactly how Google factors their PR and their algorithm is constantly adjusted. A million links to and from unrelated sites could drop your PR and if your site is found linking to link farms, your site could be penalized as being 'guilty by association'.

5) MYTH: Having multiple domains will give our site more exposure
If you have multiple products or services to offer, make sure that visitors coming to your site realise it and you don’t dilute your content across multiple domains in an attempt to artificially improve your rankings. It just won't happen.  The web’s best known sites display their entire content under one single domain.