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By Joe Balestrino
Ever wonder what the biggest SEO myths are? I have taken the most prevalent myths that seem to be constantly resurfacing and examined them for you. This is a must read for anyone looking to hire an SEO firm or someone looking to do SEO for themselves.
Myth One: All meta tags are of equal importance.
Some meta tags are useful while others are not. Search engines are more and more about what is on the website than what the tags are telling them. The description tag is used by some (but not all) search engines. The same goes for the keyword tag. Keyword tags are used more by spammers and people using software to find you as a link partner than the search engines. In my opinion, the only tags you should concentrate your efforts on are the robot tag and the description tags.
Myth Two: You should submit your site to search engines weekly or monthly.
Honestly, I never submit any site more than one time, and sometimes I don't even do that. If you submit your site once, you're good. The engines will come back on their own. You can sometimes speed up the process of getting your site indexed by linking it to a high traffic or high PR site. The search engines will find the URL to your site and index it automatically.
Myth Three: SEO is too expensive.
Actually, SEO is probably the most cost effective form of online marketing. Organic SEO is cheaper to set up and maintain than a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign or banner advertising. With PPC and banner advertising, you pay for clicks or impressions. With SEO, all clicks are FREE. You simply pay for the set up and monitoring of your site's pages.
Myth Four: PPC is more effective than natural SEO.
In the short term...true. In the long term...false. Why, you ask? Organic SEO is preferred by traffic over 5 to 1 over PPC. People trust organic searches to return relevant results. People also know that the ads to the right of the page are sponsored ads. They have long ago figured out that anyone can bid on any term they want, as many often do, without even a hint of relevance. So, long term SEO structuring can indeed be more effective than PPC, especially when considering the preferences of search traffic. A top five ranking may take some time to get, but once you are there (and provided you can maintain it), you will get better results than from a PPC ad.
Myth Five: Hiring an SEO specialist "in house" is cheaper.
The problem with hiring someone in house is, they are paid hourly or by salary. Most SEO firms (Mr-SEO included), charge per item or project. It doesn't matter how long it takes us, you pay a one time charge. When you hire a firm, it's like having a team of SEO experts on your payroll. Paying a flat rate saves you money and speeds up the time it takes to complete a job. Additionally, most SEO firms (again, Mr-SEO included) have specialists who write, submit, redesign sites, post pages, etc... Hiring one person who can do all these things competently is highly unlikely.
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