Search Engine Optimization - Common Myths To Be Wary Of

As the field of search engine optimization has developed many common myths and misunderstandings have come into being. It's a good idea to treat all assumptions with a grain of salt before acting upon them particularly as some of them have been deliberately created by clever marketers who 'just happen' to have the 'magic solution' to the problem or issue at hand.

The more clicks your website gets - the better it will rank:

This is one common myth that is mostly perpetuated by laymen who have little idea about SEO and how it works. The funny thing about that is that it is actually completely the opposite! The better you rank in the search engine results, the more your site will be clicked on. Think about it logically for a minute - if that was the case then whoever is number one would simply stay there merely by virtue of getting the most clicks or hits not because it is the most relevant result. And isn't that what the search engines are trying to do? Give us the most relevant results? It constantly surprises me that there are still a lot of people out there that believe this one.

Putting the keyword on the page more than your competitor will put you above them:

This particular myth does have a grain of truth in it, in the early days of search engine optimization filling your Meta tags and the page content with a ton of key phrases was often very helpful in getting a website ranking well. These days search engines are way smarter than that and not only does it not work, your site will be penalized if your page or Meta tags are 'keyword stuffed'. So this is one to definitely avoid!

SEO is only a couple of receiving targeted links than your competitor:

Again, this specific myth does hold a grain of truth. The volume of links pointing towards your site is important. However it's definitely the grade of all the backlinks that means something not only the numbers. So bombarding your web site with huge number of worthless links certainly will not do as well being a fraction with the range of good quality links.
Overall it's smart to be really careful which team you focus on and everything you prefer to believe around the whole subject of Google search optimization. Be extremely careful to evaluate any advice or assumptions before going and acquire your next 'magic bullet' to get you better rankings.