Search Engine Myths Unraveled

Many or maybe every Webmaster out there has wondered how to get their web site noticed. While researching the answer many have found an endless list of myths resulting in confusion and mayhem, marring even the noblest of their efforts. With the following we want to try and unravel some of those myths and help re-direct some of your efforts.

Using a program or service to submit your site to 20,000-search engines will get your web site noticed.
We all know that there are not 20,000-search engines out there. In fact, there are only a hand full of main search engines that produce 90% of the search results on the Internet today. What these programs or services use are a combination of search engines, directories, classifieds and free for all link pages so in fact you're not getting listed on 20,000 "search engines" at all. The last of these two items, classifieds and free for all link pages, usually drop older links for the new incoming links so your site may not even last a day on such pages. In all, the traffic you will get from such a service will be unmeasurable and using them will generate an unending stream of Spam email to whatever email address you used for the program or service.

Using a service to get your site started or to submit your web site once a month may be helpful to build up link popularity. This means the sites that the service submits to keeps your link up long enough to make it look like your web site is popular and beneficial. Having a number of these type of links will not get your site penalized in any way either since it's impossible to be penalized for undesirable or unpopular incoming links.

So, using such a service will not hurt your site and may build its popularity in the long run. Such a service should not be a substitute for well placed manual submission, content or Meta Tags. You should also weigh the price of such a program or service and the Spam they generate in regards to the low impact it will have in your overall effort to get your web site noticed.

Meta Tags are the single most important factor in getting your web site a high search engine ranking.
Most of the search engines today give little recognition to the Meta Tag at all especially as far as search engine ranking goes. In the past, overwhelming abuse of the Meta Tag resulted in it loosing its effectiveness as a tool for the search engines to properly list web pages. Many web site owners used to load the Meta Tag with irrelevant words that had no relation to the page content. They did this just to list some of the most popular search terms in the Meta Tag thus making their site popular for that term even if there was zero content for that term in the page. Today's search algorithms pay little attention to the Meta Tag now just for that reason.

This does not mean that they are not important to the top search engines and many of the smaller ones especially if they are done properly in relation to your page content. If you search Google for your favorite shopping item you will find that it lists the title of the web pages and a description relevant to your search term with your terms bolded. Thus if your Title Tag and Description Tag or content containing the key words searched for are well done and all correspond to the relevance of the search your site will rank well in that list of results.

So, the Meta Tag is not the single most important factor in search engine ranking but if done correctly with consistent corresponding page content your relevant web pages will rank high for your desired search terms. Test your site's search results for your desired terms to see if your page titles and descriptions look presentable and informative in relation to your search term. Presenting a well formed Title Tag and Description Tag that gets the searcher to click on your page is the main goal after all. Matching your Keyword Tag with density of the keywords in your content will only help to reinforce your efforts to make your pages consistent and informative.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is not as effective for promoting your web site as traditional methods of promotion would be.
Having a search engine optimized web site is in some ways more effective than traditional marketing methods and in the long run can be more cost effective. Getting your web site SEO is an ideal way to take advantage of the ever-growing free search engine traffic that is out there to be had. If your web site is not being found for the search terms you market to then your web site is not leveraging the marketing dollars it took to build it.

Many companies spend countless dollars on TV, radio, print or direct mail to the masses trying to catch those few prospects that might be looking for there services in a one-time effort. This is the "approach your customer method by flooding a specific medium with your message" way of promoting your web site or product. With a web site that is made specifically for your customer and what they want they will find you and your product. A SEO web site can capture the motivated prospects you're looking for and deliver them right to your door when they are looking for you.

The search engine can be manipulated to increase your site's ranking with any of the following methods.
1) Hidden text or links
This means placing hidden text into the same background color as the web page so that the human eye may not see it but the search engine spider will. You may still see this done today but it will not help your pages in the long run and can be viewed as spamming the search engines.

2) Doorway pages
A very general term that can refer to deceptive redirects on submitted pages. They also could be duplicate web sites on different domains to boost and link to a main web site or keyword specific pages made specifically for a certain search term linking to the real web site. All are good ways to get your site penalized by the search engines and are not recommended.

3) Keyword saturation
Keywords are very important to search engines on the whole but to overly use a keyword in hope that it will bring your page rank up is not recommended. Overuse of keywords on a web page can create the opposite effect by being viewed as spamming the search engine and thus being dropped altogether. Always use a good mix of your keywords on your web pages that make it legible for your visitor and you will be on the right track.

You can also review these resources:

Meta Tag Building Article
In order for each of your web pages on your web site to be properly categorized by search engine spiders they must contain three very important meta tags.

An optimized Web Page Article
Your web site may have great optical appeal but search engine spiders don't care about looks. Search spiders want a well-organized and well-connected web site with rich content and informative descriptions of each page.

What do search engine spiders look for?
Making your web site spider friendly.

Site Pro News
Get the latest in Search Engine and other up to date news, a great resource for all your search engine questions.

Our Top Picks

Promoting Your Online Store Made Easy!

Constant Contact Email Newsletter Free Trial

Shop Recommended Web Design Books

We Recommend

Photoshop Guide Books that help with learning all the tools in Photoshop.

WP Web Design books to learn this powerfull design software.

Website Marketing to stay on top of the latest in website marketing tips.

For Web Design that helps you learn this website design software.

Our Tech Hangouts

A Programmer's Heaven Web Design Resources

Sitepoint Website Design Forums

The SEOmoz.org SEO Website Resources

WordPress Training Resources Index