10 Myths about Google SEO
I usually find people have some kind of perception about Google Search Engine SEO and the kind of work they do. Even people say SEO for a blog or a website is useless; this is a misconception because there are large numbers of SEO myths. Regrettably, the myths are spread on the forums and blogs, which is really miserable for new blogger or for a new website. Before spreading these myths, readers don’t even try to do research on it and believe it to be true. These myths can be really harmful and thus I want to share some of the common SEO myths which you might have heard or read somewhere which are definitely not correct.
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Meta Tags for High Ranking:
I have seen so many good ranked sites with absolutely no Meta tags. So this is a most popular myth that words in your Meta tags must be used on your page. The truth is just opposite. Meta tags were designed to be used for keywords that were not on the page.
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PPC ads will affect your Ranking:
This just makes me laugh, because PPC ads don’t affect your Google ranking. Neither it lowers your ranking nor does it bring your ranking up.
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You need to have H1 Tag (Header Tag):
Using H1 tags affect your ranking to very negligible ratio. My own test doesn’t found any drastic changed because
of H1 tag, rather its bit difficult to find out the exact result.
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No need to Update:
Many people say that you don’t need to update your site to maintain your ranking. In fact, it is recommended that on updating your pages on regular basis helps bots to visit your site to list the changes. If updating if your site is ignored that your rank can easily slip out.
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Duplicate content is harmless:
It is a pure myth that duplicate content doesn’t affect your page ranking. Content is the most important factor and thus it should be original and unique, otherwise you will lose your loyal readers as well as search engine rank
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Follow Google guidelines:
Many think that their site will be banned if they don’t follow Google webmaster guidelines. Google guidelines are very easy and very common but don’t do it for search engine. Use only that guideline which you feel appropriate for yourself.
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Keyword stuffing will give you higher rank:
This is wrong .If you are stuffing keywords or having hidden text on your site, you can get banned from search engines.
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Google sitemap is compulsory:
Google sitemap is not at all compulsory if you have structured website. If you think that Google sitemap is going to raise your ranking then I would suggest better not to go for that. It’s not bad to have Google sitemap but having just for the sake of high ranking is bad. Your site just needs to be spider friendly. For higher search engine ranking read here.
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Content should have more than 250 words:
It’s not compulsory to have more than 250 words content .There is no hard and fast rule for SEO. Important point is it should be interesting even with fewer words with uniqueness and proper keywords you can attract search engines. Short article do same for your rank as long articles do. For Writing Skills read here.
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SEO is very simple to learn:
This is the worst myth. SEO is not a one or two month task. Not everyone can do it. There are many activities involved in SEO job and you have to do it professionally.
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Anyone who claims keyword stuffing is a Good Thing is an idjut of High Rank.
Good collection of tips!
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach´s last blog ..The BEST Infomercial that was Never Made!
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Chris, 100% true. I agree with you…!
Exactly..Its not require to have Meta tags on page.. Google will automatically detect from the page content If you don’t have Meta on any particular page.
Ranking About PPC..It recently happened the same thing which you mentioned above with one of my client..My client wanted me to start with PPC of his new site…I asked him why you want to start with PPC..He told me that he wants to rank better through PPC and he believed that its quick way to get rank
..I literally laughed in front him and I taught the fact as you wrote above.
Chris, I don’t agree for “Duplicate content is harmless”..I don’t think that Google punish duplicate content site because Its my personal experience. We could get good rank if we have duplicate content But yes, we will loose loyal reader due to. Anyways, Can you clear me this point?
I will be waiting for your response.
Thanks,
Hardip
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Chris Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 3:33 am
Hardip : As far as Meta tags are concerned it is one of the most Important factor determining the Success of your SEO. You can read in Detail at Matt Cutts blog since what ever i have learned till now is from that blog and he is my SEO Guru. As far as PPC campaigns are concerned there are many myths prevailing at this point of time, so i will avoid commenting on the same. As far as your point of Ranking better in Search Engine though PPC, at this point of time i am in conversation few TOP SEO consultants and will let you know update on the same as soon as i get answer. Well as far as Duplicate content is concerned i would suggest you to stay away from it my friend. Sooner or Later Google will ban you website there are various reasons behind that, firstly even if you achieve good rankings with the Duplicate content there is higher chances of some one will reporting you to Google and your website will be Thrown out of Google in no time.
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Thanks for provding the very informative one.Very nice sharing.
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Hats Off!
This Post is really wonderful!
you have chosen some myths and have disproved it..
unique way of making things understand
Chethan´s last blog ..Orkut Launches ‘Add Photo’ Option. Upload Photos directly to Scrapbook.
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Thank you Chris for the great tips, I think that PR is about finding sort of unique keywords that doesn’t has to much competition, so this is how post get high PR from Google, then it depends on how much PR is all your posts together to determine your website PR!
Hesham´s last blog ..36 Links at Spicy Week on Twitter
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Hi Chris,
I am completely agree with you because Google Spam Team Head Matt Cutts has also mentioned some useful tips about Google and other search engines in the WordCamp.But still some people are not aware with the system of Google search engine.I hope your tips will work effectively for those people.
Surender Sharma´s last blog ..How to Get More Followers on Twitter
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#10 myth is true. I mean if you really want to master the SEO techniques, it takes time. It is not something you can do overnight. The best is to practice these with some experimental blogs, or with your own personal blogs.
Seo FL ´s last blog ..Web Design a Platform for Business
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Nice post..Even I used to believe the sitemap is compulsory:…;). And people actually think keyword stuffing is good got me laughing …
Compute Live´s last blog ..Jailbreak situation for iPhone 3GS and OS 3.1 Firmware
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Chris, that’s an interesting post for me in these days!
I agree with you that updating our blog regularly really helps on search engine ranking, I was slow in updating my blog (update once 3-6days), and my ranking never goes to first page right now, it dropped to 2nd page. Seems that I need to work harder to climb up to first page. 
Regards,
Lee
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Chris Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Hard work always pays my friend. At this point of time we all are living in such a place where competition is growing day on day, thousands of new blogs are coming up and one has to work smart in order to sustain current position.
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Nice post about PR. I’ve read so much ebook about SEO, and making money online that all I need to do is implement everything I’ve learnt and experienced online. Anyway thank you for sharing!
Benjamin Cip´s last blog ..How To Make Money With Affiliate Products
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Hey Chris,
I agree with all of your points except the last one.
“This is the worst myth. SEO is not a one or two month task. Not everyone can do it. There are many activities involved in SEO job and you have to do it professionally.”
I won’t say that SEO is easy to do, but to say that you need a “professional help” is nonsense. You need to follow the SEO gurus to get the latest info about what Google is doing to their search engine (like the recent no follow debacle). But, that’s all. I believe you could simplify SEO to the point that any blogger could do it. Since SEO basically only consist of 2 parts, on and off page optimization. If you use Wordpress there are tons of plugins to help you do the on-page optimization. And for the off-page, get as many backlinks, with your anchor texts, as possible.
If you have $1,000 to spare, spend it on getting as many backlinks as possible rather than on professional help (who might charge $1000 for service fee). You’ll ended up on a better SERP’s position.
Andi | Web Marketer Depot´s last blog ..Is Your Blog A “Me Too” Blog? Diagnose It Now!
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Chris Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Andi : Every SE Optimizer and Blogger has different ways of looking at the points which you are talking about. Thoughts and Strategies differs from person to person. These days in such a competitive Internet Environment SEO is much more then On Page & Off page Optimization.
I am not sure you are aware of latest updates as far as paid links are concerned ?? If i have a $1000 and if i spend all of them after buying paid links, In no time Google will drop my SERP’s – Do you believe this ?? If you don’t then try that out and let me know your experience my friend. SEO is not about buying links if you have money, it has much more then what you and me we think
These days i am working with some one who is known as GOD of SE optimization across the Internet & leaning many things which i never ever knew.
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Andi | Web Marketer Depot Reply:
September 14th, 2009 at 6:34 am
Hey Chris, you misunderstood what I’m saying (it’s my fault as well ^-^).
I agree with you about every SE experts and bloggers have their different take on SEO. And nobody really knows the “exact” rule to rank high in search engine. You could have a great test result today, but if Google change the rule tomorrow, you’re doomed. That’s why SEO is unpredictable and I don’t believe it’s worth to pay someone thousands of dollars to do it for you (since the method that he/she used might not even worked in your case – it might worked for him). If you want to learn and try it yourself, guess it’s fine since you don’t spend any money.
When I talked about spending your $1000, I’m not talking about spending it on paid links. You could pay 2-3 guys from Elance or something to write articles for you (maybe 50 articles) with your anchor texts in it, then publish them in article directories. You could another batch of articles and publish them to Hub Pages and Squidoo. Pay someone to do thousands of social bookmarkings for you (for those articles). ANd maybe other more Google friendly methods that increase your back links.
Andi | Web Marketer Depot´s last blog ..Is Your Blog A “Me Too” Blog? Diagnose It Now!
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Chris Reply:
September 14th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Andi : It’s not your fault my friend
SEO is such that any one can get confused at any time and i have seen many clients in past who do not know how to proceed ahead with SEO even if they have excellent product and website in hand. I slightly disagree with your saying that no one knows Exact rules. These days i am working with few individuals who are treated as GOD in this field and learning many new things which no one even know, even though they have experience of like 4-5 years. As far as thousands of $$ are concerned as on today’s date i have like 10 clients who are paying me $1k for maintaining their websites on TOP of search engines. I am working with them since past 3 years now, so if you want to conclude you can say that IF you have a fire you can achieve anything and everything as far as SEO is concerned.
SEO is not about appointing 2-3 guys from Elance, Rent A coder or appointing some one to write articles and submit it to Directories with your anchor text & may be doing thousands of book marking. Do you think that is actual SEO ?? At this point of time i am working with 4 clients whose websites are rocking Google Search Engine without everything which you have mentioned in your comment, Can you believe it ???
#10 is 100% true. It is really not easy but it if you can do SEO intelligently it will seem easy.
Agent 001´s last blog ..The New Facebook Lite and @ Mentions
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Very nice Chris.Nice Myths about google seo
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loving your blog,
I’ll sure come back more often!
keep up the great job,
Wilbur Woods
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Chris Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 9:54 am
hahahah …Thanks for loving my blog
stay tuned with more and more updates 
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Hi Chris!
People always think that SEO is an easy thing! When they will accept the fact that it is not and start working towards it, they will get good rankings.
Tech-Freak Stuff´s last blog ..How to prepare yourself for Shifting from Blogger to Wordpress?
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i heard that ppc can affect seo ranking and header 1 is more important but it is only a myths wow thanks for sharing this article.
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Well, the meta and H1 tags might not really affect the sites ranking but just in case that there is a site almost similar to yours in terms of SEO, then it might add some advantage for you. This is just my idea anyways.
nathan´s last blog ..Stuffs I Do In 4 Internet Hours Per Day
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Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
Pett
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Thank you for this great post, all people who want to rank their blog well on google have to do all the on page optimization, but for all of the above the content. We everybody know that “content is king” . If we have lots of fresh content on our blog then it is really very easy to rank well.
work at home jobs´s last blog ..Work at home opportunites by PPC Search Engine Affiliate Programe
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