Top Search Engine Optimization Myths

Guaranteed Rankings
Do a search on google for SEO and you'll no doubt see paid ads (the right-hand side column) advertising "Guarantee #1 Rankings!" There are only two ways to guarantee rankings. One is to run a paid search campaign, which isn't SEO at all. The other is to target very obscure keywords and phrases. Unfortunately these also generate very little traffic.

Keyword Meta Tags,
For a short while long ago, it was possible to rank well primarily by specifying "keywords" in the HTML code for a page. Today, the major search engines mostly ignore keyword meta tags. Other tags such as the title tag are still important.

Search Engine Submission
Submit your site to 1 billion search engines for $59.95!! We've probably all seen the ads. If you've read how search engines work you know that search engines find pages using automated programs called "crawlers". Submission used to be important in the early days of search engines, now this tactic is ineffective. Furthermore, while there are thousands of search engines, 99% of searches go through the following search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask (AOL gets its results from Google)

Link exchanges
Good links are crucial to ranking well, so why not buy links or join a link exchange program? Because search engines want to you to earn your links by providing link-worthy content! Buying or exchanging links may work for a short time but is likely to get you banned or penalized in the long run.

You have to pay the search engines to rank high
This myth comes from confusion over organic search listings and paid search listings. Paid listings are always listed as sponsored links on results pages. Purchasing paid listings has no effect on organic listings. Some search engines do allow paid inclusion which ensures your pages will be indexed, but this has no affect on the ranking of those pages.