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Seven SEO Myths Debunked

Search engine optimization is vital for anyone looking to attract targeted traffic to their website.  Being that it is such a hot topic, the web community is constantly in talks about which methods work, and which ones don’t.  The purpose of this article is to debunk seven of the most common myths associated with SEO.  Whether you intend to hire an SEO firm or go at it alone, this knowledge will give you a better idea of what to expect.

1.) All Meta Tags are Created Equal

Though some are extremely important, other meta tags do not play a determining factor in your search engine visibility.  Because spammers are quickly becoming infamous for leveraging keywords, search engines are relying more on genuine website content and less on meta data.

2.) Regular Search Engine Submissions are a Must

There is a large perception that you should manually submit your website to search engines on a weekly or monthly basis.  This couldn’t be further from the truth because all it takes is one submission to each search engine you intend to target.  What many of the expert firms won’t tell you is that if your site is properly optimized, the search engine bots will automatically find you.

3.) Good SEO is Expensive

For the most part, SEO is a very cost effective form of online marketing, generally much cheaper than banner or sponsored advertising.  This is especially the case when optimizing to achieve organic rankings.  If you couple a quality site design with good networking and links, you can end up paying little to nothing for your SEO campaign.

4.) Homepage Optimization is the Key

Some have the belief that once you sprinkle a few keywords and links into your homepage, optimization is done.  However, you can and should optimize all the pages within your site.  Each page should have its own keywords and pay attention to the appropriate meta tags.  Keep in mind that search engines rank individual pages, not entire websites.

5.) You Should Stay Away from Competitive Keywords

Many avoid using competitive keywords and phrases in fear that they just don’t have enough to fight with.  The truth is that you should still aim for relevant keywords regardless of the competition surrounding them.  Don’t run away from terms that you can get you noticed just because someone else is targeting them.

6.) PPC is More Effective than SEO

While a PPC campaign can work wonders at promoting your site, SEO is far more effective over the long haul.  It is a known fact that most web surfers use the search engines and rarely find their content through sponsors advertisements.  They simply trust the organic results more than the sponsored content.  Even though PPC can get you to show up in the results, this is only a short term solution that could weigh heavily on your budget.

7.) Good as a Guarantee

There are a number of SEO firms in the business of making guarantees on superior optimization and ranking.  In reality however, there is no firm that can make you any guarantees for ranking in any search engine.  Some companies are actually out to help you, while others are simply looking to fatten their pockets.

Optimizing Your Website for MSN

Although SEO guidelines are generally the same for all search engines, MSN is one that has an identity all its on.  There are many tricks to increasing visibility but Microsoft has gone on the record to stress the importance of a well designed, optimized website.  The software giant even went on to say that you may want to consider hiring a reputable SEO firm to boost your chances of being properly indexed by the MSN search engine.  This makes perfect sense as the MSNBot, Microsoft’s aptly named search engine spider, is attracted to web pages that are easy to read and navigate.  Realizing that everyone cannot afford to invest in an SEO service, we have provided a few valuable tips for making an impression on the MSNBot.

Take Advantage of Meta Tegas

The MSNBot actively uses meta tags a part of its web page analysis.  Like other search engines, the title tag is weighed the heaviest within the indexing algorithm, followed up by the meta description tag.  It is recommended to insert your chosen keywords into both areas.  Although Microsoft has never stated that the MSNBot utilizes keyword meta tags, experts strongly suggest that keywords should be included in the title, description, tags and content.  In addition, keywords placed in these areas should all adhere to one another.

Keep Page Size to a Minimum

The MSN search engine requires that your pages are no more than 150k in size.  This gives indication that the bot with either stop scanning or may simply skip over the page entirely.  The good thing is that a web page with a size of 150k has enough room to contain a considerable amount of relative text.  Keep in mind that if you plan to add a lot of fancy graphics, the size of your pages will expand greatly.  Similar to other search engines, MSN prefers text over graphics so you always want to keep them to a minimum.

Efficient Linking

As you would expect, links are an important equation of the MSNBot’s indexing algorithm.  Microsoft offers two suggestions on what type of links will be deemed the most essential: links on the home page or your website, and links that are no more than three levels deep.  This simply means that all the links on your site should be accessible within three or less clicks from one another for maximum efficiency.  Although this could be a problem for larger sites, MSN says its bot will offer a deeper crawl as the search engine becomes more sophisticated.

Submit Your Site

Some of the experts will tell you that search engine submissions are no longer significant while others say they are still important.  We will tell you that every effort helps.  Microsoft allows you to submit your site at no cost but there are some factors to consider.  First, you should check and see if your site is already indexed in the MSN database.  If so, resubmitting will be nothing but a waste of time.  Secondly, MSN requires that you manually submit your website.  This is a fairly simple process as all you have to do is enter the provided code along with your URL into the appropriate field.

Google and Yahoo are the leading search engines, but increasing your visibility in MSN can help you attract a broader range of targeted traffic.  Growing more popular by the year, optimizing for this search engine is definitely worth it.