One of my favorite pastimes is debunking SEO myths – and there are many! I could probably come up with 100 Search Engine Optimization related ideas or actions that people think are helpful, but which in reality won’t provide them with more targeted traffic to their websites.

Frankly, the biggest search engine optimization mistake you can make is not doing any SEO at all. It’s amazing how many people believe “if you build it, they will come”. Marketing coaching makes one thing clear. Just putting a site up on the Internet won’t get you the traffic you want or need. By the same token, building a site and then thinking about SEO after the fact is a bad plan too. SEO needs to be at the heart of your Web plans from day one, and it’s a job that’s never “finished”.

If you are new to the world of SEO and SEM, you may not know all of the actual subtleties involved. But, if you are going to hire someone to do your SEO work for you, you better know a whole lot more or you could suffer far worse than you ever would trying to do your own SEO work… even without any real experience. Even if you hire an SEO Professional to promote your site, if they do anything that the search engines decide is unethical, your site will be banned and you will have no recourse, legal or otherwise to get it back in!

Websites with more content rank better with the search engines. Any online marketing consultant will emphasize, however, that “more” isn’t enough. For successful SEO, your site needs a steady stream of fresh, relevant content.

One of my all-time favorite tv shows is The Twilight Zone. I particularly like Rod Serling's memorable opening narration:

"There is a sixth dimension, beyond that which is known to newbies. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, and it lies between the pit of newbies gullibility and the sunlight of their naiveté. This is the dimension of smoke and mirrors. It is a dimension known as SEO Scams and Newbies Realm of Gullibility."

What is a Title Tag?

The title tag has been – and probably will always be – one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings. In fact, fixing just the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your rankings. And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), changing them may result in more clickthroughs.

The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell you - the time has come to face your website! A high search engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue.

This really is the chicken and egg question of the internet age but depending on who you ask will determine the actual answer you receive. A graphic designer based website development company will argue in a majority of cases that the design comes first of course. And let’s face it without that aesthetically pleasing to the eye design a visitor will bounce off your site within a matter of seconds or so they would have you believe. But then that raises the big question of how did they get there in the first place?

All too many website owners, unaware of the many wolves in sheep’s clothing lurking out there, have fallen victim to scams run by alleged SEO (search engine optimization) businesses which offer unbelievable claims as to the levels of traffic and page rankings their services could provide them.

There are many articles written on the HOW of SEO, covering the many and varied aspects of the art of improving your site’s position in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). While most people have heard the term “Search Engine Optimization” and have a vague appreciation (or apprehension) of the hoped for outcome, surprisingly few people seem to really understand WHY it is absolutely essential.