5 Myths You Should Know About SEO

SEO myths seem to multiple each year. Some are based on reality while others are just uninformed misconceptions. Here are five of the most common SEO myths:

#1 – Your URL must be submitted - this may have been true once, but search engine submissions currently have no relevance.

#2 – You need Google Sitemap to rank in Google - this tool is not needed when your site is properly designed with relevant keywords and quality links.

#3 – PPC campaigns will increase or lower rankings – some believe that using Google AdWords will boost Google rankings while others believe it will bring them down. The truth is that such campaigns play no factor in any search engine.

#4 – SEO copy must be at least 250 words in length – Not true. Whether it’s a 250 word product description or a 500 word landing page, your site can rank well with the use of relative keywords and phrases.

#5 – Buying links will get you disqualified – there is actually some truth to this myth. Search engines may not count paid links as votes but often can’t determine whether they were paid for or not. You should know that buying links will not necessarily place you atop the rankings.

Get The Most Out Of Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click advertising has become a viable stream of revenue for several website owners with Google and Overture being two of the biggest players. Where others have succeeded, many more have failed, completely giving up and leaving their PPC accounts sitting inactive.

Here are a few tips to help you avoid some of the most common mistakes.

Don’t Rush Into It

Some fail to understand that there is no exact formula to a Pay Per Click campaign. What worked for the next webmaster, may not be the right move for you. For this reason, you should begin conservatively and learn the ins and outs of this system. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself out of funds before the advertising campaign even takes off the ground.

Keyword Research

Keywords rule the internet as they are how many people find exactly what they’re looking for. During your research, find some relevant terms your niche audience would use and avoid all the hi-tech industry terminology.

Customize Your Landing Page

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is using a homepage as your landing page. In order to achieve a higher rate of conversion, it’s a good idea to create an individual landing page for each keyword or phrase.

Don’t Let Your Visitors Get Away

If the landing page doesn’t draw a conversion, try to grab your visitors as they attempt to exit the site. Entice them with something like a blog or newsletter relative to their interests.

7 Pay Per Click Myths

#1 – You must get the most clicks – Of course you want a decent amount of clicks, but PPC is not a competition. Focus on generating traffic and you’ll eventually optimize your conversion rate.

#2 – Only one search engine counts – Contrary to popular belief, Google isn’t the only search engine out there. You should test Yahoo, Miva, Mirago and Webfinder as well.

#3 – PPC impacts natural rankings – Javascript and similar programming languages do not act as anchor text and will not appeal to search engine spiders.

#4 – PPC optimization is a one-time deal – Similar to SEO, a PPC campaign is an ongoing process. This campaign should be continuously developed and evolve right along with your business.

#5 – PPC optimization has no bearing on your site – A PPC campaign isn’t necessarily the answer to all of your marketing troubles. Without a well written landing page, a professional design and keyword-rich content, all of your efforts will come up short anyway.

#6 – Editing deletes your history – History is only lost when individual adverts are edited. However, the previous performance is factored into associated quality scores and the overall account score.

#7 – No one wins at this system – Before you get totally frustrated, be sure to refer to the campaign’s help center whether its with Google, Yahoo, or MSN adCenter. Succeeding is very unlikely if you do not use all available resources.

Demographics and AdWords…A Good Combination

Google AdWords has been
popular for a while, but it doesn’t always give people the results that
they’re looking for. To get good ads that are well-positioned, a person or a
company has to pay a lot of money. There is money to be made of course,
especially if a lot of people click on your ads and end up making a purchase.

This doesn’t mean that no one outside of that
demographic group will see your ads. If a man goes to a site that has women as
a targeted audience he may find your ad and you could make a sale that way.
The same is true for age, ethnic makeup, religious preference, or any other
criteria that might affect where your ads go and how much money you make
because of them.

Pay Per Click Strategies

1. Put up 3 ads at a time. Let them run a week or so, then look at the numbers. Get rid of bottom 2 — design 2 new ones based on winner, and run them for a week… repeat.

2. Keywords, keywords, keywords. Whenever you think of a possible term someone in your market would type in, email it to yourself right away. Then add it to campaign later. Also… use the word to create new words. There are many paid tools… but Google also has a free built-in tool. Use any tools available to you.

Example: You may think, oh yeah… someone that might buy my product would be looking up the xxxxxxx regulation that applies to their industry/hobby. Add that to the keyword list.

3. Ideally every keyword would have it’s own custom ad. But, that is not realistic. You might end up with 20,000+ keywords. Some of which rarely get traffic, making an ad for each is too time consuming. So you will want to break them into categories and have custom ads for each category.

Example: You may decide basic users/buyers of your product will have concerns about ‘ease of use’ — so that would go into the ‘Easy to Use’ campaign. Some die-hard, serious hobbyists may be more interested in the xxxxx power feature — put that into a different campaign that pushes that specific point in the ad.

Keywords can get moved back and forth. Keywords can each have a custom bid attached to them. (some convert better than others and are worth more).

Let things run a while. You need 1000 impressions to make an informed judgement on ‘click through’ …plus a week of time.

You need at least 100 clicks on a keyword to gadge the value of it.

Be patient, but always take some time to go back to the campaigns and look at the numbers. Make small adjustments, don’t over correct. Little changes here and there will slowly develop a low cost, high conversion campaign that you can profit from.