Seomul Davis wrote a great article on SEO News about 10 myths of Search Engine Optimization that webmasters perpetuate among themselves. I agree that all 10 myths are very prominent and he is right to debunk them. But there are five that are so wrong and funny that I just laugh at them uproariously as many of the people perpetuating these are Search Engine Optimization experts and should know better.

Laughable SEO Myth #1 - You must submit your website to search engines. Hey, guess what guys! Search engines, they have spiders. Spiders crawl. Through links. Put up a web page and link it to another one and you’ll get crawled. Simple as that. Now you can finish laughing.

Laughable SEO Myth #2 - PPC will hurt your rankings. Or help it. Are you kidding? They don’t have anything to do with each other! That’s like saying drinking Kool-Aid will get you more dates. Sure, I’m laughing.

Laughable SEO Myth #3 - The keywords meta tag must be filled in. Actually, none of your meta tags MUST be filled in. The search engines will still crawl your pages and rank them. Your meta tags can influence how you appear in the search engine results pages. Even then, there’s no guarantee because Google has been known to ignore keywords tags and description tags altogether. That doesn’t mean you should leave them blank. It doesn’t mean you can’t either.

OK, now quit laughing.

Laughable SEO Myth #4 - Your Search Engine Optimization copy should be 250 words at least. So if I just write 249 words on a page then I won’t get ranked? Please, don’t make me laugh. Good SEO content is still good Search Engine Optimization content no matter how long it is.

Laughable SEO Myth #5 - Long tail keywords are best. For who?

Does this make any sense? Your broad keyword has a demand of 100,000. Your long tail has a demand for 5,000. I’ll shoot for that 5,000 mark because I can get more traffic. Twisted logic. And very laugable. I’m all over myself. In fact, long tail keywords are as saturated as broad keywords are now when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. What you should do instead is work out a niche and target it like crazy.

One of the biggest Search Engine Optimization myths is that, by undertaking search engine optimization, you are trying to manipulate PageRank. There is an over reliance and over emphasis on PageRank, particularly as it is displayed in tool bars. My advice to everyone, turn off your PageRank display, or, at the very least, learn to ignore it.

First, a quick view of PageRank as it is displayed on your toolbar. The number you see is a result of where that page was on a particular day at a single point in time, generally published every three months - although that is unreliable in itself. Any search engine optimization strategies undertaken after that point in time will have no effect until the next release.

PageRank is actually a mystical ranking that is forever in flux, never still, never the same. More importantly, the ranking you see may be a score from three or more months ago so it is totally unreliable. If it is unreliable; it has no value; if it has not value, turn it off.

Search engine optimization is all about improving that page in a wide variety of areas. PageRank after all is only a Google assessment. SEO strategies need to take into account Yahoo!, MSN and other search engines. In fact, the main strategy in optimizing your pages is in the final SERP placement for that page and how high you can get your page listed on each of the search engines.

No professional Search Engine Optimization expert will ever look PageRank as a factor in their work. To get a real indication of your search engine optimization strategies, undertake your own search on each of the search engines using your keywords or key phrases. Irrespective of PageRank, you will find that at different times using the same keywords, your place in the results will often change.

PageRank is an unreliable side result of search engine optimization strategies. Side result? Yes. It is not an end result. End results are reflected by your placement in the search results and ultimately, by the number of visitors you receive through those search engines. SEO and PageRank - forget the PageRank and concentrate on what is important, getting those visitors onto your site.

Well, we all know there’s a woman behind every successful man. But even more importantly, there’s a woman behind, in front of, in the mind of, or somewhere around a fallen man. Just talk to Elliot Spitzer. He’ll tell you.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre may have charged too much for assisting a man to lose his prominent position, but look at the bright side - Monica didn’t charge a dime and all she got was some stinky cigar. Poor Willy.

But say what you will about the shenanigans of America’s politicians. It’s the ladies of the evening who have a leg up. And they have something to teach us all about search engine optimization. Just follow these tips brought to you courtesy of Spitzer’s main fox, or is that Fox’s main spitter? Uhm, nevermind.

These Search Engine Optimization tips are worth a fortune (or maybe just $5,000 a night):

1. Anonymous links are bound to be exposed for the fakes that they really are
2. Don’t bare all your assets to the powerful and well connected
3. Whoring yourself out might be the best way to the career of your dreams
4. Why pay for action when you can get it for free (or be paid for it)?
5. Even average-looking websites can earn top dollar
6. The age factor isn’t always your best advantage
7. MySpace isn’t just for teenagers
8. Paying too much for a good position isn’t what we mean by “quality content”
9. Sometimes, free advertising comes at the expense of OPR (Other People’s Reputations)
10. Why go to college when you can gamble your life, your body, your dignity, and your soul for a one-in-a-million chance at fame and fortune?

Well, it’s not all about Search Engine Optimization, but then, it wasn’t all about sex either, was it? Or was it?

I like Kalena Jordan. I like Jill Whalen. But a recent article in SiteProNews written by the former about the latter has me a little confused.

You have to read carefully what people say in these articles. Jordan is explaining some advice that Whalen gave in a conference tutorial and starts off with some common “Search Engine Optimization Myths.” To be sure, most of them are myths. But you have to pay attention to some of the wording on these myths:

• you must have a keyword-rich domain
• you must have keyword-rich page URLs
• heading tags are necessary (H1, H2 etc.)

First off, I don’t know anyone who says a keyword-rich domain is necessary. Obviously, it isn’t necessary. How many websites with whacked out domain names are still popular? Flickr, Bebo, MySpace … No, they’re not necessary. But they are helpful. That’s helpful. Notice the difference in spelling?

Saying keywords in your URL aren’t necessary is like saying it isn’t necessary to have a website. Sure, you can run a business without a website, but if you build a website and market it correctly then you’ll get more business. Oh, silly me!

I believe some Search Engine Optimization experts throw up a ruse to confuse people. Some of them will tell you a certain practice is necessary when it isn’t. Then someone else will come along and tell you it isn’t necessary but fail to tell you that it is helpful. Let’s be honest: Using the tools at your disposal is helpful.

So how is it helpful? Well, if you put your website up against your competition and you are equal in all other respects, I believe the website with the primary keyword in the URL will rank better. Why? Because it’s a ranking factor. It’s not the most important ranking factor. It isn’t even a very heavily weighted one. But it is a ranking factor and you should consider it. Why ignore something that can give you an edge just because it isn’t necessary?

Most of Kalena’s and Jill’s advice, however, is pretty rock solid. I wouldn’t ignore it. But take anything any Search Engine Optimization expert says with a grain of salt. Jill (ahem, Kalena) points this out clearly in her “Search Engine Optimization Company Myths” segment:

• that a #1 ranking will always lead to more traffic or sales. The good rankings need to be for keywords and phrases that people are actually searching for.
• that the company can place pages in certain positions. Not possible, unless they’re using Pay Per Click or sponsored spots.
• that your rankings will tank if you stop paying the company. Rubbish!
• that they have a “proprietary method” of Search Engine Optimization. They’re lying!
• that they have a “special relationship” with Google. Again, they’re lying. Google has no relationships with organic Search Engine Optimization companies that Jill is aware of.
• that they can increase your rankings without doing any on-page work. Run away!

These claims are all just patently ridiculous and I agree - if your Search Engine Optimization company is telling you any of these things, run away!

Gene Marks wrote an article in BusinessWeek that drew the ire of every SEO and Internet marketer in the business. All you had to do was Google his name and you’d see the backlash. Even my post about him hit Page 1 on Google.

Interestingly, there’s at least one person agreeing with him and search marketer Jaan Kanellis is taking issue with that defender on yesterday’s WebProNews.

I’ll have to agree with Jaan Kanellis again. The only reason Gene Marks wrote the article that he did was to get link bait. Either that or the man is a total and complete idiot.

I focused my last article about him on his misrepresentation and lack of understanding of SEO. But he was wrong on so many other counts as well. Jaan Kanellis only mentions a few of them in his latest article:

• RSS
• Blogs
• SEO
• CRM
• PPC
• Web 2.0

Interestingly, Jaan and I both agree with Gene Marks’ comments regarding Web 2.0 and CRM. So we really don’t have an argument on those points with Gene Marks or with Adam Senour. CRM is pretty much useless for most small businesses. A simple spreadsheet will meet most of your needs. And hardly anyone can agree on the definition of Web 2.0. It’s just some buzzword that some marketers are capitalizing on to make themselves appear more important.

But blogs, RSS, SEO, and PPC are marketing tools and strategies that anyone and everyone can benefit from. OK, maybe you’re not interested in running PPC campaigns, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t benefit from it if you were. Blogs are such simple tools to run and operate that Adam Senour’s comment about the time it takes to maintain a blog is simply ludicrous. But I love Jaan’s point even more:

If you’re not willing to learn and work with the components that make the web what it is then forget about all together. Keep yourself in a box far, far away from technology.

The bottom line is this: Are you using the tools of the Web most effectively? Most small businesses are not. There are things they can do to improve their marketing effectiveness as well as their efficiency. Tools like RSS feeds allow you to do that. Instead of spending hours visiting blogs just to see if you want to read what they have to offer today, you can get all of your news feeds in one place and scroll through them to see which ones you do want to read and which ones you don’t want to mess with. Is that a time saver? You bet it is. A huge one. So why ignore it?

Gene Marks doesn’t have a clue. Neither does anyone who is defending him.

I’ve never heard of anyone saying SEO wasn’t important. I’ve met people who had no interest or made no pretensions about understanding it. But I’ve never met anyone who said it wasn’t necessary. Until now.

Gene Marks, SEO Genius Of BusinessWeek
Gene Marks is a columnist for BusinessWeek so even when he’s wrong people listen. And he’s all kinds of wrong in this January 4 article in BusinessWeek.

Besides being wrong about SEO, Gene Marks is also wrong about a lot of other things in this article. But I’m going to focus on SEO. Here’s a snippet of genius from Gene Marks’ brilliance in BW:

You mean for $5,000 I can get my company’s name on the very top of Google’s search results? Where do I sign? Many business owners have been fooled by the allure of search engine optimization (SEO)—and I’m one of them. I forked over a bunch of dough to a firm in California that promised to get my company’s name on “all the major search engines” when someone was looking for products that we sell. How did they plan to do this? I’m still not really sure, but it had something to do with spiders, black hats, and link farms. That should’ve been enough of a hint that witchcraft was involved. After a brief flirtation with page 47 of MSN’s search results, I gave up. SEO probably does the job for companies with oodles of money, but not for the typical small business.

Here’s the problem. He’s right about spending $5,000 for shoddy SEO work. There are way too many SEOs out there who will overcharge, over promise, and under deliver. But I believe most of us pretty good folks who just want to eat and we provide a valuable service for a fair price.

Gene Marks was obviously taken to the cleaners by a black hat SEO. Well, I’m sorry. That shouldn’t have happened. I apologize on behalf of my fellow SEOs and myself. We’re not all that bad. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. That’s almost as bad.

“I’m still not really sure, but it had something to do with spiders, black hats, and link farms. That should’ve been enough of a hint that witchcraft was involved.”

Here’s a clue: Spiders aren’t bad. All the search engines have them. They need them to crawl websites so they can do their jobs of indexing them.

Black hats are the bad guys. Remember those old westerns? Good guys wore white hats and bad guys wore black hats. Well, here in the wild west of cyberspace, we call good SEOs white hats and bad SEOs black hats. If someone calls himself a black hat then walk away.

Even more of a clue: Link farms are evil. You’ll never rank anywhere if you list your website on link farms. If Gene Marks did that it would explain the page 47 listing. If anyone ever tells you that he is planning to list your site on a link farm, get the hell out! That’s a sure way to disaster.

SEO Is Not Witchcraft, Gene
OK, so all SEOs aren’t on the up and up. We’re not witchcraft or charlatans. Not all of us. But neither are all used car salesmen. Neither are all news weekly columnists. But some are. So how do you protect yourself from the bad guys?

• First, ask a lot of questions. Be sure you understand what they are going to do before you hire them.
• Never accept work from someone who calls himself a black hat SEO or who plans to use link farms
• Don’t believe it when they tell you they’ll get you Page 1 or No. 1 listings on Google. That’s the biggest lie in show business - well, the biggest lie in SEO any way.
• Get a rundown of the specific measures your SEO is planning to take to improve your search engine results. Do some reading on your own and learn whether or not those practices are considered legitimate white hat SEO practices. A good source of information are the official blogs of each of the major search engines.
• SEO does not have to be expensive. $5,000? What do you get for that? Make sure the SEO firm you are considering can justify the price they are charging.

This is a myth that I would like to dispel once and for all, that linkbait won’t help your search engine performance. I have heard it repeated in a few places. Of course, it depends on the linkbait, but it can have a very beneficial effect for your site’s relevance as long as the article adheres to SEO principals.

The truth to the SEO myth is that a single linkbait piece will only give you a brief traffic spike and after that things will go back to normal. Where the myth is wrong is that, this spiking has the benefit of getting you brand recognition and with a little luck, some repeat visitors. If you are able to produce linkbait on a semi-regular basis, then your site will make progress.

Google PageRank is back in the news again. This time it’s from Titus Hoskins on SiteProNews. Unfortunately, he believes the same myth so many other people believe, and it’s all about Google. Thing is, as an Internet marketer, he should know better. Here’s the myth:

Free organic traffic from Google is vital to any online site or business. I would take traffic from Google over any other source of traffic on the web, except for traffic coming from my articles on other sites, and even that traffic probably originated from a search in Google.

You see? It’s all about Google. Not.

The myth that you need Google traffic to survive is perhaps the biggest myth about Internet marketing. It just isn’t true. You can build a website and never get traffic from Google and still survive. As long as you have a steady flow of targeted traffic from two out of three of the other top four search engines then you’ll do fine. Just look at the numbers:

From Hitwise, reflective of numbers in March 2007 …

• Google = 64.13%
• Yahoo = 21.26%
• MSN Live = 9.15%
• Ask = 3.48%

How many billions of searches do you think take place every day? This survey is take from a sample of 10 million searchers in March 2007. 21.26% of 10 million equals 2,126,000 - more than 2 million. This is just a small sampling of the number of people making searches every month and it’s just from one month. Multiply that number by 12 and you get 24 million searches in one year. Again, that’s just a fraction of actual searches taking place on Yahoo. If you appeared in .25% of those searches - a small fraction of the total searches at Yahoo in one year - you’d still appear in 60,000 SERPs. Let’s say only 10% of the people who view those SERPs clicked through to your website - 6,000 new visitors every year. Add that to the people who have you bookmarked and visit your website regularly. Convert 1% of those to sales at an average of $10 per customer and you’ve made $600 extra dollars. Again, that’s just a small fraction of Yahoo traffic.

Every year, traffic online increases. Most people new to the Internet have their home page defaults set at Yahoo, MSN, or AOL, and they don’t change them. That extra $600 you made from organic search at Yahoo, consider a PPC campaign and add another $2,000 to that. Then add a sponsored search drive and another $2,000 in revenue. Now you’re up to $4,600 new revenue this year just from one search engine. This is over and above what you are making with repeat business. Now add half that revenue from MSN Live and half it again from Ask.com. That’s a total of $8,050 new business, over and above the business your repeat customers bring you - in one year. Now increase that a measly 5% each year representing a growth of new business added to the amount of repeat business you get each year. Seeing the picture?

Are these figures realistic? I don’t know. I don’t know how you run your business. But I do know there are lots of people making money - more money than this - from search engines other than Google. All you need is a solid business plan and the ability to work it until it works. You don’t need Google, but it’s nice to have them on your side.