The rules of SEO have been around for many years now. And thanks to the wonders of the Internet, training on concepts that worked years ago can still be found with quick searches, leading website owners to believe they will still work in today’s environment. The fact is SEO rules change every month. And if you continue to use tools and rely on them to bring you the same results month after month, you may get an unpleasant surprise. While some tools will simply stop working, others may actually get your site banned because of their questionable techniques.

Are you still using some of these techniques? Lets take a look at 7 SEO myths that people still widely use, yet may not be delivering the results you are hoping for.

1. You can improve your search engine ranking by having a higher keyword density.

Listing your keyword over and over again on a page (commonly called keyword stuffing) will not increase your ranking. In fact, in Google’s eyes, it may even reduce your ranking, or in some cases get your site banned altogether. Its much better to choose your keyword or phrase and use it in normal conversation as you write out the content on the page.

2. Using your keywords in your meta tags will boost your search engine rankings.

Google used to look at what keywords you used in your meta tags; but spammers got a hold of this technique as well. Because it was an easy place to “keyword stuff” without it showing to your visitors, it was thought to be a great place to focus in on what you hoped to rank for. Now Google pretty much passes by your meta tags and uses other characteristics to rank instead. [Read more…]