SEO is a mystery to many people. Partly because Google is not about to publicize a big list of what works and what doesn’t – but mostly because of widespread misinformation and refusal to let go of old things that may have worked but no longer do anything but harm a website’s rankings.
As SEOs, it is our duty to educate clients. An educated consumer is much more likely to succeed – and it makes our lives easier when we don’t have to explain to clients why we won’t do something they read about somewhere.
Kate Morris wrote this awesome look at several bad ideas you may not know are just wrong.
Some of the things highlighted include:
- Hidden text behind images
- Copying the competition even when they are clueless
- Lots of links equals high rankings
- Traffic drop means you have a penalty
- Duplicate content is cause for a penalty (it is a problem, but not a specific penalty)
Webmasters and “do it yourselfers”: how many of these do you still think are true?
SEO people: Have any others that get on your nerves?
Read the whole thing at Moz:
http://moz.com/blog/seo-concepts-people-still-think-are-reality
“The bane of the existence of all search marketers is old or incorrect information given to clients at any point in time. This is a call to educate with a look at those concepts that make us do a serious facepalm.”
