Browsing SEO forums this morning, I came across a great thread where a new SEO consultant in New Zealand had taken an informal poll of her hosting clients to measure their beliefs about SEO... She was a bit shocked by their feedback.
One insightful forum member posted "The 10 Biggest Misconceptions about SEO" he encounters - see if you hold any of these misconceptions...
"1) It's about meta tags
2) It's something in the code
3) Companies can just "make a website appear at #1" if they are really good
4) When you are done next week, my site should be #1
5) My site will stay #1 forevermore
6) If I have good rankings, I don't need to do any other marketing
7) Nothing has to be changed on my site to "do SEO" to it
8) Super secret special tricks will get my site to the top faster. These are the things no one will tell you about because they want to keep the information to themselves.
9) Ranking #1 for terms no one searches for, like "digital moonpie miami" is a great accomplishment. (My sister's Disney fan site ranks #1 for "crackle barrel restarant" and "hampsterdance". Sadly, it hasn't improved traffic...)
10) Rankings are what make a site successful."
Read the thread on
"Commonly Held SEO Myths"
Search Engine Optimization Blog Article...