Breaking Down Common Search Engine Optimisation Myths

Rebecca Appleton is the operations director at Top Position, a centre of excellence for pay per click advertising and search engine optimisation. Here Rebecca responds to some of the most common misconceptions regarding SEO

Q1. I am currently using an search engine optimisation agency and they are using a wide selection of blogging, bookmarking and press distribution sites to gain vital link backs. They seem to be doing a good job but I think they should be using sites with a high page rank- am I right in saying this?

A. It is true that when you link to good quality site with a high page rank that some of that goodwill will rub off, however website owners are becoming increasingly hung up about the concept of page rank. The highest page ranks of a domain are usually from the homepage and the pages off this are usually of a lower rank. Despite this change in rank, the domain on the whole will still be a respected site, with a lot of traffic flowing through it. This usually applies to blogging sites such as Blogger, Squidoo and BlogSpot. What I always tell our clients is that having a good page rank does not influence your position in the search engine rankings, there are many sites out there with a high page rank that are certainly not on the first page of Google.

Q2. I am confused about the importance of Meta keywords, what are they and how can I change them?

A. Meta keywords are keywords which highlight web pages content. These keywords are hidden in the HTML and are optional features of a website.   To identify what yours are, simply go to the search engine toolbar and go to ‘view’ then ‘source’. You will be presented with a page of HTML coding. Your keywords will look something like this:

<meta name="keywords" content="phone, iphone, phone accessories" />

I advise our clients that only the lesser search engines still pay attention to meta keywords, as spammers have reduced their importance over the last few years, but to make sure that their meta keywords include an up to date list of keywords that they wish to be associated with

Q3. My current search engine optimisation agency only offers on site optimisation and link building strategies. I have recently read that I should be creating unique content for the site- do you have any advice?

A. Yes, you should be working towards creating unique optimised content on a weekly basis. This content should be anything from new web pages to unique articles, which can then be sent to press to gain more link backs, as well as contributing towards the growth of the site.   Each item produced should be a minimum length of 250 words, be keyword rich and be linked to relevant pages on your website. At Top Position, we offer this service as standard, this unique content is then sent out as PRs and then added to the site to fulfil the on page optimization side of our SEO service.

Q4. My SEO agency keep mentioning Robots TXT files and I still do not understand what this is- help!

A. Robots TXT file is a piece of HTML coding that tells search engine spiders to look at a particular page of a site. It also acts as an invitation to your site. Along with Robots TXT files are no follow links, which are almost the reverse. These tell the search engine spiders not visit a certain page of your site. The benefit of this is that if you have duplicate content on a two pages, you will not be penalised for this.

Q5. If I am auditing site content what things should I bear in mind?

A. You should make sure that any content is optimised with deep linking, that it is keyword rich and that it is engaging. SEO is all about considering the human user and making sure that you create unique well-written content.