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Three SEO Myths Debunked

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Myth 1: SEO is Difficult and Requires a Dedicated SEO Consultant.

For most companies, the basics of SEO will provide a lot of value, and the basics are not hard to do. Using some relatively simple software tools plus a little bit of training an average marketing professional can do the most essential parts of SEO and get a lot of value out of the process. Only very large (many thousands of pages or thousands of product SKUs) websites really need a dedicated SEO consultant.

Myth 2: SEO is About Making Technical Changes to a Website.

SEO is actually mostly about content. The more compelling, interesting content you have on your website, the better your chances of doing well on SEO. For most companies, making technical changes to their meta-data and similar technical updates will have some effect, but it is less powerful than creating lots of interesting content. SEO is really about developing more content, better content and optimizing that content. If I had $100,000 to invest in SEO, I would hire a journalist to create lots of articles and videos, not an SEO consultant.

Myth 3: SEO is Only for SEO Consultants and Webmasters.

Knowing the basic principles of SEO is important for everyone in marketing who creates content. Product Managers, Brand Managers and Copywriters create a lot of content about your products, and this content should be search engine optimized. Anyone in your company who blogs, like the CEO or a product evangelist, should be trained on the basics of SEO. Learning the basics of SEO can help anyone create content that is more likely to get found in search engines, and creating content with SEO in mind from the start is much more cost-effective than trying to apply SEO to content after the fact.

Posted by Mike Volpe on Mon, Jul 14, 2008 @ 09:09 AM

COMMENTS

All one has to do is follow the advice you have previously given to know that every one of these points is right on target. Once the basics are in place and implemented by your team SEO becomes a mindset that spills over into every aspect of your online presence, from website updates to advertising and press releases. Targeted content is the key.

posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 9:51 AM by Mike Weber


I've subscribed very recently, this is the 2nd article that I received. Being in website design, I think every one related to this field must read.  
 
Can you pl elaborate the "Basics Of SEO"? Or even if you have article published earlier pl forward the link

posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 9:56 AM by Avinash


@avinash  
 
Basics of SEO can include: Intelligent Title tags that vary per-page depending on that page's content, meta-keywords/meta-description, utilizing an XML sitemap, using proper 301 redirects, interlink between your pages using text rich with keywords, use text rather than imagery when possible

posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 4:12 PM by Marcel


Regarding Myth #2, how do you define content optimization? 
 
Feedburner considers optimization resources to include syndication, photo/graph splicing, and interactivity in general. Do you go beyond?

posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 8:56 PM by Ari Herzog


@Ari - I would think less about optimizing content, and more about generating more "remarkable" content. The kind of content where people say "wow, that's cool" and link to it and email it to their friends. 
 
@Avinash - We have dones a great basics of SEO webinar called "SEO 101" and you can view a recording of it here in our webinar archives: http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-webinars

posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 10:05 PM by Mike Volpe


Thanks for clearing away the smoke and mirrors - especially your point that SEO is mostly about providing relevant social content.

posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 10:13 AM by Jeff Davis


Yes, I firmly believe that just about anyone with a little bit of training can SEO their own website. 

posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 1:16 PM by John H. Gohde


I disagree with 1 and 2. They are misleading an inaccurate.  
 
1) Doing SEO wrong can do more harm than good... and I mean a lot of harm. There are lots of good reasons to hire an SEO consultant, and there is a lot more to SEO than the basics. 
 
2) The best and most content in the world isn't going to help you if your site is built in an seo unfriendly way. 
 
And this is coming from someone who helps clients build content.

posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 4:41 PM by Patrick Fire


Thanks for clearing my mind about seo> instead of spending more money on seo programs, here you explain the myths of seo. 
 
Can't wait to receive your newsletter. 
 
Ed

posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 6:46 PM by Ed


Before I found Hubspot and your website grader, I would have believed all these myths. Now I am seeing more and more that I can do SEO myself and that is exactly why I just signed up for your service. I just need the tools to see what works and what doesn't. 
 
I can't wait to see more traffic start rolling in!

posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 8:18 AM by Computer Networking


I've been working with an SEO specialist and they claim that the weighting between on page and off page optimisation (which you don't really mention) is 30/70 so Google give favour to white hat links as they are seen as "votes" for your website, driving relevance which is the main foundation for the Google analysis (Google spider crawl). I'd be interested to see if you agree with that school of thought?

posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 11:30 AM by GYEO


I tend to agree with Patrick on those points. 
 
1) We all know that bad SEO can get you banned... poor SEO will get you nothing. 
 
Once you're in supplemental you could be stuck there. If you're blacklisted getting re-included can be pretty tough. 
 
2) Great content hidden in images or flash isn't going to help the cause at all. Poor design includes making it impossible for the the search engines to find your great content. I'd rather have great SEO design and mediocre content than poor SEO design and fantastic content. 
 
Of course I'd want to have great design and fantastic content combined.

posted on Thursday, August 07, 2008 at 10:34 AM by Robert


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