Posted on January 18th, 2010Search engine optimization is a very specialized field that incorporates both art and science. A keen eye for which strategies and what kind of content will work is an important part of SEO. Unfortunately, as search engine optimization is still a new concept for many people and new website owners, there are certain misconceptions about what SEO can and cannot do. A few of them are discussed below.
People assume that website designers all know about SEO and they can handle it when the web site is being built. The truth is that only a few, if at all, will actually know about the various intricacies of search engine optimization. SEO is a very specialized service indeed, and although a web designer can try to make a web site SEO-friendly, it is obviously not the same as making your web site search engine optimized.
Another popular misconception is that getting a company to promote your keywords on their website is effectively SEO. This is an erroneous belief. Promoting your keywords is a part of good SEO, but it is certainly not the only thing that you should do. Paying a company to do keyword promotion is a very ineffective and short-sighted way of doing SEO.
Once the web site has been optimized most people think that their job is done. They are under the impression that SEO is only a one-time project. But the truth is that SEO is actually an ongoing effort. A web site getting optimized is a significant step towards progress, no doubt. But there must still be ongoing efforts and strategies to continuously edit the web site and constantly generate more relevant links.
Never believe when a company says that they can guarantee a number one ranking of your website on a search engine as popular as Google. This is probably the most common misconception about SEO. No company can guarantee a claim as big as a top result in Google or MSN. You must be wary of this claim as usually the case turns out that companies are only claiming a top ranking result for an obscure and unused search term.
Buying a SEO software is not nearly as effective as hiring an SEO company to do your job. An efficient piece of software used for SEO purposes may serve as a good start to your initial SEO efforts but it will not be as thorough as an actual SEO company that works on perpetually optimizing your web site. Technology is always good, but it cannot replace the time and the effort that a team of SEO experts can put in on a web site. It also cannot compare with the kind of results that the team can bring to the table.