Five myths about Search Engine Optimization

Probably no other web service has as much confusion and myth surrounding as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Small companies are afraid of the cost, and large companies are often scared of the competition. Regardless, explaining SEO to our clients is very important, and debunking these myths is usually necessary.

SEO is only for the big guys.
Every company that has a website needs to address SEO. In 2007, an independent marketing firm pegged SEO as the most effective way to increase revenue from a website. Their study showed that SEO helps companies of all sizes, and in fact, it can even the playing field, allowing smaller companies to compete with the big boys in the WWW world.
SEO has to be expensive
Some of the basics of SEO are common sense programming and organization. With the right plan, SEO can save money in the long run
SEO is a quick-fix
Though there are some elemental things that can be done to ensure a website is optimized for the search engines, the task of getting a higher ranking, more visibility, more inbound links, etc. takes time. Often it takes a long time. Several months. If you want immediate results, you’re fooling yourself. Any SEO company that promise immediate results or a certain ranking is not to be trusted.
It’s a one-time task
Nothing further could be from the truth. Don’t make this mistake or you’ll pay for it. SEO should be baked into the design of your website, and it can be implemented later if it was overlooked during the development stages, but it IS NOT a “set it and forget it” process. The algorithms that are used by search engine heavyweights like Google and Yahoo! are constantly being changed. Your SEO tactics need to be flexible, in fact they need to anticipate these changes. Depending on the amount of traffic your site receives, you’ll need to be monitoring SEO on at least a quarterly basis, and often much more often than that.
All I have to do is submit my website to search engines
A common misconception held by many is that SEO primarily consists of submitting a website to multiple search engines. In fact, submitting a website to search engines is relatively simple and doesn’t take much time or expertise. However, submitting a website that isn’t Search Engine Optimized will do you little good. Beware of SEO firms who tout the raw number of search engines they’ll submit your website to. Far more important is how well the website has been developed in the first place.