Probably the most common questions we receive about search engine rankings relate to keywords. People ask how many keywords should be added on a given page, whether hiding text behind other objects works in increasing rankings, if adding words that the company is not actually relevant for will help in search engines, etc. Hopefully, this article will help to dispel some of these myths, while providing a clearer understanding of what is necessary to create a web site that is both highly ranking, and also friendly to site visitors. Because, after all, who cares how search engine friendly a site is if customers leave in disgust as soon as they find it?

Myth #1: Forget wasting my time writing good content, Adwords will do the work for me, right?

Yes and no. Yes, if you want to keep piling money into adwords, you will keep bringing in traffic. But, the moment you stop paying for adwords, you are right back where you were before but with less money in your pocket. Google Adwords will not increase your organic rankings. It’s worth saying this again, because it seems to be a very pervasive myth, Google Adwords will not increase your organic rankings.

You can spend $100 million dollars, but as soon as that money is gone, so is the traffic that was created. You can’t throw money at your search engine rankings and hope that they will raise. Now, that’s not to say Adwords doesn’t have it’s place, it’s great for sites with a low organic ranking to start (ie a new web site, or one that has recently been redesigned and is still being indexed), as well as for bringing in traffic in an incredibly competitive arena (we use Adwords ourselves), but the fact is that organic rankings are always more important and valuable to your company than paid rankings.

Myth #2: People will search for my site using industry jargon.

This one is less a myth than an attitude. Consciously or not, most people tend to write their content from the perspective of an industry insider (you know your industry better than anyone, right?), and don’t think to review their content with the people who matter most, their customers and potential customers. If you sell “Information Technology” but someone is looking for an “IT guy,” you lose, plain and simple.

Thankfully, there is a quick remedy. Talk to four or five people who are outside of your industry, and ask them “if you were looking to buy a (insert product or service here) online, what would you type into Google to find it?” Take those phrases and words, and make sure that they are actually on your web site. If they aren’t, then add them in, in context on your web site.

If it means removing some of your industry jargon, all the better, as visitors probably don’t know what they mean anyway. If your industry is highly technical, consider a page that provides straightforward definitions for some of your more complex terms. This has the added benefit of giving you a great place to write the list of phrases that you have gleaned in talking to your customers.

Myth #3: I heard that I can just write the top 100 keywords on my page, in no particular order, in the description of my product and call it a day.

You could do that, but you’d run the risk of annoying your customers. No one likes to see a page full of paragraphs of nonsensical content when they are looking to purchase from you. It shows that you have shady morals, or at the very least that you don’t really care that your description doesn’t make sense. And since Google can read your content almost in the manner that a person does, they will quickly notice that your text is garbage.

Myth #4: Someone told me I can hide text on my site by writing it in the same color as my background.

Yes, we still hear this one, and no it won’t work. Google is way too smart to be tricked by an obvious scheme like this one. Enough said.

Myth #5: I heard that Meta Keywords are important, and I want to add them to each page of my site.

This is a complete waste of time. Instead, take that hard work you spent making a list of keywords for each page and put it to good use, by making sure that those are actually written on your web site in some context. If they aren’t, consider rewriting the content. For more on meta tags, read our article entitled “Meta Keywords Tag: Long Dead, But Still Not Gone.”

Take these tips to heart in your writing, and take a hard look at your web site. When is the last time that you isolated half a day to cover your web site’s content? Just how old is what you wrote on there? Does the site even mention your latest products or services? What about the ones that you no longer offer, are they still prominently displayed? Set aside a day’s worth of time every few months (at a minimum) to focus on your web site. In particular, take these words to heart if you just said to yourself “the web site doesn’t bring us enough business to justify spending time on it.”

The web site doesn’t bring you business because you have not taken the time to create value. Make your site a resource, and you will have no shortage of business coming from it.