Despite so many people dabbling in websites not many really know much about SEO and how it really works. There’s a lot of misinformation that’s doing the rounds, and in fact some of them have been doing the rounds for so long that people have started to actually believe in them. Let’s take a look at some SEO myths that need to be demolished urgently.

SEO Is Not Science

Anybody who really understands the principles of SEO will appreciate that there can be nothing more scientific. All web search engines are computer programs whose behavior is controlled by complex mathematical and logical programs called algorithms. The construction of algorithms is a series of mathematical equations that take into all the probable conditions and turn up results that are consistent and accurate. The quality of the results will not vary with the number of iterations, because even if complex, it is just math and not guesswork. The reason for which SEO performance may seem inconsistent has more to do with the quality of the people undertaking SEO. They may be simply not optimizing the site scientifically or may not even have the knowledge to do so and merely pretending to be professionals. A real SEO expert will be a recognizable member of the relatively-small SEO community and will be connected well with the rest of the members. Running a reference check before you hire one can boost your confidence.

SEO Comes Cheaply

Before you engage an SEO firm, you need to find out what benefits you will get out of the exercise. Once the advantages have been explained to you, you will surely be able to figure out that SEO is a matter of life and death for the business. If you are an amateur, you could possibly live with a website that has no worthwhile search engine ranking, but any commercial website needs more than just adequate SEO to prosper. Going by sheer logic, if SEO is that important for you, there’s no earthly reason why the process should be cheap at all. After all the online environment is changing rapidly, new technologies are being developed by the hour, and it does require a lot of intelligence, skill and effort to stay on top of all this. Long gone are the days when some simple tweaks could have given you the search engine visibility. Now it’s a long and continuous battle to be fought every day for superior rankings and link generation. Rather than bargaining for cheap SEO, you should really be concerned about SEO services that offer good value.

Audits Shouldn’t Cost Much

It is very easy to generate a nice-looking report based on a few analytics to impress a naïve client. A genuine SEO company will take the trouble of explaining to the client the importance of a detailed audit and how it can affect the fortunes of his website. Paying well for a website audit will ensure that not only the correct tools will be used for the analytics but the SEO firm will utilize its full expertise and experience to interpret the results accurately. Spending on audits amounts to spending to use the entire knowledge base of the SEO company.So you can be sure if it is priced ridiculously cheap there’s something very wrong with it, and your website may potentially lose out on valuable opportunities.Also make sure that audits are conducted at least once a year for best tracking of your SEO effectiveness.

Link-Building Serves No Purpose

It is very evident that there’s not much point in having a website that visitors do not find useful and relevant to their information requirements or to carry out required transactions. It is but natural that if the website is useful, visitors will want to include links to it on their own websites, blogs, or social media accounts. Search engines like Google and Bing use both the content and the external links to decide on the ranking. Only content, however good, is unlikely to make the site perform brilliantly.So, you need to consider link acquisition. To obtain good quality links from sites that are viewed as superior by search engines can take a lot of expertise as well as patience, and unfortunately it does not come cheap. If you prefer to be among those who think a link to be nothing more than a link, you could always buy links. However, it is almost certain that Google Penguin update will sniff them out and blacklist your site. So, you would getvirtually no return for the money spent.

Author bio

Vinod Jethwani is the CEO and Founder of Walnut Solutions and he helps web based companies with his SEO strategies to grown their revenue. He started his career in 2007 as a software developer with an Indian based MNC and later in 2011 became an entrepreneur. Follow him on Twitter @VinodJethwani or through his blog.