The document discusses and debunks several common myths about search engine optimization (SEO). It addresses myths such as the importance of PageRank, the effects of linking out to other websites, the benefits of reciprocal links, the impact of URL suffixes, the need for frequent website updates, and the usefulness of meta keywords tags. The document provides evidence from Google and SEO experts to show that these widely held beliefs are not actually important factors that influence search engine rankings.

1. Theo van der Zee (@theovdzee) CEO & Co-founder, FinishJoomla (@finishjoomla) Joomla!Day Germany, September 2011 SEO Myths Busted

2. Theo van der Zee Follow me on Twitter: @theovdzee and @finishjoomla

4. PageRank Myths Linking out Up-to-date Meta keywords Suffix Reciprocal links

6. Source: http://www.slingshotseo.com/resources/white-papers/google-ctr-study/

7. Source: http://gs.statcounter.com/

8. “ PageRank is a highly important metric” Myth I:

9. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PageRank-hi-res.png Myth I: “PageRank is a highly important metric”

10. Myth I: “PageRank is a highly important metric”

11. Correlation PageRank to Position 0 0.5 1 No correlation Perfect correlation PageRank 0.18 Source: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-science-of-ranking-correlations Myth I: “PageRank is a highly important metric”

13. An imprecise metric 4 5 PR 4 PR 4 Myth I: “PageRank is a highly important metric”

14. “ Our PageRank has dropped in the last PageRank update!Now what?” “ I don’t know, sue Google in court?” Myth I: “PageRank is a highly important metric”

15. Better metrics than PageRank Myth I: “PageRank is a highly important metric” Source: http://www.elated.com/articles/website-conversion-rates-for-beginners/

16. Better metrics than PageRank Myth I: “PageRank is a highly important metric” Source: http://www.majesticseo.com/

17. PageRank is not important “ […] many site owners seem to think [PageRank] is the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true.” -- Google Employee Susan Moskwa Source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=6a1d6250e26e9e48 Myth I: “PageRank is a highly important metric”

18. “ PageRank is a highly important metric” Myth I: Busted?

19. “ Linking out to other websites is bad” Myth II:

20. What does Google say? “ In the same way that Google trusts sites less when they link to spammy sites or bad neighborhoods, parts of our system encourage links to good sites”. -- Head of Google’s Webspam team Matt Cutts Source: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/ Myth II: “Linking out to other websites is bad”

21. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1_rio_de_janeiro_slum_2010.JPG Myth II: “Linking out to other websites is bad”

22. Source: http://seogadget.co.uk/google-page-penalty-for-comment-spam-rankings-and-traffic-drop/ Spammy comments Myth II: “Linking out to other websites is bad”

23. Rel=“nofollow” <a rel=“nofollow” href=“http://www.joomla.org”>No link value passed</a> Myth II: “Linking out to other websites is bad” The rel=“nofollow” standard is adopted by all major search engines.

24. “ Linking out to other websites is bad” Myth II: Busted?

25. “ Trading links will increase rankings” Myth III:

26. Source: http://www.blog.organicapex.com/reciprocal-link/ Reciprocal links Myth III: “Trading links will increase rankings”

27. 3-way reciprocal link A B C Myth III: “Trading links will increase rankings”

28. Important aspects of a link <a href=“http://www.joomla.org”> This is the anchor text </a> Myth III: “Trading links will increase rankings” The anchor text is one of the most important aspects of a link.

29. Source: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links Links in content > Links outside content Myth III: “Trading links will increase rankings”

30. “ Trading links will increase rankings” Myth III: Busted?

31. “ Using a suffix will make your pages rank better” Myth IV:

32. .html http://www.example.org/index .html .php .exe .cgi .asp Myth IV: “Using a suffix will make your pages rank better”

33. What the big boys are doing Myth IV: “Using a suffix will make your pages rank better”

34. “ Using a suffix will make your pages rank better” Myth IV: Busted?

35. “ A regularly updated webpage ranks higher” Myth V:

36. The long tail Source: http://www.elliance.com/aha/infographics/long-tail-seo.aspx Myth V: “A regularly updated webpage ranks higher”

37. What about you? Myth V: “A regularly updated webpage ranks higher”

38. “ A regularly updated webpage ranks higher” Myth V: Busted?

39. “ Meta keywords tag boosts your rankings” Myth VI:

40. There he is again... “ [...] Google does not use the keywords meta tag in our web search” -- Head of Google’s Webspam team Matt Cutts Source: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/keywords-meta-tag-in-web-search/ “ I hope this clarifies that the keywords meta tag is not something that you need to worry about, or at least not in Google.” Myth VI: “Meta keywords tag boosts your rankings”

41. Entering the keywords Joomla! Administrator -> Global Configuration -> Site Myth VI: “Meta keywords tag boosts your rankings”

42. Meta description as shown in Google Meta title Meta description Myth VI: “Meta keywords tag boosts your rankings”

43. Extract meta keywords from page source Myth VI: “Meta keywords tag boosts your rankings”

44. “ Meta keywords tag boosts your rankings” Myth VI: Busted?

46. Questions?

47. @theovdzee Theo van der Zee [email_address] @finishjoomla