SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is extremely important for any internet company but also important for web sites from brick and mortar businesses. SEO is important to bring the right targeted audience to your website. There are many myths about SEO, some are true, some were valid a few years ago, and many have no basis.

Myth 1: Multiple Domains

One SEO tactic involves etting up multiple domain names to bring more traffic to your business. This can be helpful, but often is not. Not only would this be expensive (yearly fees for domain name and maintenance) but would be very time consuming to maintain all the websites.

Myth 2: Search Engine Submission

Resubmitting your information every few weeks is not necessary, but could even reduce your priority ranking. Once your website is in the database of the search engines, there is no need to update your information.

Myth 3: Meta Tags

Another myth is that meta tags increase visitors. These might have been true five - ten years ago years ago, but current search engines do not place priority with the inclusion or absence of meta tags on a website. One important thing to remember is that the search engines do use the meta description tags when displaying your site in the SERPS. So while the meta tags may not affect your rankings, well written meta tags can increase the number of searchers who visit your site.

Myth 4: SEO Is Too Costly

Other myths include the value of SEO. They feel SEO experts are a costly, unnecessary expense. Marketing efforts are very costly. Direct mail, banner ads, radio or TV ad time, print advertisement, e-mails lists and trade fairs can all be more expense than SEO. Some companies believe an in house SEO effort can be as effective as an SEO company. This is a myth too, and SEO is a function that should be outsourced to ensure the company is aware of the latest trends. Traffic on you your website can be increased drastically by a SEO professional.

Myth 5: SEO Doesn't Matter

The other major myth is that when people are looking for a specific company, they type in the website url. Since the exact name of the website is rarely known, many people (estimated at close to 90%) save time by using a search engine to quickly and easily locate a website. For example, even for major websites like http://Msn.com or http://Amazon.com, people use a search engine to locate the website instead of going directly to the site. SEO is important so that your business may be found on the search engines.