17 SEO Myths It's Time To Leave Behind

SEO has gone through many changes since marketers first discovered the value of being listed on the first page of search engine results. That was nearly 20 years ago, and during that time many beliefs arose about the best ways marketers could outfox the algorithms. Many of those beliefs are just that: beliefs, according to Hubspot, an inbound marketing and sales platform company. In "17 SEO Myths You Should Leave Behind in 2014," the company attempts to put them to rest. From the introduction of the 24-page guide:

"SEO has changed so much in the past several years that many marketers aren't sure what's outdated, what's important, what will actually move the needle, and what's simply wasted effort. This guide is going to point out all of the most common myths and assumptions about how SEO works and debunk them for you, so you're not wasting a single moment on things that simply don't matter for SEO in 2014."

The 17 SEO myths are listed just below. (How many do you base your decisions on?) For more detail and explanation, download the free report... as well as a free guide and keyword worksheet on how to update your SEO tactics.

1. I must submit my site to Google.
2. SEO is all about ranking.
3. SEO is something I can hand off to IT.
4. More links are better than more content.
5. Meta descriptions have a huge impact on search rankings.
6. Social media and SEO aren't related at all.
7. On-page SEO is all I need to rank.
8. Keywords need to be an exact match.
9. There's an ideal keyword density for my page.
10. The H1 is the most important on-page element.
11. My homepage needs a lot of content.
12. The more pages I have, the better.
13. For local SEO, I only need to list my company's city, state, and/or country on my pages.
14. Microsites and other domains I own that link or redirect back to my site will help my SEO.
15. Google will never know if I have bad sites linking to me.
16. SEO is not a usability issue.
17. SEO and inbound marketing don't mix.

From the guide's conclusion:

"If you can take one thing away from this guide, it's this: More than anything else, SEO is about the overall experience for a searcher, and that experience starts the moment they enter a search query. The better their experience with you - from your SERP listing to the quality and relevancy of the content on your site to the ease with which they can move through your site - the better your SEO will be, too."