There are often many misconceptions about search engine optimization (SEO) . Since search engine algorithms are kept secret by search engine companies, Internet marketing experts often do not have the answers themselves. But of course, we may understand SEO better through years of experience and observations. Below are just some common myths about SEO:

Myth No. 1 - Submission to over 10,000 search engines

"We will submit your website to over 10,000 search engines!" Does it sound familiar? There are many SEO consultants and companies who claim that they can submit your website to so many search engines. Yet, those in the industry and normal web designers will know that there are only 3 major search engines which are responsible for more than 90% of search engine traffic: Google, Yahoo!, MSN. The smaller ones are Ask.com etc. Some search engines use search listings derived from Google. So, where are the 10,000+ search engines? We suppose these are web directories which are NOT search engines that they mean.

Anyway, we do not need to submit to search engines nowadays. All you need is to get an inbound link from a website that is indexed by search engines. The robots will be able to find your website by following the link that is pointing to your site.

Myth No. 2 - Sites are ranked highly due to high traffic

It is a common misconception that site traffic determines site ranking. While search engines may take the number of repeat visits into consideration, it is definitely not justifiable for a high traffic website to rank highly, just because it has many visitors. But of course, nobody will actually know about search engine algorithm except the search engines themselves. Busy sites may rank highly due to its high number backlinks, site age, site structure, site mass and many other factors.

Myth No. 3 - Flash elements can seriously affect search ranking

While too much flash on a website can slow down site loading and reduce the number of keywords or key phrases that search engine robots look for, there is no reason why flash elements may affect SERP. In the past, search engine robots had problems crawlings sites that contain flash elements. But search technology has improved a great deal since then. Maybe smaller search engines have such problems but not for major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Myth No. 4 - Having plenty of keywords in the content helps ranking

Generally,  a web page should contain about 10% to 15% important keywords that potential visitors may type into the search box to find your website. Having the right keyword density can help your site to rank higher. However, too much keywords in the content may be considered as spam. Your website may be penalized instead. Hiding keywords in the same color background is definitely worse. We call this keyword cloaking and search engines are able to detect these spam techniques.

Myth No. 5 - Meta Keyword tag is still useful

In the past when search engine technology was not so evolved, search engines depend on meta keywords and description to rank websites. However, this technique is no longer useful due to excessive spam. A newbie SEO consultant who is optimizing a restaurant website may put the keywords in Meta tags like this: <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="restaurant, restaurant, restaurant etc">. Does it mean that this site can achieve high ranking with such simple technique?

It may work in the past. But if its so easy to get your site higher ranking with this technique today, every other website will be able to rank No. 1 then.

If you have just started optimizing your own website or searching for a professional SEO consultant , things can be confusing. Sometimes, resources that you may find online can also be misleading and outdated. It takes some time and patience to understand about online marketing, especially SEO .