Bing’s Duane Forrester Debunks SEO Myths

It’s a common theme among the world’s most notable SEO figureheads right now – just what are the biggest SEO myths plaguing the industry? Matt Cutts recently went into detail with his own thoughts on the subject – now it’s Bing’s Duane Forrester’s turn to tell us all how wrong we are to believe what we might have put faith in.            Here’s a look at a few of the key entries to Duane’s list:It’s Crucial to Rank Number-OneThe very top of the rankings is of course the Holy Grail for all SEO professionals, but at the same time isn’t the be all and end all. The differences in performance between the top three players in all manner of Google searches is so insignificant that it’s impossible to consider any of the front-runners anything but unmitigated success stories in their SEO efforts.Social Media is EnoughPlenty of SEO pros have fallen into the habit of using social media primarily or even exclusively in their campaigns. And despite many having found great success in doing so, Mr. Duane Forrester insists that social media alone really is not enough. Instead, backing it up with more SEO elements is crucial for the long term.Buying Advertising Will Boost an SEO ProfileEver since SEO first emerged as an important marketing tool, rumors and reports have been epidemic that buying ad space will in fact boost your overall SEO profile. Sadly this isn’t the case at all as while a paid ad might bring in some decent organic traffic, it won’t actually do anything for the site’s SEO profile once the ad’s run comes to an end.Your Site’s Content is AmazingA point of dispute if ever there was one, but huge swathes of the online business community are deluded in thinking that the content of their site is simply awesome. A quick look at the site’s analytics is usually all that’s needed to confirm that this is not the case at all – if it really was so good, your bounce rate would probably be a hell of a lot lower. Just because you think it’s great doesn’t mean your visitors share the same opinion.Link Building Will See You RightAccording to Duane Forrester, there’s only one type of link that will ever do you any real favour and that’s the link you had no idea even existed. Or in other words, the organic links that you earn by producing content that’s worth linking to, as opposed to the links you buy in bulk just for the sake of bumping up the numbers.SEO is the Sole Secret to SuccessAnd finally, something Mr. Forrester was extremely keen to stress was the way in which it can be fatal to assume that SEO is the be all and end all. There’s no disputing the importance of SEO and it’s almost impossible to get by without getting it right, but effective SEO alone does not make for a successful business. After all, you could use SEO to boost the rankings of an online store that specializes in selling bottled grass cuttings…it doesn’t mean it’s ever going to make a penny.