Closing the Myths

[ConnorBringas]

Ive decided to make a post about all the myths because people just need to understand whats false.
Myth 1: Building Too Many Backlinks Will Get Your Site Deindexed
This is completely false. Theres no such thing as sandboxing..it doesnt exist.

Myth 2: Duplicate Content Will Get You Banned

There is some truth in this. Do not just copy and paste content onto your site..you're just asking to get banned. For example if multiple pages on your website are the same with different titles thats duplicate content.
However if you're posting the same content on different websites thats syndicated content. Understand? If duplicate content would ban websites then all I'd have to do is post some articles about my competition on hundreds of article directories and they'd be banned..not true..

Myth 3: Get A Backlink From Relevant Websites

This myth is not true. You can get backlinks from any site its just weighted more if you get it from a relevant website.
For example if you get a link exchange from a site thats about puppies and your site is about puppies..then you get a "better link"
Its not NECESSARY to get a backlink from relevant sites but its good too.

Myth 4: No-Follow Links Are Worthless

This is not true. A link is a link. Whether its do follow or no follow.

Myth 5: Certain Backlinks Can Get You Banned

Not true at all. Backlinks will never get you banned unless you are linking to sites that are spammy or bad quality over and over again. If backlinks get you banned then all I'd have to do is link my competition to "bad sites" and they would be banned from the SERPs.

[minstrel]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to take issue with these.

Originally Posted by ConnorBringas

Myth 1: Building Too Many Backlinks Will Get Your Site Deindexed
This is completely false. Theres no such thing as sandboxing..it doesnt exist.

1. There's a difference between "deindexed" and "sandboxed".

2. Acquiring a large number of incoming links in a short period of time, especially but not exclusively where those links are not from pages with content related to your page, may or may not get you banned or penalized but it may well get you flagged for investigation as a link buyer, which in turn may have an adverse impact on your ranking.

3. Exactly what gets you into the sandbox and/or how to avoid that and even how the sandbox is defined may be in dispute, but I think you'll find that the existence of the sandbox is not usually disputed.

Originally Posted by ConnorBringas

Myth 2: Duplicate Content Will Get You Banned

There is some truth in this.

I would suggest that there is NO truth to this, unless you are scraping entire websites.

Originally Posted by ConnorBringas

Myth 3: Get A Backlink From Relevant Websites

This myth is not true. You can get backlinks from any site its just weighted more if you get it from a relevant website.

By your own statements, then, it is true.

Originally Posted by ConnorBringas

Myth 4: No-Follow Links Are Worthless

This is not true. A link is a link. Whether its do follow or no follow.

Except that no-follow links will provide no SEO benefit, at least for Google. Will they provide any benefit in terms of traffic? Depends on where they are. Will they provide any ogther benefits? Possibly the direction of search engine spiders to pages they haven't yet "discovered".

Originally Posted by ConnorBringas

Myth 5: Certain Backlinks Can Get You Banned

Not true at all. Backlinks will never get you banned unless you are linking to sites that are spammy or bad quality over and over again.

Again, your own statements indicate that it IS true.

[jimr]

Originally Posted by minstrel

I'm afraid I'm going to have to take issue with these.



1. There's a difference between "deindexed" and "sandboxed".

2. Acquiring a large number of incoming links in a short period of time, especially but not exclusively where those links are not from pages with content related to your page, may or may not get you banned or penalized but it may well get you flagged for investigation as a link buyer, which in turn may have an adverse impact on your ranking.

3. Exactly what gets you into the sandbox and/or how to avoid that and even how the sandbox is defined may be in dispute, but I think you'll find that the existence of the sandbox is not usually disputed.



I would suggest that there is NO truth to this, unless you are scraping entire websites.



By your own statements, then, it is true.



Except that no-follow links will provide no SEO benefit, at least for Google. Will they provide any benefit in terms of traffic? Depends on where they are. Will they provide any ogther benefits? Possibly the direction of search engine spiders to pages they haven't yet "discovered".



Again, your own statements indicate that it IS true.

Hi Minstrel,
I think the point connor was trying to make with bullet 3 is that there is incorrect info floating around the web that suggests that links from irrelevant sites have no SEO value whatsoever. Of coure, we all know that's rubbish - I'll accept a link from anyone if it's given freely

[ConnorBringas]

haha, my point to the myths was that there is some truth in all of them, but taking them completely literally makes you a fool. Duplicate content really does get you banned if you scrape websites like you said. But all in all it wont..just like anything in life you have to take it with a grain of salt.

[Niche]

On the backlinks thing, I am finding that on site optimization seems to be making a difference to my rankings. It may just be a fluke but it's worth looking into.

[ConnorBringas]

it isnt a fluke. On page optimization is the difference between ranking in the top 10 and not. Its very important, however if you're ranking for horrible keywords that arent very popular then on page isnt to important. But for competitive keywords where everyone knows about seo and actually does do on page..its important obviously.