SEO has seen remarkable change in the past decade in terms of how search engines crawl, index and rank pages; how people search for information; and how marketers influence the search engines to improve traffic. However, there is a shocking amount of misinformation about current SEO practices.
Link-buying, keyword stuffing and obsession with meta data are giving way to a greater focus on quality content and optimization for specific devices to improve results.
One ongoing misconception is that meta descriptions have a huge impact on search rankings. However, Google announced in 2009 that meta descriptions (and meta keywords) have little to no bearing on search rankings. That’s not to say they aren’t important. Compelling descriptions can entice a searcher to click on your link in the search engine results pages (SERPs) over someone else’s.
To learn about 18 other practices that no longer work, and the alternatives to strengthening your rank, download our guide, “19 SEO Myths You Should Leave Behind in 2015.”