7 Myths and Facts About Google SERPs

Posted by Enzo Chiu on: 2006-09-13 22:39:36

Myth: High Page Rank = high traffic.

Fact: Big mistake. Page Rank only shows the popularity level of a website and has no connection with traffic. In fact, many websites with low Page Rank even have high traffic.

Myth: Once your website is listed in a "link farm", Google will penalize it.
Fact: Nonsense. Everyone is able to submit your website to a "link farm"; so what if it's one of your competitors who did it to ruin your reputation? Google will not be that stupid.

Myth: Once your website is penalized and removed from Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), there will be no chance to resubmit it again.
Fact: Big Mistake. If you suspect you get penalized, you better confirm it to Google and ask what the problem is. You are welcome to resubmit it as long as the problem has been fixed. Two problems that usually caused it are: you use black hat techniques to promote your website (cloaking, creating hidden link, creating doorway pages, etc) or you are being caught by big daddy algorithm (you create an exact copy of another website/ duplicate content).

Myth: Google Sitemaps will increase your Page Rank.
Fact: Big Mistake. Google Sitemaps is just used as an additional tool to index your webpages; so don't expect more.

Myth: Google will ban your website if you use free articles in it, because it contains duplicate contents.
Fact: It depends on the number of free articles you used. There are many people say that free article is the same as duplicate content, and Google will definitely ban it. But imagine; if they really do it, how many news websites (which usually take their news from CNN and Reuters) that are being banned by Google? Using free articles as your contents is fine as long as you do not cross the border. I suggest free articles are not more than 30%-40% of your total contents.

Myth: Reciprocal Link is dead, and now it's time for one way link.
Fact: This fact is still in debate since Google never gave a confirmation about it. But there is something in their help center that perhaps can answer this question:

"Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines." (taken from Google Adsense Help Center )

This maybe the reason why many people think reciprocal link is dead. But what about one way link? We all know that the most common way to get one way link is by submitting comments in popular blogs. Isn't it the same as unnatural links? One thing for sure here; no matter reciprocal link or one way link, they both can be treated as unnatural links by Google. And if that happens, your incoming links will not affect your Page Rank and your position in Google SERPs. There is no doubt that one way link is the best choice. And the only way to get a natural one way link is by creating a fresh and interesting content so other websites will be interested to link to it.

Myth: Participating in Google Adsense and Google Adwords will definitely raise your Page Rank and your position in Google SERPs.
Fact: Don't you ever think about it. If you hope that Google will automatically raise your Page Rank and your position in their SERPs since you are joining Adsense and Adwords, then you make a big mistake. Google has confirmed it in their help center:

"Google's advertising programs are independent of our search resultâ€¦. Participation in an advertising program doesn't positively or negatively affect inclusion or ranking in the Google search results. Inclusion and ranking are free services; we don't accept payment to expedite inclusion or improve a site's ranking for particular keywords." (taken from Google Adsense Help Center )