#attention: I will be using a new au prefix as of this post
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Dream’s dnf fanart likes
August 21st
two versions of itt!dnf holding hands
itt!George holding the match gun and itt!Dream holding his sap gun
itt!Dream with his nails and itt!George with his hammer weapon
George and Dream in Breaking Bad outfits
itt!dnf holding onto a dandelion, floating in the air (+gif)
itt!Dream standing behind itt!George, arm around his shoulders
George asleep against Dream's chest, blue butterflies around Dream's head
itt!dnf back-to-back, tied to chairs
Dream and George walking together, arms around each other, Dream holding a bag of groceries, George holding a drink
George and Dream saying their tweets about playing It Takes Two directly to each other
Dream and George reaching out to each other, their other hands connected by a red string
Dream making a heart with his fingers, George making the 👌 sign
Dream, wearing a party hat, with George beside him, various animals Dream has been in George's 'Minecraft but my friend is' series around them
Dream sitting, George standing next to him, looking at each other, from the Everest MV bts
Dream in an art gallery looking at a painting of c!George
biologist!George and merman!Dream looking at each other in surprise
George, in a white tshirt, and Dream, in the green minecraft end poem hoodie, holding hands and staring at each other
dogboy!Dream with his arm around catboy!George's shoulder
itt!George elbowing itt!Dream in the chest playfully
Dream and George wearing cat ear beanies themed after their It Takes Two characters
itt!Dream leaning into itt!George's personal space, both of them staring at each other and blushing
#dreamnotfound#dnf#dreamnotfound fanart#Dream__Fanart#twitter#attention: I will be using a new au prefix as of this post#because of the (understandable and appreciated) influx of It Takes Two art I will be using 'itt!' for them#in the same way I use 'c!' for dsmp and 'sc!' for Squid Craft etc#hopefully it's not confusing :)#I decided to do it cause he liked about 10 It Takes Two related fanarts#I did consider 'Dream and George as their It Takes Two characters' and just linking them all as 1|2|3|4 etc lmao#also apologies for the Breaking Bad related one#I've never seen the show I just saw someone say something about it being a reference lmao#for anyone interested: Dream liked 23 dnf fanarts#10 of those were It Takes Two related (+1 semi related)#also three fanarts had captions referencing lyrics from drEP songs speculated to be about George#so that's fun#long tags today I apologise#as always I do encourage you all to check out the rest of the art he liked
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Hanyuu/Featherine connection
I was meant to make this theory a long time ago and never actually did it. Well, now is the right time! So this is it, my theory of how Hanyuu and Featherine are connected and actually the same person!
So, my theory is that, given that Featherine is extremely old and was stated to have died and revive multiple times, she lived as different people. Hanyuu lived 100 years in the past and could be Featherine first life (we know that for a witch couple of days can be years for them, so imagine how old Featherine is). At some point she reincarnate with the form of the Featherine we know in Umineko and there are probably millions of years of differences between her and Hanyuu in Higurashi.
In the Umineko manga adaptation of episode 6, when Lambda talked about Bernkastel past (clearly showing Rika cough cough), we can also see Hanyuu, which Lambda refered as Bernkastel’s master and a “bad one”. It’s implied that Hanyuu was the game master of the game taking place in Higurashi behind the scene and caused a logic error. Instead of solving it she pushed it on Bern (Rika). This is most likely why Rika had to revive the same month for 100 years until she solved the logic error, aka find a miracle to defeat Takano’s power of certitude (granted by Lambda), and became Bernkastel the witch of miracles. So yes, in a way, Bernkastel did defeat Lambdadelta.
It’s mentionned in Umineko that Bernkastel wandered the sea of Fragments endlessly, searching for any Fragment that can revive her master from the pits of death called boredom, if even for a moment. Eventually, the cat revived her master. Bernkastel seemed surprise to see Featherine alive at the end of episode 6, while understand that she must have come back to life. If Bernkastel already brought back Featherine to life in the past, we can assume that she died multiple times.
We know in Umineko fantasy characters often have human vessel. I believe that Featherine first “vessel” was Hanyuu (Hai-Ryūn Ieasomūru Jeda). After a vessel dies, Featherine can’t interact in the human world anymore, therefore she has to “revive” in a new form. She probably has lived many lives between Hanyuu and Hachijo. And when I said Hachijo, I mean Hachijo Ikuko AND Hachijo Tohya. In Umineko, Hachijo Tohya (as the pen name of Ikuko and amnesiac Battler) is stated to be the human vessel of Featherine, but I do believe that in the past it was Ikuko. We know Ikuko was a writer who seemed to have lost inspiration in writting until she met amnesiac Battler. I do believe that in the fantasy world, her losing her will to write resulted in Featherine death of “boredom”. Then, when they both became the writer Hachijo Tohya, Featherine was resurrected.
Lambdadelta did mention that Featherine’s disk around her head got damaged and she lost part of her memory and as a result her personality and appearance changed. I strongly believe it’s the Hanyuu we saw in Higurashi with Rika.
Some interesting points from the wikis:
- When roughly translated, the two kanji that make up Hanyuu's name (羽入) translate to "feather" (羽, hane) and "in" (入, iri) which, when put together, more or less make up the name "Featherine".
- The first two katakana shared by her middle and last names, "Au" (アウ), are also used by Hanyuu as a catchphrase, "auau" (あぅあぅ). Bernkastel herself calls attention to this, referring to her as "AuAurora".
- The name of Featherine's human incarnation, Hachijo Tohya (八城 十八), contains two wordplays: An alternate reading for the kanji in the name Hachijo (八城) is "yashiro". Coupled with the honorific "o-" prefix, this becomes "Oyashiro", the more commonly-known name for Hanyuu. The name Tohya (十八) is composed of numerical kanji, numbering 18. Breaking down the name "Oyashiro" into syllables (o-ya-shi-ro), each syllable is one possible reading for the numbers 0, 8, 4, and 6. Adding these numbers together results in a sum of 18.
- Another possible allusion to Hanyuu is the fact that Bernkastel is Featherine's miko while Rika was Hanyuu's miko.
- Featherine is a transcendental being which could correspond to Hanyuu being a god. Additionally, Featherine has a habit of calling humans "Child of Man", something Hanyuu did when speaking as a god. It is noted by Lambdadelta that, at one point, Featherine's memory device was damaged, and as a result she suffered a change in appearance and personality. Hanyuu's left horn has a distinct crack on the top, strengthening the link between the two.
(ps: I know Hanyuu’s left horn having a crack is related to her backstory and not Featherine’s disk being damaged, but it still may be a nod of them having a connection.)
I checked the source for that (it’s in Japanese) and it’s an interview by Ryukishi7. He seems to imply that Hanyuu may have wanted for Rika to remain in the timeloop so she wouldn’t be alone. Source
I just want to specify that I do not think the Hanyuu we saw in Higurashi is the Featherine we know in Umineko. As I said earlier, I do believe that this Hanyuu is an amnesiac Featherine after getting her disk damaged, as mentioned by Lambdadelta. I don’t think Hanyuu was evil or maliciously deceiving Rika, but it seems obvious that she wasn’t that great either and did manipulate Rika in a way for her own interest, which was to not be alone. She’s the reason why Rika went through hell and why Bernkastel, the cruelest witch, even exist. Hanyuu isn’t evil, but she might be an irresponsible and selfish person.
I’ll leave it there. I do have a theory regarding Hanyuu and Featherine for the 2020 Higurashi anime but I’ll keep it for another post. Thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to leave me your thoughts!
#higurashi no naku koro ni#higurashi#higurashi spoilers#higurashi when they cry#Umineko no Naku Koro ni#Umineko when they cry#umineko#umineko spoilers#Furude Hanyuu#hanyuu#hanyu#featherine augustus aurora#featherine
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SEO is by far the most talked about, searched for and read about topic for web entrepreneurs. And so it should be, considering how vital it is to get SEO right for your business!
What’s puzzling, however, is that there are so many myths and misconceptions about SEO floating about. I mean, we all want to get SEO right, so why do these myths live on, acquiring the status of urban legend?
Some of them are hilarious, but some can really hurt you. They can keep you from improving your search traffic and website rankings, and hinder your best content marketing efforts.
Personally, I would hate to spend weeks perfecting one aspect of SEO only to realize a month later that it’s not even considered important by Google (and I’m sure you would, too!)
So I thought I’d write this post to debunk some of the most common SEO myths I’ve come across, and explain why you need to stop believing them today.
1. SEO is a scam
The myth: Fast-talking SEO consultants charge astronomical fees to provide services without any explanations that do almost nothing and may even penalize your website.
The reality: Sigh. SEO is not a scam. Check out Moz’s organic search improvement over SEO efforts of three years.
Image Source
Sadly this myth probably came into existence because there are many dodgy SEO companies out there that make a profit spamming sites with your links, leading to a quick increase in rankings that rapidly drops when the sites linking to your site are deemed to be spammers by Google.
However just because there are unethical SEO companies that promise you top rankings in Google then leave you high and dry, that doesn’t mean SEO isn’t legit or ‘real’.
For decent companies making sincere efforts to increase website traffic for their clients and improve user experience, SEO is a continuous effort that helps them beat competitors and gain from high SERPs.
This myth is probably rooted in the false idea that SEO involves quick and easy wins with little effort.
It doesn’t. It’s a continual investment, but it’s worth it. Just stop making silly SEO mistakes and keep the quality work up.
2. Reacting quickly to algorithm updates makes you more successful
The myth: Every time Google updates its organic search ranking algorithm, you need to make changes to your site as soon as possible to stay ahead!
The reality: Every search engine out there is continuously working to improve its search algorithms – Google alters its search algorithm approximately 500 times a year. The only updates you need to worry about are the major algorithm updates.
When these happen, the smart thing to do is wait and see if your site has been impacted. More often than not, if you are doing SEO right, your site won’t have been impacted negatively anyway, and you could even see a boost!
There’s no such thing as the perfect search algorithm, so updates will always be around. Try to wait to react, read credible sources about what the update involves, and give yourself a couple of days or even weeks to make adjustments if necessary.
If it’s an update that the search engine will stick to, you will soon hear about best practices for adjustments from the company itself anyway.
I visit this site on a semi-regular basis to stay abreast of the latest web news, and you could also follow the Twitter accounts of SEO gurus. However, the main thing to remember is that in the instance of an update, no one wins a prize for panicking or revamping their site the fastest.
Make a note of where you are when the update occurs and compare your metrics after a few weeks.
3. If you optimize for Google, you’re covered for all sites
The myth: You don’t need to worry about optimizing your content for other search engines if you’ve optimized it for Google.
The reality: Google search may comprise more than 60% of the search market, but Bing’s share is improving steadily. Bing is a great example of a website that works slightly different from Google and deserves your attention.
Bing doesn’t value backlinks as much as Google: instead, it compiles rankings based on user engagement, social signals, click-through rates, page authority and keyword domains. Google doesn’t use metrics such as Facebook shares or Twitter Followers directly in search rankings. So you can clearly see that if you only optimize for Google, you’re not covered for Bing.
If you are targeting exposure to 100% of web traffic, you should optimize for at least the top 3 search engines.
Image Source
4. HTTPS isn’t important unless you’re selling stuff
The myth: You only need to bother with HTTPS encryptions if you’re in eCommerce, otherwise the original HTTP protocol works fine.
The reality: Wrong! At the start of 2017, the average worldwide volume of encrypted internet traffic finally surpassed the average volume of unencrypted traffic, according to Mozilla (the company behind the Firefox web browser).
That means when you visit a website, you’re more likely than not to see a little green lock right next to the web address that indicates it came to you via HTTPS, the web’s secure protocol, rather than plain old HTTP.
Google has said loud and clear that it will give preference to websites with the HTTPS prefix over others.
That’s because the encryption within HTTPS provides benefits like confidentiality, integrity and identity.
Ultimately, using HTTPS is better than leaving the web unencrypted and it’s been a priority for big sites like Facebook, Google, Wikipedia and The New York Times to switch to HTTPS.
We’ve passed the tipping point when it comes to encrypted vs unencrypted data, and organizations like Let’s Encrypt are now helping millions of companies add HTTPS to their sites for free.
5. H1 tags increase search rankings
The myth: Using H1 tags is a must-do when it comes to good SEO practice.
The reality: This is not at all true, technically. Whereas H1 tags do help to make content more organized for the reader and also make it easier for web developers to design your website, they don’t contribute to SEO directly.
Former Google software engineer Matt Cutts says in this video that it doesn’t matter whether you use H1 or H2. What matters is that your page contains relevant and useful information that will address the needs of your users.
A few years ago, H1 tags used to be one of the most critical SEO factors; today, however, they’re just a part of basic best practice and not a source of SEO differentiation.
6. Link-building is black hat and attracts Google penalties
The myth: Google hates black hat link-building!
The reality: This is hilarious, really. Google rewards your website for backlinks – the only proviso is that these backlinks have got to be from relevant and credible sources.
If you plant your website’s links on article farms, unrelated websites, spammy websites or websites with malware and other suspicious scripts, then yes, you can expect to be penalized for back-linking.
But in that instance, it’s actually spamming, not back-linking.
When you’re building quality links, you don’t need to worry about this SEO myth. Many people think that leaving comments on blogs is a black hat SEO technique, but that’s only the case if the comments only link to your website without adding value.
The key is to ask yourself if you’re adding value every time you leave a comment on a blog or link to a website in an article – if you are, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.
7. Content is king
The myth: All you need to do is create high-quality, useful content to rank well in search results without much help from SEO.
The reality: Look, I’m not going to bag out the ‘content is king’ mantra here for fear of upsetting too many digital marketers. But while publishing timely, relevant and well-researched content is great, it’s not going to get you to the top of Google alone.
Content is like one of many directors sitting on a board, waiting to make a joint decision. The other directors are equally powerful: some of them include quality backlinks, user experience and responsive design.
If your whole website isn’t optimized, crawlers could struggle to even find your content, which means it won’t show up in results at all.
Focus on content, for sure, but don’t be myopic about it, as you’ve got to take care of the user experience on the whole.
8. Hosting location is important
The myth: If your website isn’t located in the country you are targeting, you may as well forget about success.
The reality: While it is better to host your website in the company you are targeting, it’s not essential. Google is smart enough to showcase the right country version of your website to the right audience. And this study shows us that Google prioritizes quality information over local content.
That means ‘au’ links are shown to Australians and ‘nz’ links are shown to New Zealanders.
If you don’t already use a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), I suggest using Google Webmaster Tools’ geographic target setting. In the Webmaster Tools sidebar, simply go to Search Traffic > International Targeting, and specify the target country for the website.
For international websites, just select ‘unlisted’ from the tab below.
9. Having an XML sitemap will boost your search rankings
The myth: Installing an XML sitemap can help improve your search engine rankings.
The reality: A sitemap doesn’t affect the rankings of your web pages, although it does make them more crawlable.
Sitemaps give more information about your site to Google and therefore make sure it indexes quickly.
However, there’s never been any Google announcement or study-based outcome to suggest that XML sitemap submission improves your website’s SEO.
Use one to make sure all of your URLs are indexed for easy crawling as this can improve the visibility of your website in the long run.
I suggest trying a plugin like Google XML Sitemaps generator, which works great with WordPress websites.
10. With personalized Google searches, there’s no such thing as ranking first anymore
The myth: Since everyone’s search results are personalized, everyone sees different results and there’s no way to be ranked #1 anymore.
The reality: My request to all readers – please, don’t be mislead by such rumors. Here’s a trick to try at home.
Do five Google searches related to your industry’s niche, first using your personal computer (where, in all likelihood, you’re seeing personalized Google search results), and then by adding &pws=0 at the end of the URL of the SERP.
That depersonalizes Google.
Now notice the difference.
Chances are, there isn’t one. Because websites that are good enough to make it to Google’s top 10 are good enough to feature on any personalized searches, too!
The differences between personalized results and non-personalized results are relatively minor. The advent of personalization does mean that rank tracking may provide somewhat less authoritative data than before.
But in no way is it the end of SEO or does it necessitate a completely new look at SEO practices.
11. Keywords in comments and title tags provide SEO juice
The myth: The strategic placement of keywords in HTML comment tags and the title attributes of IMG and A HREF tags will help you win at SEO.
The reality: Rankings really don’t work this way.
First and foremost, comment tags specifically mean that the content is out of Google’s view for calculating ratings.
Secondly, title attributes are not supposed to help you with SEO.
This Moz article will help you understand the specifics of why precisely title attribute tags are not linked to SEO.
In summary
There are at least half a dozen more SEO myths I could add to this list, but these are some of the main ones I see causing confusion amongst digital marketers, programmers, webmasters, designers, small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Hopefully I’ve debunked a few myths for you or at least motivated you to apply a bit of critical thinking to the next one you hear.
There is no easy science to SEO, and because the digital landscape is constantly changing, it’s hardly surprising that there’s a lot of misinformation out there. But moving forward, stop giving time or energy to SEO strategies or techniques that have no substance behind them or probably came about because of a bunch of snake-oil SEO salesmen.
Which SEO myth ticks you off the most? Let me know in the comments below.
Guest Author: Kuldeep Bisht, Inbound Marketing Consultant for SEMark, has over eight years of digital marketing experience. Throughout his career, he has helped many enterprise clients and local small businesses improve their marketing results by using strategic thinking and proven methodologies. You can follow his journey at KuldeepBisht.com and you may connect with him on Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
The post 11 SEO Myths You Need To Stop Believing Today appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.
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11 SEO Myths You Need To Stop Believing Today
By Kuldeep Bisht
SEO is by far the most talked about, searched for and read about topic for web entrepreneurs. And so it should be, considering how vital it is to get SEO right for your business!
What’s puzzling, however, is that there are so many myths and misconceptions about SEO floating about. I mean, we all want to get SEO right, so why do these myths live on, acquiring the status of urban legend?
Some of them are hilarious, but some can really hurt you. They can keep you from improving your search traffic and website rankings, and hinder your best content marketing efforts.
Personally, I would hate to spend weeks perfecting one aspect of SEO only to realize a month later that it’s not even considered important by Google (and I’m sure you would, too!)
So I thought I’d write this post to debunk some of the most common SEO myths I’ve come across, and explain why you need to stop believing them today.
1. SEO is a scam
The myth: Fast-talking SEO consultants charge astronomical fees to provide services without any explanations that do almost nothing and may even penalize your website.
The reality: Sigh. SEO is not a scam. Check out Moz’s organic search improvement over SEO efforts of three years.
Image Source
Sadly this myth probably came into existence because there are many dodgy SEO companies out there that make a profit spamming sites with your links, leading to a quick increase in rankings that rapidly drops when the sites linking to your site are deemed to be spammers by Google.
However just because there are unethical SEO companies that promise you top rankings in Google then leave you high and dry, that doesn’t mean SEO isn’t legit or ‘real’.
For decent companies making sincere efforts to increase website traffic for their clients and improve user experience, SEO is a continuous effort that helps them beat competitors and gain from high SERPs.
This myth is probably rooted in the false idea that SEO involves quick and easy wins with little effort.
It doesn’t. It’s a continual investment, but it’s worth it. Just stop making silly SEO mistakes and keep the quality work up.
2. Reacting quickly to algorithm updates makes you more successful
The myth: Every time Google updates its organic search ranking algorithm, you need to make changes to your site as soon as possible to stay ahead!
The reality: Every search engine out there is continuously working to improve its search algorithms – Google alters its search algorithm approximately 500 times a year. The only updates you need to worry about are the major algorithm updates.
When these happen, the smart thing to do is wait and see if your site has been impacted. More often than not, if you are doing SEO right, your site won’t have been impacted negatively anyway, and you could even see a boost!
There’s no such thing as the perfect search algorithm, so updates will always be around. Try to wait to react, read credible sources about what the update involves, and give yourself a couple of days or even weeks to make adjustments if necessary.
If it’s an update that the search engine will stick to, you will soon hear about best practices for adjustments from the company itself anyway.
I visit this site on a semi-regular basis to stay abreast of the latest web news, and you could also follow the Twitter accounts of SEO gurus. However, the main thing to remember is that in the instance of an update, no one wins a prize for panicking or revamping their site the fastest.
Make a note of where you are when the update occurs and compare your metrics after a few weeks.
3. If you optimize for Google, you’re covered for all sites
The myth: You don’t need to worry about optimizing your content for other search engines if you’ve optimized it for Google.
The reality: Google search may comprise more than 60% of the search market, but Bing’s share is improving steadily. Bing is a great example of a website that works slightly different from Google and deserves your attention.
Bing doesn’t value backlinks as much as Google: instead, it compiles rankings based on user engagement, social signals, click-through rates, page authority and keyword domains. Google doesn’t use metrics such as Facebook shares or Twitter Followers directly in search rankings. So you can clearly see that if you only optimize for Google, you’re not covered for Bing.
If you are targeting exposure to 100% of web traffic, you should optimize for at least the top 3 search engines.
Image Source
4. HTTPS isn’t important unless you’re selling stuff
The myth: You only need to bother with HTTPS encryptions if you’re in eCommerce, otherwise the original HTTP protocol works fine.
The reality: Wrong! At the start of 2017, the average worldwide volume of encrypted internet traffic finally surpassed the average volume of unencrypted traffic, according to Mozilla (the company behind the Firefox web browser).
That means when you visit a website, you’re more likely than not to see a little green lock right next to the web address that indicates it came to you via HTTPS, the web’s secure protocol, rather than plain old HTTP.
Google has said loud and clear that it will give preference to websites with the HTTPS prefix over others.
That’s because the encryption within HTTPS provides benefits like confidentiality, integrity and identity.
Ultimately, using HTTPS is better than leaving the web unencrypted and it’s been a priority for big sites like Facebook, Google, Wikipedia and The New York Times to switch to HTTPS.
We’ve passed the tipping point when it comes to encrypted vs unencrypted data, and organizations like Let’s Encrypt are now helping millions of companies add HTTPS to their sites for free.
5. H1 tags increase search rankings
The myth: Using H1 tags is a must-do when it comes to good SEO practice.
The reality: This is not at all true, technically. Whereas H1 tags do help to make content more organized for the reader and also make it easier for web developers to design your website, they don’t contribute to SEO directly.
Former Google software engineer Matt Cutts says in this video that it doesn’t matter whether you use H1 or H2. What matters is that your page contains relevant and useful information that will address the needs of your users.
A few years ago, H1 tags used to be one of the most critical SEO factors; today, however, they’re just a part of basic best practice and not a source of SEO differentiation.
6. Link-building is black hat and attracts Google penalties
The myth: Google hates black hat link-building!
The reality: This is hilarious, really. Google rewards your website for backlinks – the only proviso is that these backlinks have got to be from relevant and credible sources.
If you plant your website’s links on article farms, unrelated websites, spammy websites or websites with malware and other suspicious scripts, then yes, you can expect to be penalized for back-linking.
But in that instance, it’s actually spamming, not back-linking.
When you’re building quality links, you don’t need to worry about this SEO myth. Many people think that leaving comments on blogs is a black hat SEO technique, but that’s only the case if the comments only link to your website without adding value.
The key is to ask yourself if you’re adding value every time you leave a comment on a blog or link to a website in an article – if you are, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.
7. Content is king
The myth: All you need to do is create high-quality, useful content to rank well in search results without much help from SEO.
The reality: Look, I’m not going to bag out the ‘content is king’ mantra here for fear of upsetting too many digital marketers. But while publishing timely, relevant and well-researched content is great, it’s not going to get you to the top of Google alone.
Content is like one of many directors sitting on a board, waiting to make a joint decision. The other directors are equally powerful: some of them include quality backlinks, user experience and responsive design.
If your whole website isn’t optimized, crawlers could struggle to even find your content, which means it won’t show up in results at all.
Focus on content, for sure, but don’t be myopic about it, as you’ve got to take care of the user experience on the whole.
8. Hosting location is important
The myth: If your website isn’t located in the country you are targeting, you may as well forget about success.
The reality: While it is better to host your website in the company you are targeting, it’s not essential. Google is smart enough to showcase the right country version of your website to the right audience. And this study shows us that Google prioritizes quality information over local content.
That means ‘au’ links are shown to Australians and ‘nz’ links are shown to New Zealanders.
If you don’t already use a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), I suggest using Google Webmaster Tools’ geographic target setting. In the Webmaster Tools sidebar, simply go to Search Traffic > International Targeting, and specify the target country for the website.
For international websites, just select ‘unlisted’ from the tab below.
9. Having an XML sitemap will boost your search rankings
The myth: Installing an XML sitemap can help improve your search engine rankings.
The reality: A sitemap doesn’t affect the rankings of your web pages, although it does make them more crawlable.
Sitemaps give more information about your site to Google and therefore make sure it indexes quickly.
However, there’s never been any Google announcement or study-based outcome to suggest that XML sitemap submission improves your website’s SEO.
Use one to make sure all of your URLs are indexed for easy crawling as this can improve the visibility of your website in the long run.
I suggest trying a plugin like Google XML Sitemaps generator, which works great with WordPress websites.
10. With personalized Google searches, there’s no such thing as ranking first anymore
The myth: Since everyone’s search results are personalized, everyone sees different results and there’s no way to be ranked #1 anymore.
The reality: My request to all readers – please, don’t be mislead by such rumors. Here’s a trick to try at home.
Do five Google searches related to your industry’s niche, first using your personal computer (where, in all likelihood, you’re seeing personalized Google search results), and then by adding &pws=0 at the end of the URL of the SERP.
That depersonalizes Google.
Now notice the difference.
Chances are, there isn’t one. Because websites that are good enough to make it to Google’s top 10 are good enough to feature on any personalized searches, too!
The differences between personalized results and non-personalized results are relatively minor. The advent of personalization does mean that rank tracking may provide somewhat less authoritative data than before.
But in no way is it the end of SEO or does it necessitate a completely new look at SEO practices.
11. Keywords in comments and title tags provide SEO juice
The myth: The strategic placement of keywords in HTML comment tags and the title attributes of IMG and A HREF tags will help you win at SEO.
The reality: Rankings really don’t work this way.
First and foremost, comment tags specifically mean that the content is out of Google’s view for calculating ratings.
Secondly, title attributes are not supposed to help you with SEO.
This Moz article will help you understand the specifics of why precisely title attribute tags are not linked to SEO.
In summary
There are at least half a dozen more SEO myths I could add to this list, but these are some of the main ones I see causing confusion amongst digital marketers, programmers, webmasters, designers, small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Hopefully I’ve debunked a few myths for you or at least motivated you to apply a bit of critical thinking to the next one you hear.
There is no easy science to SEO, and because the digital landscape is constantly changing, it’s hardly surprising that there’s a lot of misinformation out there. But moving forward, stop giving time or energy to SEO strategies or techniques that have no substance behind them or probably came about because of a bunch of snake-oil SEO salesmen.
Which SEO myth ticks you off the most? Let me know in the comments below.
Guest Author: Kuldeep Bisht, Inbound Marketing Consultant for SEMark, has over eight years of digital marketing experience. Throughout his career, he has helped many enterprise clients and local small businesses improve their marketing results by using strategic thinking and proven methodologies. You can follow his journey at KuldeepBisht.com and you may connect with him on Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
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