Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most cost effective ways to market your business on the web. The problem is, that there are so many myths and rumors about SEO, that it is hard for most webmasters to know what to do, or even how to choose the best SEO services for their site. In this article, I will debunk two popular SEO myths.

SEO Myth #1: Google PageRank is very important

Google Page Rank is way over-valued by many webmasters. It is not unusual for a website with a PageRank of 2 to outrank a website with a PageRank of 5. The reason is that PageRank is only an indicator of one of many factors, and PageRank is not even a reliable indicator, at that.

GooglePage Rank is simply a measurement of how many pages link to you. Every page that links to your site gives your site a certain number of points. The number of points the link gives your site is determined by dividing the number of points that that page has by the number of links it has to other websites.

Google PageRank is becoming increasingly unreliable, too. In the most recent update, millions of webpages were changed to a PageRank of 0, for no apparent reason.

SEO Myth #2: Meta tags determine your rankings

The major search engines pay little or no attention to your meta tags when ranking your website. This is because meta tags are too easy to optimize for the search engines, but not be relevant, since your visitors do not see them.

The meta description tag is used by search engines to display in search results, so it is important, since searchers see it. But your meta description tag still bears little weight to your site's ranking.

There are two things that ARE important in SEO the content on your webpages, and quality links pointing to your website.