Search engine optimization has evolved significantly over the past few years. Thanks to Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird — Google's well-known algorithm updates — business owners, marketers and Flagstaff SEO companies have had to change their game in order to stay relevant and visible to their audiences. Instead of emphasizing the importance of keywords and links, the focus shifted to the creation of quality content.

Given the number of changes made, many business and marketers today may still feel confused about which practices work and which ones are no longer effective. According to Flagstaff SEO specialists, the following eight SEO myths below have been debunked, and the insights provided should guide the creation and design of your campaigns.

1st Myth: Submitting your site to Google is a must.
Most people still believe that submitting their URL directly to Google is crucial in appearing in search results, but this isn't true. The search engine will still locate your site without this step.

2nd Myth: Ranking is all that matters.
Getting a good rank used to be the ultimate goal, but not anymore. Some studies have shown that the top results on other pages demonstrate the same click through rates seen on the first page, so it shouldn't really matter.

3rd Myth: Optimizing keywords is the secret to successful SEO.
Search engines don't aim to find exact matches to the search terms that people type into the fields. The more important goal is to understand the web users intent behind the use of the keywords they typed in so that they can be directed to content that is highly relevant to the terms. Keywords are valuable, but they shouldn't be overused.

4th Myth: Your focus should be on link building instead of content generation.
The tendency for many marketers engaging in link building techniques is to focus on the quantity of the links rather than the quality. The goal that todays businesses should keep their eyes on is to produce original, quality content that will bring more links to their site instead.

5th Myth: Your site's security won't create an impact on your SEO efforts.
Websites that rely on the more secure HTTPS protocol — which means that your site has an additional layer of protection called SSS/LTS — can find greater success in their SEO campaign. Google announced in 2014 that HTTPS, instead of mere HTTP, was now a signal in their algorithms. This means that a less secure website won't enjoy impressive rankings.

6th Myth: There should be lots of content on homepages.
You might have been taught that loading your homepage with plenty of content is good practice, but this can be excessive and therefore counterintuitive to your efforts. You want people to visit your site and glean crucial information about you — what your business is about, what solutions you can deliver, how you can be found, and what people should do next to interact with you. If your homepage is cluttered, people may never see your important details, and choose to leave.

7th Myth: IT specialists should take care of SEO.
IT teams are known for their technical expertise, but that doesn't mean that your SEO campaign— which does involve some technical know-how — should be handed off to such professionals and no one else. They can indeed assist you in optimizing your site, but an actual dedicated SEO strategy team would have the greater focus and insight to work on your campaign than IT professionals.

8th Myth: If I link or redirect my other domains to m website, my SEO results will improve.
Some marketers set up a number of domains and get to work optimizing those so they can link or redirect to the main website. This can only work to spread out your SEO efforts instead of concentrating them on the primary site. Besides, search engines can easily detect when a domain's registrants are the same as those of the primary domain.