Big Picture Myth One – Search engine ranking leads are not as good as those which originate from other forms of traditional marketing (print, direct mail, PR, etc.) – this is absolute hogwash, truth is many agencies don't have a clue about s/e ranking, so they push their clients to ignore this form of advertising. They simply don't want to recommend anything they don't understand and/or utilize an interactive marketing vehicle that requires a blend of very specialized technology and processes.

We've in fact found just opposite when we've analyzed s/e traffic versus other types of leads for our clients; i.e. search engine traffic can be much better, as it is comprised of individuals who are actively seeking info, not just people whose curiosity has been piqued by an eye-catching publication ad or press release. And, when we've analyzed data by tracking leads via a landing page (on a web site) we've discovered that CPL (cost per lead) numbers can be much lower for s/e ranking than other more traditional marketing methods.

Big Picture Myth Two – Effective s/e marketing can be done in house – this is rarely case, sheer complexity and online competition (digital warfare!) for rankings makes this extremely difficult for most companies. Based upon our analysis over 73% of corporate accounts don't understand basic fundamentals; i.e. how to properly use keywords, meta tags and titles and worse, don't submit their web sites to top tier Directories (Yahoo, LookSmart, OPD) and hundreds of second tier directories.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but I assure you that Google will give your site search-engine rankings a cumulative beating for following things:

1. Submission. What the...?! Submission?! Yes. Direct submission of your site's URL to Google will result in a small penalty to your ranking. That means that every month from now on, when you would normally be faithfully submitting your site to Google, kick yourself instead. It's okay to submit your site once, but there's no need to do it again.

Here's how to get around that little bump in road if you've got new content you really, really want Google to see sooner than later: Submit a page from a different site. Let's call your site "site A." What you'll do instead is submit site B, which links to your site, site A. That way, Google spider will give a small penalty to site B, and think it discovered site A on its own, which will result in a boost to site A, at least no penalty to site A. Follow?

2. Fail to buy Google adwords. This one is simple. If you're not willing to spend a little dough, you're not willing to do what it takes to get to top of Google. It doesn't take much, either.

In long run, spending even five dollars at http://adwords.google.com will boost your site's rankings for keyword ads which you purchase. Inexplicable though it may be, it works.