SEO advice spreads fast, and much of it is repeated without a source. Following it costs time and money, and some of it can even hurt your site. At Rutba we follow the official guidelines of Google Search Central, Bing and Schema.org, and we label low-impact items honestly. Here are eight common beliefs and what Google has actually said about them.
1. "The meta keywords tag helps ranking"
Myth. Google announced back in 2009 that it does not use the meta keywords tag for ranking in web search. It was abused so much that it stopped carrying any useful signal. Filling it in does no harm, but it is time you could spend on the page title and the content itself, which do matter.
2. "An older domain, or registering it for more years, ranks better"
Myth. Google representatives have said several times that the age of a domain and the length of its registration are not ranking factors. An older site often ranks well because it has had years to build useful content and earn links, not because of the date on the registration. Renewing your domain for ten years is fine for peace of mind, not for SEO.
3. "Google prefers articles of 2,000 words or more"
Myth. Google's own guidance on creating helpful content says plainly that it has no preferred word count. Long articles often rank because they cover a topic completely; padding a page to reach a number does the opposite. Write as much as the topic needs: a clear answer in 300 words beats a vague one in 3,000.
4. "Aim for a keyword density of 2 to 3 percent"
Myth. There is no target density. Google understands topics, synonyms and related terms. Repeating a keyword unnaturally is keyword stuffing, which Google's spam policies name explicitly. Use the words your readers use, in the title and headings and where they fit, and then write for the person.
5. "Duplicate content gets you penalised"
Mostly a myth. Having the same text on several URLs of your own site (print versions, product variants, tracking parameters) is common and is not grounds for action by itself. Google picks one version to show and groups the others with it. It becomes a problem when content is copied or duplicated to deceive or manipulate rankings, for example scraping other sites. What you should do is tell Google which version you prefer, with canonical tags and consistent internal links.
6. "Running Google Ads improves your organic ranking"
Myth. Google states that advertising with Google does not affect organic search results. Ads and organic results are separate systems. Ads can bring traffic while you work on SEO, but they do not buy a better organic position.
7. "E-E-A-T is a ranking factor you can add to a page"
Partly a myth. Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust (E-E-A-T) come from Google's guidelines for its quality raters. Google has said that E-E-A-T itself is not a specific ranking factor; its systems use many signals that line up with it. So there is no tag or checkbox to add. What helps is what E-E-A-T describes: clear authorship, real experience with the topic, accurate information, sources, and an honest "about" and contact page.
8. "AI-written content is penalised by Google"
Myth, with a warning. Google has said it rewards helpful, original content however it is produced, and that using automation, including AI, mainly to manipulate rankings goes against its spam policies. In practice: an AI draft that a person checks, corrects and improves with real knowledge is fine. Mass-producing pages with little value is not, whether a machine or a person writes them.
Where to spend your time instead
These are the things Google's documentation does point to:
- Helpful, people-first content that fully answers what the searcher wants.
- Crawlable and indexable pages: correct status codes, no accidental
noindex, working internal links, an XML sitemap. - Clear titles and headings that describe the page accurately.
- A good page experience: fast, stable, usable on mobile, secure (HTTPS).
- Structured data where it fits, so search engines understand products, articles, FAQs and organisations.
- Earned links and mentions from relevant sites, not bought ones.
How Rutba handles this
Rutba's audit checks what matters: status codes and indexing, titles, headings, structured data, speed, mobile usability and internal links. Each recommendation follows official guidelines and explains why it matters. When an item has little or no proven effect on ranking, Rutba says so instead of inflating your to-do list, and nothing is changed on your site without your approval.
Summary
- Meta keywords, domain age and registration length do not move Google rankings.
- There is no ideal word count and no target keyword density.
- Duplicate content on your own site is handled with canonicals; it is a problem only when it is deceptive.
- Ads do not improve organic results.
- E-E-A-T describes qualities to build, not a tag to add.
- AI content is judged by its value; using it to manipulate rankings breaks Google's spam policies.